Help!! Is this mites?

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Originally Posted by joepythons

Is it possible that they could eat that bad kid Aleesha AKA ISHY:8: :P .You are ignoring me ISHY:( :P :8:

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hahahaha no i was sleeping joe :banned1: and i had a horrible sleep... it was probably you... harrassing me in my sleep! :sabduel:

[QUOTE=Serpentor]It could be a mite. There are many species of mites. I am in the arachnid hobby and the white/biege mites are the ones we fear the most.

Serpentor, thank you. But since we are just meeting (Nice to meet you, by the way) almost everyone else here knows that I have 30 tarantulas, and by next weekend the number will be 37. None of my T's have mites, they are all burstingly healthy at the moment, and I am, in fact, eagerly awaiting my first pokie moult!!!!!
The container we feed our Dax in is also used to sort out crickets for feeding T's. I was thinking that maybe some other kind of bug was in with them and got on the snake.

Jo, I don't think so, but I'm going to give him a bath and change his bedding and we will see.

Thank you everyone!!!!!!!!

[QUOTE=Mina]

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Originally Posted by Serpentor

It could be a mite. There are many species of mites. I am in the arachnid hobby and the white/biege mites are the ones we fear the most.

Serpentor, thank you. But since we are just meeting (Nice to meet you, by the way) almost everyone else here knows that I have 30 tarantulas, and by next weekend the number will be 37. None of my T's have mites, they are all burstingly healthy at the moment, and I am, in fact, eagerly awaiting my first pokie moult!!!!!
The container we feed our Dax in is also used to sort out crickets for feeding T's. I was thinking that maybe some other kind of bug was in with them and got on the snake.

Jo, I don't think so, but I'm going to give him a bath and change his bedding and we will see.

Thank you everyone!!!!!!!!

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congrats on the pokie Mina! nice to meet you as well. none of my tarantulas have mites as far as I can tell but I'm still aware of what they look like and that they are not always black. Anyone can get mites, it happens to the best of us. Even those with hundreds of T's and years of experience so it pays to know what to look for. Someone mentioned a milipede with "cleaners" also and I wanted to say it could be a mite that is beneficial to the mili but is more likely a small population of the unwanted species of mite. They are common on pedes. As long as the pede can groom them off it is fine. My scolopendra subspinipes has a few mites on it. It cleans them off and has been healthy for a long time despite the presence of the mites.

Well, I'm sure at this point they are mites of some sort. But none of them are in my T's. We found one on the snake, and they are definitely in the container with the roaches. We are going to clean the roaches out next and hope we get rid of them. I'm concerned about it being safe to feed the roaches to the T's now.

I can only reply from the tarantula perspective, but, there *are* white mites. They tend to look like small spiders and will infest roach tubs, cricket containers as well as tarantula containers. Whether or not they can adversly effect a snake...that I do not know, but they *can* reap havoc on invertebrates. Spider mites (the plant variety) can be black, red, green, brown or white...just depends on the species. Aphids are generaly green or light brown. Aphid nymphs are white-ish. Plant mites generaly are not dangerous to inverts, however, it is worth noting that, where aphids are present, ants will be too (ants protect aphids and eat the sweet slime trails that aphids leave behind when they move) and ants are NOT an invert's friend. Ants *will* collectively attack and kill a tarantula or scorpion.

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I had a guy at a shop flip over one of the giant Millipedes? and show me it's "cleaners"... little bugs that it "came" with that kept it clean. Was that total Poo?

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Yep, that would be a load of BS and it sounds like the poor thing has a serious problem.

Another thing to keep in mind, especially if you have (or raise) crickets for your inverts, cricket larve look *very* much like "little mites" and are often found floating in water dishs and hanging out on substrate.

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The container we feed our Dax in is also used to sort out crickets for feeding T's. I was thinking that maybe some other kind of bug was in with them and got on the snake.

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and....seeing as how I just read this...that is probably exactly what they are...cricket larve....or, any number of the little mites that come along for a free ride with crickets.
Now I don't know how susceptable snakes are to parasites, but you might want to *not* feed your snake in the same container you put crickets in. Crickets are natorious for being carriers of nematodes. As I'm sure you know, nematodes can kill an invert with a quickness, I doubt they could really do much harm to a snake, but, seeing as how they are obtained inside the body by injestion and they feed on their live host and multiply inside the body.....that can't be good either way.

Mites, such as the ones in your roach container are more prone to thriving in warm, moist conditions where ventilation is limited. If you have your roaches in that type of enviroment (which most people do because it promotes better breeding) then, after cleaning the tub and redoing it, just make sure to give them air for a few minutes every day and if it is excessively moist in the container, let it dry out and remain dry for about a week before raising humidity again.

Actually AGB millipedes can have beneficial mites. They're much bigger and faster than predatory mites. Predatory mites are very small, usually white and will look "embedded" into the scales. Beneficial mites tend to be very quick and sort of "zoom" all over the millipede.

Mina it sounds like so far it's just mites from the roaches. Hopefully they won't get into your T's and everything. I'd keep a close eye on your ball python, and if it looks like he's getting mites, you'll have to find a way to quarantined your arachnids and other inverts when you treat the snake.

If that happens you can simply move the arachnids to a different room and treat from there. (I've had to treat my reptiles for mites before, and the inverts are kept in a different room. I didn't have a problem with the mites and the inverts were fine).

You may want to try drying out the roach container a bit, more ventilation may help. You can also try picking up some pill bugs for patrolling in moist containers for your T's, they'll take care of mites and debris for you, but they've got to be kept moist.

I would definitely use a different container to feed your snake from the inverts. I've heard reports of rodents that were treated with mite spray killing T's that were being fed the treated rodents before. While that is not likely to happen, if there were any sort of residue etc, may not be the best for your inverts.

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

hahahaha no i was sleeping joe :banned1: and i had a horrible sleep... it was probably you... harrassing me in my sleep! :sabduel:

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O yea :carrot: :carrot: :carrot: .

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Originally Posted by Laooda

Sooo interesting....


I had a guy at a shop flip over one of the giant Millipedes? and show me it's "cleaners"... little bugs that it "came" with that kept it clean. Was that total Poo?

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Not total poo

http://www.ball-pythons.net/gallery/...=3&userid=2715

See those tiny tiny black dots are those mites? Or are those just marks on the snake because my snake has those marks. And I've seen other BP's with very white bellys and clear brown scales. Or I'm just paranoid.

Mike

looks like normal markings to me mike. if you find a black speck... crush it between your finger nails and if there's blood... it's a mite!