# Springtail culture is no longer springtails



## camlov2 (Dec 8, 2010)

I have three different springtail cultures (white) that have been producing for a few months. During the last few weeks I have been feeding off of the small culture and haven't bothered the two larger ones. Tonight I opened one of the larger one and noticed that they were no longer white bugs in the culture but brown. They seem to be smaller and round in shape instead of elongated. I guess the question is are they mites or some other bug. There do seem to be some springtails mixed in but not many, would it be best to toss the whole thing?


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## zBrinks (Jul 16, 2006)

Sounds like you got mites. What have you been feeding?


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

yup. Sounds like mites to me
Good thing frogs like mites


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## camlov2 (Dec 8, 2010)

Only thing I have fed is sliced mushrooms.

So the frogs will eat them, I am a little concerned about the risk of having a mite problem if a few get out of the culture.


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## frogmanchu (Feb 18, 2011)

if they are mites when you put the mushroom in there check it from time to time they will cluster on the shroom, and use mag leaves with fish flake too spray it to make fish food stick to the leaf and as they cluster you can pull them out and feed them to your frog or trash them. I had a mite problem and did this and cleared out all the mites in a few weeks




camlov2 said:


> Only thing I have fed is sliced mushrooms.
> 
> So the frogs will eat them, I am a little concerned about the risk of having a mite problem if a few get out of the culture.


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## Mitch (Jun 18, 2010)

Sounds like Mites. Your frogs will eat them too.


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## jbherpin (Oct 16, 2009)

First course of action should be to determine whether the mites were in the cultures already and just took over, if they came from an external source like the stand/shelf/closet you keep the culture(s) in or from the food items fed to them. You said you are using sliced mushrooms...How are you storing these before use? Hopefully we can clean this issue up, and preserve some of your cultures too! BTW Frogmanchu has a good point here, they may be able to be removed/at least controlled by periodic removal...

JBear


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

start some fresh cultures, and keep your mite cultures. Mites are a BIG part of pdf diet in the wild.


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