# Mites in the Springtail cultures.



## Philsuma

This may be of help to the new peeps...

We all know to keep our springtail cultures seperate from the FF cultures due to mites walking over to them, so...

I keep my springtail cultures in the regular 32oz standard FF cups on charcoal with @ an inch of water. I wanted to have a TINY bit of ventilation since I go away for a couple weeks at a time and that way the Co2 build up wouldn't kill the colony. 

I punch 4 TINY holes with a craft punch (smallest size) and 2 horrible things happened.

1. The holes were near the top (if that matters) and enough air movement in the room apparently caused enough evaporation to make the culture on the dry side

2. WORST of all.....uneaten and/or escaped FF from the vivs walked onto the cultures and found the tiny hole and entered the spring cultures. A dry winter basement must have made the watery cultures very inviting as usually the "feral" FF will actually make there way BACK into the vivs (and certain froggy doom) in thier quest for moisture.

As we also know, the FF are usually carrrying grain mites on their bodies and thus - infected charcoal / spring cultures.

Not THAT big a deal, as the charcoal can be reused but the spring production suffered and it was a rookie mistake.

Though I would share that.....


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## frogparty

I had a coco coir woodlice culture become a mite culture, the frogs love the mites


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## Omead

Thanks for the info!

I need to seperate my feeders too because I noticed some mites on the lid of my springtail culture.


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## eclipse1379

Philsuma said:


> This may be of help to the new peeps...
> 
> A dry winter basement must have made the watery cultures very inviting as usually the "feral" FF will actually make there way BACK into the vivs (and certain froggy doom) in thier quest for moisture.


So, will the mites/FF kill the frogs?


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## Philsuma

No. Not all all. The grain mites will either be eaten by the frogs or die in the viv.


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## Adven2er

Phil,

Is it possible the mites came in on the charcoal? I had the same problem with mites in the charcoal springtail cultures. I've never had them in my FF cultures yet. To solve the problem, I microwave the charcoal, after rinsing the dust off, when I set up my cultures. No more mites since. Hope this helps.


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## markbudde

Jason I just _mite_ have to hit you up for a culture 

Phil, how did the grain mites cause your springtail cultures to crash? From out-competing for food?


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## Philsuma

I would have to say....that I fully believe that the grain mites "rode" in on the FF bodies. I use the cowboy brand charcoal and give it a good hot water wash before use. I can't see that the mites would be on/in the bagged charcoal....

I don't know if the mites are out competeing the springs or what, but my production has suffered. I use, as food, some dust/powered Asian mushrooms and some powder dry baby rice cereal. They mites enjoy those foods as well, it seems.

Not a mite explosion, so I really can't say they are "taking over" but it's just odd.

I think I just may suck at spring cultivation. I picked up a wet mulch spring culture from Keith at the Reading show and it was BUMPING with springs. I have just GOT to master the art of raising springtails "by the spoonful" or die trying......


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## Eric Walker

I just had a related question with mites and springs and not much of a responce. 

phil- if the mites dont hurt the frogs what did you mean by (certain froggy doom) 

I didnt think these kind of mites were bad for frogs? 

this is my first try at springs myself bit I have found they REALy like the brewers yeast that come with the large ff culture kits form josh's. light spray after u put it in dry. The area with the yeast is like a rave, everybody all over the dance floor!


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## Eric Walker

also I think my mites came in with my cultures. they have been kept far away from my ff and I noticed mites within 2.5 weeks after getting them


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## Ed

Philsuma said:


> I would have to say....that I fully believe that the grain mites "rode" in on the FF bodies. I use the cowboy brand charcoal and give it a good hot water wash before use. I can't see that the mites would be on/in the bagged charcoal....
> 
> I don't know if the mites are out competeing the springs or what, but my production has suffered. I use, as food, some dust/powered Asian mushrooms and some powder dry baby rice cereal. They mites enjoy those fods as well, it seems.
> :


Phil,

Try using just live baker's yeast. If you have grain mites, stopping the use of a grain based food item will remove thier food source... 

Ed


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## Philsuma

LOL.....my "froggy doom" reference is confounding people.

I have about 30 vivs in my basement and feed out...a lot of flies. A certain amount of FF either "miss the vivs" or otherwise crawl or get out and escape. Due to the dry-ness of my basement during winter, the escaped FF will often crawl and climb BACK into a viv, in search of moisture - thus ensuring their fate. 

They will meet their "froggy doom", or doom by way of the frogs eating them.


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## Philsuma

Ed said:


> Phil,
> 
> Try using just live baker's yeast. If you have grain mites, stopping the use of a grain based food item will remove thier food source...
> 
> Ed


Yeah....sometimes I try to go with just bakers yeast, but it really doesn't give me the BUMP in producing that the other stuff does.

I am going to go with sealed containers - no air holes.


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## Ed

Philsuma said:


> Yeah....sometimes I try to go with just bakers yeast, but it really doesn't give me the BUMP in producing that the other stuff does.
> 
> I am going to go with sealed containers - no air holes.


Which is weird to me as I get really high production using just baker's yeast. 

Ed


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## frogfreak

Ed said:


> Which is weird to me as I get really high production using just baker's yeast.
> 
> Ed


Mine too Ed. They're gone nuts, on yeast!


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## markbudde

It depends on the type of springtail.

Do your springs look like these...
http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/members-frogs-vivariums/49215-fun-macro-springs-plants-etc.html

Or these...
http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/38143-tropical-temperate.html

In my experience the subterranium springtails, such as those in the first link thrive on mushrooms/yeast, whereas the sinella in the second link do much better on fish food.
-Mark


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## Omead

Last week I bought some mushrooms from the grocery store and decided to drop some into my springtail containers and woodlice containers. Today I checked on both and the springtails were all over the mushrooms to where I was able to pick each piece up with tongs and sprinkle them in my vivs like a salt shaker. There were soo many! The mushroom in the woodlice culture was almost completely covered by some reddish brown mites so I placed that mushroom into my azureus tank and the female picked at them for about an hour while the male just stared at them. I then took that piece and what was left of the mites and put them into a seperate container with more mushrooms to see if I can culture them easily.


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## Philsuma

Very cool.

Sometimes a raw / bottled mushroom added to a wet culture will also"produce" some weird small white worms.

interesting stuff, huh?


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## Catfur

I culture my isopods with fish food, and they seem to produce a decent number of mites, when my isopod cultures end up stacked with the springtails, I get mites in my springtails, which get fed a mixture of ground mushrooms, nutritional yeast, and algae powders. When I move the cultures back apart (isopods away from springtails), all the mites in the springtails go away, I'm pretty sure it's because the mites don't like the springtail food.


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