# Mite prevention ?



## andestang (Oct 3, 2011)

Ok I'm just finally getting into this hobby after many years of contemplation. I've been in the salt water hobby (and still am) for as long as I can remember and being on a few related forums I know reading the same ?'s can be annoying. So bare with me. I'm ready to buy a couple of FF cultures and for mite prevention I cannot find any mite paper or spray where I live at the moment so I had a thought while trying to fall asleep. Has anyone tried to hang their's with string from say a coat rack rod or simular ? I was also thinking of having the string sprayed with some insect repellent like the kind you can spray around doors and windows. Also for the cultures I have lots of shreaded paper around. Anyone have luck using this in your cultures instead of coffee filters or such.


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## leonh (Jul 3, 2011)

hi there you could moat the cultures in some shallow water,and i think the perfect things for this is plant trays in various shapes from garden centres as i'm going to do this soon..but just need to find out what is safe to break the water tension as i don't fancy using washing up liquid.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

You can order mite paper from various sources such as Bio Supply companies or some of the suppliers like Black Jungle. 

The example described above doesn't stop the mites that are aleady going to be in the culture and seems like a lot of work since you are probably going to have multiple cultures, the exact number of which is going to depend on how many frogs you eventually end up with.... 

Ed


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## MrFusion (Jul 18, 2011)

Once you go mite paper you'll never go back to spray. The spray is pretty short lived and not nearly as effective in my experience.


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## andestang (Oct 3, 2011)

*Re: Mite prevention idea ?*

yes I know mites will already be in a culture and as for the water trick I'm not convinced that it is very effective. As far as extra work for my idea its just the matter of appling the string on the lids and once some are made up no extra work really.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

*Re: Mite prevention idea ?*



andestang said:


> yes I know mites will already be in a culture and as for the water trick I'm not convinced that it is very effective. As far as extra work for my idea its just the matter of appling the string on the lids and once some are made up no extra work really.


I'm guessing your not planning on reusing the lids.. as all of the string is going to be a hassle when it comes to cleaning and disinfecting them.... 

I'm also not sure why you think the string is going to help given that the mites are already in the culture and nothing is going to stop them from traveling up the string and down to the next culture (or falling to the floor and roaming around the room). 
The amount of work I was commenting on was that once you start needing multiple cultures (most people make at least two a week) means that you will not only need to start setting up cultures on different lengths of string for different weeks and then keeping track to get rid of the cultures around 30 days (as the mite production picks up and as I noted above they can walk or fall onto the next culture). When the mite bomb goes off due to old cultures the area within several feet can literally be totally covered by little white moving specks as hundreds of them fan out looking for the next home. 


Ed


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## ghutch0203 (Jun 13, 2010)

Paper towel sprayed with a 15% benzyl benzoate/rubbing alcohol solution and remember to cycle out old paper towel with older cultures and your chances of mites will be minimal.
Google lab supplies as most carry it and a small bottle will last awhile.


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## fido (Sep 29, 2008)

What works for me is to keep new cultures up and away from the ones in use.
Like in a different room.
Use some calcium powder to dust flys before you transfer them to the new culture and try to keep extra dust out of the culture. The dust may nock the mites off and kill them by drying them out.
Check your cultures you are using to start new ones and make sure there are no mites. A cheep hand held scope works wonders for this.

I don't use any mite paper or spray. Some peoples homes may be worse for having mites in them than others. Hear in Alberta its quite dry so that may help.
Good luck


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

I had a pretty big mite problem at one point. They were everywhere -- you could even see a ton of them on the lid. I tried the natural chemistry mite spray. Totally ineffective; I even sprayed it directly on the mites on the lids and it didn't kill them.

Once I switched over to mite paper my mite issues quickly solved themselves =]


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## InHoc1855 (Apr 28, 2011)

I have a related question/problem.

How do you control mites in your vivs? I noticed they are crawling around all over the place in one of mine. Is there a spray i should be using or something else to control the population?

Or does a heavy CO2 bombing work well?


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## epiphytes etc. (Nov 22, 2010)

You might try feeding less. Hungry frogs often lead to fewer viv bugs.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

InHoc1855 said:


> I have a related question/problem.
> 
> How do you control mites in your vivs? I noticed they are crawling around all over the place in one of mine. Is there a spray i should be using or something else to control the population?
> 
> Or does a heavy CO2 bombing work well?


Detrivore mites in a tank are inevitable, the frogs will feed on some but the population should decrease as time goes on and the tank becomes established. 

Ed


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## John1451 (Jun 6, 2011)

Ok guys, I was told by Ed's fly meat that mites are horrible if you keep crickets (at all ) but especially in the same room with frogs etc. also I was told the the water idea for placing fly containers in a small reservoir is total BS!!! 

I have mites EVERYWHERE! My question is simple.....how do I remove the current mite problem?is there a bait or localized poison that I can use to draw and trap them...or place something on mite paper. I was told to use newspaper on my shelf with flys that is sprayed down with avian mite control spray.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

John1451 said:


> Ok guys, I was told by Ed's fly meat that mites are horrible if you keep crickets (at all ) but especially in the same room with frogs etc. also I was told the the water idea for placing fly containers in a small reservoir is total BS!!!
> 
> I have mites EVERYWHERE! My question is simple.....how do I remove the current mite problem?is there a bait or localized poison that I can use to draw and trap them...or place something on mite paper. I was told to use newspaper on my shelf with flys that is sprayed down with avian mite control spray.


Sounds like the mite bomb went off. 


Yes, crickets, and meal worms are bad for mites. I've noted elsewhere several times that I do not house my fruit flies in a room with either of those types of feeders. I also house my springtails far from crickets and/or mealworms. I have seen badly infected mealworm cultures have what looks to be brown froth coming out of them. That is about the worst possible example of the mite bomb. 

Yes the water moat doesn't work as the mites are small enough that the surface tension of the water is sufficient to let the mites navigate to other objects or if they sink to retain an air bubble that lets them walk out. 

Fresh mite paper is as effective as spraying down newspaper with miticidal sprays. You can wipe down nearby surfaces with disinfecting wipe as the alcohol will kill some but the moisture will bind them to the surface allowing you to get some of the numbers down. The best thing you can do is make new cultures after dusting the flies throughly and set them up in another room far from where the mite bomb went off. 

Ed


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## John1451 (Jun 6, 2011)

GOD BLESS YOU ED!!! As ALWAYS! You are a wealth of knowledge and a priceless asset to us all!!!!

John


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