# HELP, I know its mites... but what kind??? (MACRO PIC ADDED)



## OH23 (Sep 19, 2008)

Hi,
I spotted these buggers in my RETF's temp viv few days ago.
can anyoe shed some light on this matter? what kind of mites are they and how can i kill or atleast control the population ? if you need anymore info or pics i'd love to provide. just try to help me out with this since its freaking me out. im currently halfway constructing the perm viv for my RETFs and i dot want these little buggers infesting the new viv.
Thanks


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## gretchenellie (Aug 7, 2007)

they look like spider mites.

i had them once in a mantella viv. the only way i could get rid of them was to tear down the tank, throw out all plants and start over again.

someone else will probably have another idea or two.


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

They don't look like spider mites to me. spider mites thrive in hot dry surroundings, thats why they are a weed grower's worst nightmare. Do you see webs? If they WERE spider mites constant misting on the UNDERSIDE of the leaves where they like to hide would be about all you could do without a tear down because you DO NOT want to spray anythingin there if amphibians will be living in there


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## OH23 (Sep 19, 2008)

Thank you for the replies,
I can definitely say that they are not spider mites, after reading about and watching pics of spider mites. these buggers are different kind of mites 
im really clueless about this


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## Lucky (Jan 15, 2007)

Do not know what kind they are, but I had heard that red ones were bad and that the white ones were ok.


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## basshummper (Jan 13, 2008)

theres too many mites for that rule to work. iv'e had bad white mites bofore.


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

They look orange-ish kinda like a spider mite but I would be most alarmed about finding them on the frog feces and not the plants.....scary.


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## OH23 (Sep 19, 2008)

In the pic they look a bit brownish but they are white. so they are not the orange/red/brown/yellow kind.


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## basshummper (Jan 13, 2008)

maybe it's a good sign that they are on the feces. if this the only thing they eat then they will make good janitors. hope for the best!


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## OH23 (Sep 19, 2008)

I failed to mention before that they are only attracted to the feces.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

They are detrivore/scavenger soil mites and you have a dense population of them.


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## OH23 (Sep 19, 2008)

Thank you for your reply Ed,
Are you sure they are soil mites? i'v just came back from my friends house and apparently he has the same mites but in his cricket plastic box, where he breeds them.
is there any way to eliminate or reduce the population of these kind of mites?


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

There are a lot of different types of mites. The ones you have in the tank are acting like scavenger/detrivore mites. Your friend might have a detrivore in his cricket containers or those could be a mite that predates or feeds on the crickets or thier eggs. 
Simply going off a visual without a close inspection under a microscope makes the identification of most of these mites virtually impossible. You would need to take some to a specialist. 
With that said, the mites in your cage are not behaving like predatory/parasitic mites. 

Ed


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