# The Bane of a Hobbyist's Existence.



## bluedart (Sep 5, 2005)

Greetings, one and all! My name is Josh Kadrich, and I am a man on a mission. My new goal in life is the extermination of the biggest pest that we, as hobbyists, know. These creatures smile at us as they consume what we have worked so hard to nurture into thriving environments. The miscreants laugh as they emmigrate from one home into another, creating a wake of destruction in their paths. We lay down barriers to stop them, but they keep coming. Try as we might, they continue to be the bane of our existence, causing 1000's of dollars of damage within the hobby every year. What name could we possibly create to describe these monstrosities?; These ubiquitous problems, which we constantly fight but never prevail? Is there a name that can emcompass all that we despise about them? Yes. Mites. They must be eradicated from the face of Germa... out hobby! I propose a rash punishment for these hellspawn. For the offense of springtail culture take over: Death by means of anuran ingestion. This punishment may seem cruel, but they must learn not to mess with us! For the offense of, dare I say it?, fruit fly culture infestation, the punishment is also death. Death by means of H2O asphyxiation. Slow. Painful. Deserving. An end must be met! Only through these measures are we able to confront this pandemic, and invariably crush it! We will eliminate the face of the hobby of these filthy mites!


----------



## dmartin72 (Oct 27, 2004)

That is some funny $#!&...anyone think Josh might be in the middle of Mite warfare and losing the battle to boot. This is not your typical ramblings of a 16 year old.


----------



## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

You may want to look into this:
Mite Spray

I have heard of people using it with good results. I have tried it in empty tanks to clear out some mites with good luck but have yet to try it in a tank with frogs.


----------



## bluedart (Sep 5, 2005)

Brand new springtail culture... swarming with them. I hate mites. But I LOVE satire.


----------



## defaced (May 23, 2005)

I just picked up some of this: link. I've yet to try it so if anyone has please pipe up.


----------



## bluedart (Sep 5, 2005)

I plan on trying a method I learned from Erin (of ED's) at IAD. What you do is take newspaper, and spray it down REALLY well with avian mite control stuff, and it's supposed to work better than mite paper. My post was intended to be fun and humorous, but it is a real problem I have as well. It's hard to control mites if they're entering through food sources and the like.


----------



## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

If your looking to clear them from cultures I will put up a caresheet soon. Its on my short list...

I soaked paper towels with Benzyl Benzoate and then treated cultures with it for about a month. I no longer have mites in my cultures but if I leave one out it will get them in a few days. They must stay on the treated paper towels.


----------



## dmartin72 (Oct 27, 2004)

Which one...do you remember the brand? Do you think it will kill the springtails.



bluedart said:


> I plan on trying a method I learned from Erin (of ED's) at IAD. What you do is take newspaper, and spray it down REALLY well with avian mite control stuff, and it's supposed to work better than mite paper. My post was intended to be fun and humorous, but it is a real problem I have as well. It's hard to control mites if they're entering through food sources and the like.


----------



## bluedart (Sep 5, 2005)

No idea. But, I believe it's supposed to be used like Mite Paper, but it just works better. Because the cultures would be sitting ontop of the paper, I don't believe it would kill the mites. I flooded the current culture. I'm gonna put it into some coco crap, and see if it's mite free.


----------



## bluedart (Sep 5, 2005)

I should probably make it more clear: the mites are in my springtail cultures. I've yet to have mite problems in my FF cultures.


----------



## stchupa (Apr 25, 2006)

Well it seems you already have the answer, what are you feeding to your springtail/ff cultures?


----------



## bluedart (Sep 5, 2005)

Ok, well, my rather innovative solution has proven to be... innovative. At the first sign of mites in my springtail culture, I completely flooded it. I had water several inches higher than the soil line, and lotsa springs floating. I left the culture with the top off for one week in that state. I then poured off as much water as I could, and moved the soil into another container, and covered it. Well, 2 days later, I saw many adult springtails moving around the dead bodies of the others. It's been about 1 week since then, and I'm seeing LOTS of baby springs. Seeing as I had fed them nothing yet, today was the test. I took the same fish food that I believe caused the mite infestation, baked it for about 7 minutes (it started smelling REALLY bad), and added a pinch to the culture. I'll be frequently checking it to make sure there are no mites. So, that's what I did!


----------



## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

You can also add isopods to the cultures as they will predate on the mites and control thier numbers. 

Ed


----------



## bluedart (Sep 5, 2005)

Ed said:


> You can also add isopods to the cultures as they will predate on the mites and control thier numbers.
> 
> Ed


Oh contrare, my friend. Isopods can be used as a PREVENTATIVE. They will eat mite eggs, and mites if they are introduced. But, if added to a culture in which mite are established, the mites will predate on molting isopods. I need to do a write up on this sometime...


----------



## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

FYI... you may want to use somehting to keep them away to begin with....

Buy some of the Benzyl Benzoate and soak paper towels and put them under your cultures. Then start with some fresh springtales.


----------



## bluedart (Sep 5, 2005)

kyle1745 said:


> FYI... you may want to use somehting to keep them away to begin with....
> 
> Buy some of the Benzyl Benzoate and soak paper towels and put them under your cultures. Then start with some fresh springtales.


I know 
At the time, I hadn't had time to go out and get any mite control for my cultures after IAD... and the mites were introduced to the culture through food items. They would have been in it anyways. But, that's neither here nor there, all I know is I know how to fix it and prevent it better than I did before. And, that's the key to progress, right? Learning from your mistakes?


----------



## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

snip "Oh contrare, my friend."endsnip 

This sounds like something Yeager would say... 


snip " Isopods can be used as a PREVENTATIVE. They will eat mite eggs, and mites if they are introduced. But, if added to a culture in which mite are established, the mites will predate on molting isopods. I need to do a write up on this sometime"endsnip 

I have cleared springtail cultures (and one roach culture) using isopods.. I just added a large number of adult isopods so I didn't have to worry about the shedding issue... By the time the isopods began to reproduce the mite numbers were low enough not to affect the isopods. 
Also if you are experiencing a mite outbreak in the springtail culture feed the culture only baker's yeast as this deprive the mites of the food source allowing the mites to rapidly expand thier population. 

Ed


----------



## bluedart (Sep 5, 2005)

Ed said:


> snip "Oh contrare, my friend."endsnip
> 
> This sounds like something Yeager would say...
> 
> ...


Sweet. I'll use A. nasatum or A. vulgare next time, as it could be that P. scaber have much softer bodies.. then again that wouldn't matter in a molt. Meh, I'm being careful at them moment, though. It I have another mite outbreak, IN GO THE ISOPODS!


----------



## bluedart (Sep 5, 2005)

Well, the mites are back. Except... different. Before I had the normal brown, miniature tick looking things. Now I have little white things. No, they're not baby springtails, I promise. I went out today and got some mite spray... you know they'd have to come today. Does anyone think that they could be decomposing mites?


----------



## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

They could be decomposers or they could be nymphal states (if smaller).. 

Switch to the yeast. 

Ed


----------



## bluedart (Sep 5, 2005)

Ok. So, I sprayed down a paper towel with the avian mite spray. Do I need to respray it when it fries out, or is it effective permenantly?


----------



## bluedart (Sep 5, 2005)

The above question and:

Ok, I see THOUSANDS of little springtails, but I'm seeing just a few mites. The culture is still too wet for isopods to do really really well... any suggestions?


----------



## stchupa (Apr 25, 2006)

How do you keep the ST cultures from crashing with the isopods in it?

Eventually they will outcompete.


----------



## bluedart (Sep 5, 2005)

stchupa said:


> How do you keep the ST cultures from crashing with the isopods in it?
> 
> Eventually they will outcompete.


Yes, but as a general rule isopods take ages to reproduce to levels high enough to outcompete with the springs.


----------



## stchupa (Apr 25, 2006)

My point exactly, at some point it will happen and it'll have to be delt with.
So what, start over every couple years?

I know the isopods in some of my tanks wouldn't take more than a couple months to take a culture (if that were to happen and they were constantly being fed).


----------



## bluedart (Sep 5, 2005)

Just an update:

The springtail issue has been solved. Bakers yeast seems to be the way to go, as I've had no problems with mites since I switched over.


----------



## c'est ma (Sep 11, 2004)

I've been subscribed to this thread--thanks for the follow-up!


----------



## morphious (Jul 9, 2006)

who sells it Benzyl Benzoate


----------



## nburns (May 3, 2005)

fruitflies.net sells it. 

I know that it has come in pretty handy for me trying to fight the mites in my ff cultures. I seem to get them every summer and then after a battle they are gone until the next summer. It probably doesn't help that I keep them in my basement and I live in an older house.


----------

