# Red mite!?



## dylanserbin (Apr 11, 2009)

So i was feeding my frogs today and i noticed some smal red mites on my cultures... i freaked.

what are these and are the harmful?


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## Jason DeSantis (Feb 2, 2006)

Dust mites probably. You should throw cultures with mites out. Usually in the first couple weeks you wont see mites on cultures. But after about a month they can start to appear. Not really harmful, more annoying then anything else.
J


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## UmbraSprite (Mar 2, 2007)

Dust = ~80% human skin

More disgusting than harmful!

Here are some numbers that might make you squirm: A typical used mattress can have 100,000 to 10 million mites inside, feeding on the 6 grams of dead skin you shed each week. Each mite produces 10-20 waste pellets per day, and each egg-laying female can produce 25-30 more mites every three weeks. Cold comfort that a mite only lives about three months, especially when its dead carcass is allergenic!


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## Jason DeSantis (Feb 2, 2006)

Thanks Chris, I am going to sleep on the coach tonight.
J


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## frogfreak (Mar 4, 2009)

Jason DeSantis said:


> Thanks Chris, I am going to sleep on the coach tonight.
> J


Your couch is just as bad


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## Jason DeSantis (Feb 2, 2006)

Meant to say couch not coach. oops

j


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## earthfrog (May 18, 2008)

A good carpet-cleaning service (organic if poss) can clean your mattress.

Red mites can attack plants, but they don't do so well with water---so maybe not such a major issue if you mist in the viv daily. Yucky guys.


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