# Tired of the mites, ideas. Please let me know if this is okay?



## hexentanz (Sep 18, 2008)

I currently culture my fruitflies at the bottom of a HUGE cabinet which holds two 50x50x50cm cubes. The cabinet has doors and where I have the fruitflies this door has a square cut out with metal screen for ventilation. All cultures stay in the bottom of the cabinet. They are kept about 2.5 feet below the tanks.

Here is the problem. Unfortunately my cultures keep getting mites no matter what I do. I throw away cultures in time, I do not use cultures which have mites to start new cultures and so on.

I would lovvvvvve to try some of that mite paper that you guys can get in the states, but this is not available here. 

Various companies sell anti mite sprays here and I was thinking of spraying down some paper, letting it dry overnight and then placing the paper down in the cabinet and then I would place a bunch of new mite free cultures on top of this paper.

Can someone tell me if this would be safe to do? Or would there possibly be a risk of killing the frogs with cultures being this close to the tanks?


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## NathanB (Jan 21, 2008)

This is what i'm using for paper. http://nobugsshelfliner.com/shop_main.html
"Active Ingredient

o-Isopropoxyphenyl methylcarbamate.........1.00% wt."
can you come up with anything like that? (notice its not labeled as mite paper)


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## pl259 (Feb 27, 2006)

Here's another...
http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/23423-diy-mite-spray-using-benzle-benzoate.html

DIY mite paper, made from commerical mite spray works too.


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

I use plastic restaurant trays to place my cultures cups on. Mite paper covers the tray tops and all 20 or so cultures have space between them so that they never touch.

I find brown "dust" on the blue mite paper after a month or so, and I assume that it's the dead bodies of the mites who tired to travel on the paper....heh. So I know it's working.

I would think that your cabinet is providing nooks and crannies and highways for the mites to travel. Most people want to shut their cultures away in boxes and cabinets to prevent escaped flies ect but I really think that is counterproductive and allows for a mite problem.

anyhoo....my .02

"We" should be able to ship you some blue mite paper......shouldn't we?


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## crentania (Jul 22, 2008)

That's almost exactly what I do anyways. I take the reptile anti-mite stuff spray it on a couple paper towels and put it in the bottom of my plastic roller bin thingy. Keeps the mites away like magic. 

Never thought I needed it until one day I picked up my tadpole bites and they weren't bites anymore. Apparently I'd had a mite population explosion and tadpole bites are very very yummy...

Anywho, it's been workin for a few months now, and I no longer worry about staring at the tadpole bites bottle (to see any creepy crawlies) for a minute before I pick it up.


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## hexentanz (Sep 18, 2008)

*pl259* - Thanks, I totally forgot about that thread since I had assumed it would be hard to get that stuff here. Am going to call around a bit today and see what I can come up with.

*Philsuma* - I thought the same about the nooks and what not, but the cabinet is pretty tight. Usually the mites are seen only at the bottom front of the cabinet going up in through the doorway vent. They became the worst sob's when I started to culture houseflies. :|

I am going to a big show here this weekend (Terraristika), so I will ask around about mite sprays if I cannot locate the benzyl.


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## ChrisK (Oct 28, 2008)

Do you get the mites while the ff medium is still moist, or not till it dries out?


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## gluedl (Oct 8, 2008)

Tired too!


Thanks for all the inputs, again all your solutions are so simple and must be effective, yet I never had any idea like this myself. I will give it a try today. You people around here rock, thanks again.



Have a nice day 


gluedl


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## Roadrunner (Mar 6, 2004)

set them in a tray of water.


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## hexentanz (Sep 18, 2008)

Really nice horror story........

I was standing in my hallway a half hour ago and I looked over at a shelf we have there and I noticed that an older supplement container was covered in mites, as I looked further i noticed the whole shelf was crawling with mites, all over decorations, etc. Then I spotted their host, an old mealworm container. ,) I quickly grabbed the container and dropped it out the backdoor in to the garbage.

When I came back inside to clean up the damage with some water followed by rubbing alcohol I discovered they were also crawling up the wall, in little piles on a bag laying on the floor and all over my backpack which was hanging from the shelf.

Gross. :/ 

I will be all over the mite sprays on Saturday's terraristika.


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## elscotto (Mar 1, 2005)

When I've had problems with other bugs getting in into cultures, I've had to resort to Tanglefoot Pest Barrier. The stuff is very messy and tough to work with, but when applied to the base of a supply cart (of cultures), it works very well in not allowing anything to pass by. This worked well in stopping a fire ant invasion I had, also.
-Scott


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## Axl (Dec 9, 2006)

You can read this thread I started long time ago: http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/30695-rid-mites.html . I've never had mite problems in my FFs cultures again. Just spray the paper once a month, let it dry for 12 hours or more before putting the cultures on it.


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## sNApple (Mar 19, 2007)

Philsuma said:


> I find brown "dust" on the blue mite paper after a month or so, and I assume that it's the dead bodies of the mites who tired to travel on the paper....heh. So I know it's working.


OMG!!!!! i thought that was just DUST, i see it all the time!.. is there any proof that this dust is dead bugs?


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## Axl (Dec 9, 2006)

Try using a microscope, be sure you'll find thousands of dead mites .


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## SMenigoz (Feb 17, 2004)

Sounds like you need to get active with ridding the area of the existing mites--removing the mealworm container should help dramatically. Now to get proactive...I've used a product called Tedion. Soaking strips of papertowel, allow to dry, and then place a strip in each culture as you make them. Its [knock on wood] allowed me to be mite-free for quite awhile, and I make literally hundreds of cultures a year.
Best of luck,
Scott


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## Cutterfly (Apr 9, 2009)

@hexentanz:
Could you finally locate either mitepaper/spray or benzyl benzoate?
If so, please tell me where you got some. I have the same problem with my cultures in a cabinet (also with ventilation) and couldn't find any of the products yet. So I had to arrange the cultures all over the racks and tanks in my viv room instead of the cabinet... looks terrible.
When I google for benzyl benzoate, I just find emulsions for human beings.

greets,
CF


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## gluedl (Oct 8, 2008)

Hi all,

I will give these a try

E.N.T. Terrarientechnik - Namiba Terra "Rep Guard" Namiba Terra "Rep Guard", Ungezieferspray, 100 ml ZU0820

and

E.N.T. Terrarientechnik - Dragon Bio Insect Shocker Dragon Bio Insect Shocker, 150 ml DRDM25

I will keep you informed


gluedl


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## hexentanz (Sep 18, 2008)

Hey CF,

I looked around and could only find it in stuff for humans as well (Antiscabiosum), so we went to the local pet store here after i read about using mite spray for birds (since i read this is more harmless than other chemicals offered). I asked if this would be effective if used on paper and was told that it would not be effective. 

I did however buy a bottle of it (from the company beaphar) and used it in my cabinet after clearing out all remaining cultures i had on hand. 

This weekend i went and got all new cultures at terraristika and spoke with the owner of kerf and he told us that we have to make sure that we absolutely throw away cultures in time and that we have to make sure the temperatures are perfect for the flies to produce faster than the mites. 

The guy at the pet store recommended these to me btw Refona | Respect For Nature - Dutchy's ®

I was not so keen on releasing these since my issue was not really severe to warrant it and i dunno i felt iffy about it, but the stuff is mentioned in several magazines printed here in Germany time and time again, so it has to be good stuff.

What i did do after spraying the cabinet was wait until i saw mites dead then i cleaned the shelves good and placed trays filled with water on them, then placed all new cultures in to these trays. I also added a heat cable and temp gauge. Annnnnddddd i am trying something new, instead of using wood wool in my cultures i have now switched to thin sheets of styropor (advice from another board), as i heard mites are attracted more too wood wool.

I have not seen any mites yet and i hope i do not see any in the days to come.


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## Cutterfly (Apr 9, 2009)

Hi hexentanz,
thx so far... but:

This stuff called "Dutchy's" doesn't sound good to me. 
The description says:
"Sie ernähren sich von verschiedenen Organismen, wie z. B. von Larven kleiner Mücken, von Springschwänzen und von verschiedenen Arten von Milben, worunter auch die Blutmilben fallen." 
which can be translated the following:
"They eat several organisms, as i.e. *larvae of small gnat*, springtails and several other types of mites, for example Dermanyssus gallinae"

So I think they'll eat fruitfly larvae and if they escape they could smash your springtail cultures.

greets,
CF


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## hexentanz (Sep 18, 2008)

Cutterfly said:


> Hi hexentanz,
> thx so far... but:
> 
> This stuff called "Dutchy's" doesn't sound good to me.
> ...


Yea, i was told that all springtails would have to be removed from the room where the mites are to be released and not to release the mites in to the cultures, but to use it to treat the cabinet before adding new cultures.

It too just sounded too dangerous to me. :/


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## hexentanz (Sep 18, 2008)

Just wanted to say that my cultures are finally mite free and it took no chemicals to do it!


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## NathanB (Jan 21, 2008)

awesome, i'm trying to get to that point


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