# Mites in my springtail and isopod cultures



## sunnysideup (Nov 15, 2018)

My isopod cultures (which contain springtails) have mites! At least I think they’re mites. They’re these tiny, white, round dots about the size of a period/fleck of glitter and move slowly. At first, I thought they might be baby springtails, but they move much more slowly than springtails and are round, not oval like springs. I think they came in with my avocado that I fed them last week. 

Since they’re not red, I don’t think they’re predatory mites. Will they take over my cultures and kill off my isos, or can they live in harmony with the isos and springtails? 

For my larger isos (giant orange, powder blue), I’ll try to sort them out and start a new, mite-free culture. Unfortunately, my powder blue cultures have tiny baby isos so I’m not sure what to do about them. Can I use the mite-infested substrate to “seed” my viv? Are they harmful to frogs or plants? Will my frogs eat the mites? They move so slowly that I’m not sure the frogs will eat them. 

For my smaller isos (dwarf purple and dwarf whites), I’m. Im not sure what to do... if they’re safe to feed to frogs then I can use the mite-infested substrate in my viv. But they’re really slow, so not sure my frogs will bite. What experiences have people had with mites in their iso cultures? Appreciate any advice you can provide!


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## kimcmich (Jan 17, 2016)

Greetings,

The same predator-free, resource-rich environment you've created with isopods and springtails in-mind is also perfectly suited to mites. Merely having mites is not a problem. Unless you are seeing plague-like population growth or a sudden lack of baby isopods, the mites are harmless.

Think of them as your clean-up crew's clean-up crew.


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## sunnysideup (Nov 15, 2018)

kimcmich said:


> Greetings,
> 
> The same predator-free, resource-rich environment you've created with isopods and springtails in-mind is also perfectly suited to mites. Merely having mites is not a problem. Unless you are seeing plague-like population growth or a sudden lack of baby isopods, the mites are harmless.
> 
> Think of them as your clean-up crew's clean-up crew.


Oh nice! I thought (non-predatory) mites would kill off my isopods (crash), likely due to large populations. I read on another thread that if there are lots of springtails, then they will keep mite populations at bay which is why I added springtails to my iso cultures. Unfortunately, it looks like the mites boomed before my springtails could get going. 

If the mites aren’t a problem, then why do people think they’re bad? Or are they not bad? If I am seeing baby isos, then there’s nothing to worry about I guess. I just thought people didn’t like having mites in their iso cultures. 

Have you ever seen your frogs eat the mites? They’re so slow... I’m wondering if they’d even be tempted.


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## DPfarr (Nov 24, 2017)

The mites are a bummer for me because if they exist there, they’re in my fruit flies.


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## kimcmich (Jan 17, 2016)

@sunnysideup

Mites can be a problem through direct competition for food - so a population boom of mites in your culture can deplete the shared food supply. 

Because mites have a shorter lifecycle than fruitflies (or isos), they can respond to food with population growth more quickly. That means if you introduce mites into a new culture the mites can grow fast enough to be a problem for the culture - from both food competition and because FF eggs are a potential meal for mites (even non-predatory mites). Isopods might avoid egg predation issues since they retain their eggs and larvae.

I have had individual FF cultures develop significant mite populations over the 5-6 weeks I feed from them - but they still produced the same amount of flies as cleaner cultures. I don't culture my own flies anymore but, if I did, I would *not* use the heavily infested cultures to start new cultures - that would be asking for a mite plague.

I would say there is a tendency on the board to over-react to all kinds of unchosen viv inhabitants - mites, worms, fungi and slime molds being the most popular frights. Most of the time all of them are harmless and/or beneficial and remain well-behaved.


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## sunnysideup (Nov 15, 2018)

Thanks for the input! Really appreciate hearing these mites aren’t a huge issue (other than food competition or FF cultures). They may have also come from my FF cultures, I just assumed they came from the avocado since they were all over them. 

Will mites overtake a springtail population or can they live together?

The mites I have look like active bakers yeast granules (not brewers yeast), but they’re white and move slowly. If they’re safe to feed to frogs, I may use the substrate to seed a new viv and/or just put the frogs in my iso culture to see if they’ll eat the mites. Glad to know these aren’t a huge deal


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## kimcmich (Jan 17, 2016)

> Will mites overtake a springtail population or can they live together?


Mites and springtails co-exist in nearly every terrestrial environment on earth. 
Cultures, however, are not natural environments and, in fact, are created to _encourage_ population explosions. Of course, we intend for the exploding population to be our target food animal but organisms have their own agenda and don't necessarily cooperate... and we only notice when the wrong population explodes.

Starting cultures with clean media and clean seed populations is the best way to get the boom to favor your target animal rather than mites.


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## DPfarr (Nov 24, 2017)

I’ve seen mites in my springtail cultures right after I feed them some yeast. I don’t think they reproduce very well in my charcoal fruit and yeast containers compared to a Dorsophila media.


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