Help! Mites on larvae?!?

C

charx53

Tenebrio
I was moving a couple larvae to different containers and noticed small mite like things crawling on them. They're light, white colored. What do I do to get rid of them? Are they harmful or will they kill my larvae?

I'm not sure what caused it or if this is normal? I don't know if they were there when I got them. Any input would be appreciated! Thanks!

 
It's normal and there isn't really any way to get rid of them completely. You can use a soft brush to lightly brush them off and/or carefully rinse the larvae under running water. But, the mites are normal and will almost always be present.

 
The mother could have carried mites into the substrate.

And if you added dog food or other protein in the substrate, the mites reproduce rapidly.

 
Brush the mites off with a children's paintbrush, squash them, heat treat the substrate and rinse the container. This has worked for me almost every time.

 
I had eight or so L3 D. tityus larvae that were heavily infested with mites. I placed them in clean dry containers with dry, finely ground leaves for about 5 days and that completely eliminated the mites. I put just enough ground leaves in the containers to cover them by an inch. They did loose a few grams during treatment, but they quickly regained it when placed back into clean substrate.

Smaller larvae might not be able to survive such treatment. I wouldn't try this with L1 tityus or similar sized larvae. A hundred or so mites on a L3 tityus isn't a big concern. Larvae didn't show any signs of distress from the mites so I only treated the ones with the worst infestations.

 
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