White grit on beetles

charmandy

charmandy

L2
I've had my three male stag beetles for ~7 months now, a p. Fabricei takakuwai, a p. Muelleri, and a dorcus curvidens curvidens. They all seem to be perky and in good shape, even the PFT, who is in another thread here with a broken leg. ?

On the p. Muelleri and the dorcus, though, I've noticed this very, very fine white grit showing up on their shells. I can pick it off with my nails, and it seems to show up in the corners and crevices of their shells.

I can take a pic if I need to. Do ypu know what it is? Is it harmful? Thanks!

 
charmandy said:
I've had my three male stag beetles for ~7 months now, a p. Fabricei takakuwai, a p. Muelleri, and a dorcus curvidens curvidens. They all seem to be perky and in good shape, even the PFT, who is in another thread here with a broken leg.

On the p. Muelleri and the dorcus, though, I've noticed this very, very fine white grit showing up on their shells. I can pick it off with my nails, and it seems to show up in the corners and crevices of their shells.

I can take a pic if I need to. Do ypu know what it is? Is it harmful? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Sounds like a severe infestation of grain mites, you should change the substrate and find out a way to clean the beetles...

 
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I agree, likely grain mites . . . if you look real close . . . they move.

 
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Oh no... I was really hoping it was something else, since I had tried to look up mites on beetles and only found big mites that were obvious.

I noticed it first on my p. Muelleri a few weeks ago, and I have no idea how they got into my dorcus's enclosure, since it's a good 3 feet away. Unless they're all over the bathroom (where I keep the enclosure)...

I'm going to go out and buy new substrate first thing tomorrow morning. I feel bad, because I knew it was a long time since I'd changed/rehydrated their soil, but I'd been procrastinating.

How can I get the mites off? Will they hurt my beetles? The mites are all over.

 
http://tsundan.tumblr.com/post/146239452802

Here are pictures of my dorcus, with what I thought was some sort of gritty mold. I feel awful for letting it get this bad (it didn't show up on him like this a few days ago). Will the mites harm them?

Does anyone have tips for getting rid of them? Should I wash the enclosure out with anything but water?

 
I'd wash the enclosure and replace the substrate. You can get a children's paint brush and wipe the mites off of the beetle.

 
Alright, today I did the three-hour job of hosing out all three cages, re-hydrating dirt, re-baking all wood, etc. despite that my p. muelleri had mites at one point, he didnt have any today.

I feel bad for my dorcus; he's in an extra cage for "quarantine" right now. He's so strong and fiercely squirmy that I couldnt get every mite off, but I'll finish the job tomorrow, he's stressed enough today.

One thing that's never been answered... what do these mites DO?

 
Unfortunately, even though I completely cleaned out his bedding and the beetle himself, cleaned everything I had, Chunk had some mites on his back legs I couldn't get off. And now, a few weeks later, the mites are back in full force... I might just give up, aside from brushing off the big groupings. He's ~8 months old now, and if the mites aren't hurting him, I don't want to harass him with a toothbrush all over again.

 
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