White mites on white snails!

[starcrazy19]

Hi everybody,

I got two albino reticulatas a few months ago which are doing really well, very active, growing fast and beautifully. Today though I just saw tiny white mites on one of their shells! I'm panicking a bit because their skin is so white I cannot see at all if there are more mites on them.

I kept garden snails as a kid and they always had these white mites like tiny specks of dust, but obviously they have darker skin so you can actually see how bad the problem is.

Some places seem to suggest these mites (slug mites?) are harmful, some less so... I've read the section on mites here
www.petsnails.co.uk/problems/mites.html#start
But just wondered if anyone had any advice on how to deal with this when you can't even see the little buggers. Has anyone experienced health problems because of them?

Really want to keep these guys as healthy as possible, they have been doing so well and are already my pride & joy!

[tsrebel]

Are you sure they are mites and not springtails? I've sometimes thought my snails had mites, only to find out it was actually springtails. They are not harmful, just means it is time to let the substrate dry a little (if they are everywhere). The body shape is different, and springtails jump.

[pinkunicorn]

I Googler springtails and now I know what the annoying bugs taking over my tanks are. I usually nuke the soil in the microwave to get rid of them.

Mites are like little dots, these springtails are long little white bugs. You can see the mites moving if you look carefully under good light.

Hmmm.... maybe I should let the springtails be if they eat microbes. Maybe they help with keeping healthy soil balance?

[starcrazy19]

I have never seen springtails, but seeing other people mention/link them on here I'm sure these are mites of some kind and not springtails - they are tiny crawling dots, like fine grains of salt. But they crawl around I haven't seen many on the shell and none in the substrate, but I remember from the garden snails that they were almost all on the body
Sorry if this is a stupid newbie hypochondria issue! thanks for replying!

[pinkunicorn]

Those sound like mites. Mites are always on the snails and rarely on substrate whilst the springtails only accidentally get on snails. Mites also get into the mantle cavity.

I get rid of them by rinsing the snail. Make sure it closes its pneumostome and then you can rinse all over. Might take a few rinses to get the mites inside the snail to come out and flushed.