Mite-eating animals?

[Bumblebee]

Bah..... found some mites on my adult snails not long ago gave them a shower and gonna see how it looks tomorrow.. Most likely ill have to do a big cleanout of the tank, wich takes A LONG time since our vaccuumcleaner is broken and im using peat =/ so takes some sweet time to get all of it up with paper ><

Just wondering... is there any insect or something that can live with snails that also would feed on possible mites? As far as I know, hypoaspis mites die off eventually =/

[coyote]

Hypoaspis will keep reproducing as long as they have a food source (snail mites). If the mites return, a new application of hypoaspis is needed. To keep hypoaspis going, you'd need to provide an alternate food source once the snail mites have been eliminated. (I know hypoaspis eat more than just snail mites but I can't remember what it is.)

[Katie]

I think hypoaspis eat baby woodlice, if you had some of them in their too, that would keep them going possibly. But then their te problem that they would stop the woodlouse collonies from growing ? :/

[coyote]

If that's true about baby woodlice, a solution might be to put adults into the tank, as needed.

And, there are only so many woodlice a tank would be able to sustain anyway, so it's not as though the colony would keep growing indefinitely. Keeping a stable population of adults would be ideal.

[aerliss]

Spring tails are another food source. I'd love to try keeping a hypoaspis colony (spring tails are pretty easy to keep, apparently)... but my housemate would murder me in my sleep if I introduced more bugs to the living room (she doesn't know about the woodlice yet).

Too bad hypoaspis can't quite manage fruit fly larvae *grumble*

[Bumblebee]

Would indeed be nice to have a stable colony of hypoaspis, altho mom would never allow me due to the fear that they might get loose in the rest of the hom

[coyote]

Without snail mites to eat, they would die out even if they got loose. I guess that's hard to imagine, though, especially if someone has had a bad experience with bugs in the past.

[dave1961]

hypoaspis eat rotting vegetables

[coyote]

Are they eating the actual vegetables, or the fruit fly larvae and other such bugs hatching on them? Usually a predatory species eats only its prey, and very, very little vegetable matter if any.

[aerliss]

I've seen claims that they can survive for a short while on rotting vegetable matter. It probably wouldn't be a long term diet though. Sort of like expecting a wolf to live of vegetables alone.

Hehe... hypoaspis are tiny little wolves XD