Tea bathing?

[Deleted]

Hi,

I noticed some small white bugs crawling around in my snail's dirt. I didn't think much of it because there are small organisms living in the soil that breakdown rotting food. Sometimes I don't even take it out, I just bury it and when I dig, the food is gone.

1. Could they be harmful to my lovelies?

2. Are the little white things mites?

3. How effective is tea bathing?

4. What if I used chamomile for them to bathe in?

5. Does it matter what tea?

[etana]

1 & 2 - we need to identify the bugs. There are many white little guys who are harmless and only want old food and snail poop.

Put your finger near a bug. Does it jump away? If yes, it's definitely a beneficial springtail.
Do they gather in the bath tub and float around like a weird bug raft? If yes, that's springtail behaviour too, even if they're not big on jumping.
If it's a no to both, it could still be harmless. Next questions:
Do they ever run over the snails? If yes, do they appear lost or sort of unaware it's a snail, or are they determined and go fast in zig zag patterns around the foot and in and out of the breathing hole?

3, 4 and 5, very dilute green tea bathing is done by some members here to soothe snails who have mites and hopefully help get rid of them. cliath and Zorst can maybe tell you more details, it's been so long since I last did it that I don't dare to advise you.

[Deleted]

I tried getting close to one of them and it jumped (scared me half to death). I looked at my snails but it doesn't appear that anything is crawling on them. I guess the bugs are just spring tails?

[etana]

Yeah, mites are incapable of jumping, so your guy was a springtail.