sallyg
Achatina fulica
Posts: 2
|
Post by sallyg on Dec 16, 2019 14:53:46 GMT
Like other posts I've read my babies are crawling with mites I washed them off and am about to transfer them into their new des res. But can anyone tell me if I have to throw out my woodlice who reside with the snails quite happily when I change their substrate?
|
|
|
|
Post by morningcoffee on Dec 18, 2019 13:23:49 GMT
Like other posts I've read my babies are crawling with mites I washed them off and am about to transfer them into their new des res. But can anyone tell me if I have to throw out my woodlice who reside with the snails quite happily when I change their substrate? If the snails have harmful mites (Riccardoella) then just washing the snails is not enough to get rid of them. You will need Hypoaspis miles predatory mites to fully get rid of them. Here's a good video of Riccardoella mites on a slug: www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-cd7GG2mEMIf the mites don't look and move like this, then they are probably something else and not harmful. Sometimes harmless bugs like springtails will congregate in snail tanks and can be mistaken for harmful mites. Keeping the woodlice should be OK but if you do have a Riccardoella infestation you will need to treat it properly anyway. |
|
sallyg
Achatina fulica
Posts: 2
|
Post by sallyg on Dec 19, 2019 10:29:57 GMT
Thank you I played the video and my 'mites' don't look like those, mine are much smaller and you can't see any 'feet'. They move around quickly and can be difficult to see but if any of the snails sleep on the floor then they get infested. They don't seem to worry about them; I do the worrying! Anyway they do seem to like the shower they get when I'm bug drowning  |
|
|
|
Post by morningcoffee on Dec 19, 2019 11:46:57 GMT
Thank you I played the video and my 'mites' don't look like those, mine are much smaller and you can't see any 'feet'. They move around quickly and can be difficult to see but if any of the snails sleep on the floor then they get infested. They don't seem to worry about them; I do the worrying! Anyway they do seem to like the shower they get when I'm bug drowning That sounds OK then, they are probably harmless bugs and not snail mites. Sometimes if there's excessive numbers of them in a tank they seem to get a bit "annoying" for the snails, which happened to me occasionally when I had African snails, so if they start to explode in numbers then washing the snails and changing most of the substrate (always mix some of the old in with the new) would be fine to reduce their numbers. |
|
