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Post by seasalad on Jun 25, 2021 11:56:26 GMT
Hello, I'm rather new to snail keeping but my snail seemed to be doing well so far. However, the last couple of days, I have noticed these little black insects crawling on my snail's food, body and shell! Is there anything I can do to get rid of them? I can't use pesticide and I've heard that clearing out substrate completely is bad for the snail. Please do help if you can. I have attached pictures here and  ci  rcled where the bugs are for clarity. |
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Post by morningcoffee on Jun 25, 2021 12:01:28 GMT
Hello, I'm rather new to snail keeping but my snail seemed to be doing well so far. However, the last couple of days, I have noticed these little black insects crawling on my snail's food, body and shell! Is there anything I can do to get rid of them? I can't use pesticide and I've heard that clearing out substrate completely is bad for the snail. Please do help if you can. I have attached pictures here and ci rcled where the bugs are for clarity. These are some type of soil mite that's almost impossible to avoid getting in your tank at some point. They are harmless to the snails but might get annoying in significant enough numbers. You can reduce their numbers by changing the soil and mixing in some of the old soil to maintain the soil flora, however it's very difficult to get rid of them totally. You could try using Hypoaspis miles predatory mites if you really wanted to be rid of them, however this is expensive and the soil mites are likely to come back in the future anyway. |
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Post by seasalad on Jun 25, 2021 12:10:12 GMT
Hello, I'm rather new to snail keeping but my snail seemed to be doing well so far. However, the last couple of days, I have noticed these little black insects crawling on my snail's food, body and shell! Is there anything I can do to get rid of them? I can't use pesticide and I've heard that clearing out substrate completely is bad for the snail. Please do help if you can. I have attached pictures here and ci rcled where the bugs are for clarity. These are some type of soil mite that's almost impossible to avoid getting in your tank at some point. They are harmless to the snails but might get annoying in significant enough numbers. You can reduce their numbers by changing the soil and mixing in some of the old soil to maintain the soil flora, however it's very difficult to get rid of them totally. You could try using Hypoaspis miles predatory mites if you really wanted to be rid of them, however this is expensive and the soil mites are likely to come back in the future anyway. Thank you very much for the reply. This is quite a relief for me, as long as they aren't hurting my snail! Since there aren't that many in the tank, I think I will just do a soil change as you suggested, with a bit of old soil left over. Your advice is greatly appreciated. |
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Post by SuspiciousBagel on Jun 26, 2021 7:26:33 GMT
Oh no! I hate those. They've been in my tank since I first got snails and are the most persistent little things. I can say I have put in Hypoasis mites and it's seemingly decreased their numbers but yes, I don't think it'll ever permanently get rid of them.
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