Mite Identification?

[section8angel]

Well I have bug things again. I thought when I first looked that there were 3 different ones - these, some tick like thing (that looked like a tick without being up close, not like that these that look like them only up close) and a fly thing - but I could only see these just now.

These are all from the shell of my panthera, but everyone else seems to have them too.
Sorry for so many pics, I didn't know which were the best ones. They're not all from one main pic either, so there isn't millions and millions on him. There is at least 8 or so though.

They're about 2mm I think. Might even be less, I suck with measurements lol. To my eyes they look really light. Maybe a brownish. I'll have to have another look later.









and here you can pick them out on the shell


I think these are the same ones that I had that time before, and that appeared in with the 2nd batch of eggs.
I don't think they've got to the baby tanks, I will be keeping an eye on them though. I'm hoping it's just the tanks with coir in but if they're the same ones as before, nothing is safe

[sezzy5889]

i saw one of these in my margie tank the other day but just the one and i squished it

its hard to tell a colour without putting some onto a plain peice of paper a they can be translucent and colour shows through...

[section8angel]

That's why I said I'd look again later.

I just did, and they are a lightish brown. Can't get any pics of them on paper though, the flash makes them dissapear and no flash wont focus.

[Paul]

Those mites really look like Hypoaspis:



which are predator mites. They eat the mites you commonly find on snails and slugs. They are quite large for mites, and red/brown in colour. The harmful ones, including Riccardoella are usually very small and white, and look like dots moving around, they drink the blood of the snail.

I've used Hypoaspis to kill off the other type, and they didn't harm my snails. I'd suggest you take/send some to your local council pest dept. for identification. If they are Hypoaspis they're doing you and your snails a favour, by eating any harmful mites, nematodes, springtails etc. In fact, they will tackle anything of similar size and sometimes a little larger.

What is odd about this, is that a long time after using the hypoaspis mites, I'd cleaned my tanks out umpteen times, changes the soil etc, I found some like the ones you are describing. How they'd survived I don't know, but I assumed a few had continued to live in and around the snails, and perhaps with an increase in their food, they multiplied to proportions where I could spot them. They can last for about 2-3 months on decaying vegetable matter so it isn't beyond the realms of possibility. Unfortunately I have since bought some more Hypoaspis to tackle those nematodes, so I can't tell which is which, but under 20x magnification, they look the same to me.

If you want an easier way to be sure, here is a suggestion. Find a wild slug because they're always crawling with blood-sucking mites, and keep it in a container, with lots of these types of mites. Give it a few days to a week and then check your slug. If the small, harmful mites have disappeared then your larger, brown mites have eaten them and in that case I'm 99% sure they pose no risk to the snails and in fact are extremely beneficial.

Incidentally, the harmful Riccardoella look like this:

[sezzy5889]

Wow Sian do that slug idea, and if they are predator mites, you can send me a few lol

[section8angel]

Ewwwwwwww @ that last pic. Ok that is gross. *Shudder*

Oh wow, having some Hypoaspis would be great!! lol. I'll try and do both things you suggested, send some off and find a slug (bleugh lol).

They must have come in from me, 'cause I wash everything else I put in the tanks. Unless they're good in water?

I've taken everyone but Korben and the fulica out of their own tanks and put them into another together on just matting, I'll keep them like that and wash them off, but wont touch the tanks until I find out for sure what these are.

Lol don't worry Sarah, if they are Hypoaspis everyone can have some!! I know they're helpful but I want as few as possible thanks

I'll also try and get a better close up pic, my dad has a magnifying glass so I'll see what pics I can get using that. The main feeler things or whatever look too long to be Riccardoella though, so that's good.

[section8angel]

Ok no slugs tonight. It's Arnos fault!! He told them to run away and they did. Or should that be slime away? lol.

I've ordered one of those magnifyers you bought and posted about Paul. The one my dad has wasn't much good for something that small (works great for comp stuff though lol)

All the snails I moved have been washed, they all seemed to enjoy it too lol. I'll keep looking for a slug, and somewhere to send some mites too. Couldn't find anything helpful on our council sites, local or county

Oh and I caught one of the mites on my yellow sticky fly paper and measured it, it's 1mm.

[section8angel]

Right as said in another thread, it seems to just be in the tanks with coir but I've cleaned out the two that had matting and moss in just in case as they're my bubba tanks.

I've checked the "quarantined" lot today to see if any mites stayed on them and they haven't. It was like that last time with whatever they were, one wash and they were gone. But I will keep checking them in case they're hiding.

The tanks are still being left alone till I can find out for sure what these are, so don't panic I'm not killing all the potential good mites lol

[LisaLQ]

This thread has helped me loads. White dots running around on some of my snails identified. Harmful ones. Just my luck.

[Paul]

I'd definitely keep an eye on them, as they are known to hide and congregate in the highest numbers within the breathing hole.

[section8angel]

Ewww.

Is that all mites or just the bad ones? 'cause I only saw one on a body yesterday, and it was one that I thought was something different. All of these possible Hypoaspis were only on the shells.
One even came onto my finger while I was holding Jose, but it quickly went back onto the shell!

[Paul]

The Riccardoella do congregate there, it's the primary place they suck blood from the snail.

The Hypoaspis will go inside the breathing hole looking for prey but they don't live there. But that is the beauty of these useful mites, because they pick the snail clean. I received a snail with the small white mites, and they were multiplying fast, even after clean-outs and baths. So I bought the Hypoaspis, cleaned the snails out again to give the Hypoaspis a huge advantage in numbers and set them free. And I've never seen any of those small mites since.

[Paul]

I'm gonna be buying some more Hypoaspis soon, coz I found a lonely nematode again after the last batch. Unfortunately, due to going away for a week, the remaining mites weren't used and they died so I never got chance to put an end to the worms once and for all although I am pretty certain they helped a lot.

And for £10 it's worth a shot to rid myself of them completely seeing as nothing else seems to help. I mean, they may not work 100%, I can't be sure without knowing what species the worms are.

Anyway, the point is, I'd be willing to send a few mites out to anyone who really needs them. Basically if anyone wants some, you can send me a S.A.E with a film case in, I'll send some back. PM me and let me know if you want any. Obviously, I'll have a limited number so I may not be able to supply everyone, we'll have to see, but I'm certainly willing to send some spare out.

[section8angel]

So would a lack of them in the breathing holes be another case for them being "good" mites?
I'll carry on checking the snails, and I'll keep them in the spare tub until I've sorted the others out.

I just have to find a slug now I still can't find anything helpful about our local pest department.

I hope you manage get rid of the worms

[Paul]

section8angel said:

I've ordered one of those magnifyers you bought and posted about Paul. The one my dad has wasn't much good for something that small (works great for comp stuff though lol)

Fantastic buy, mine cost only £4 inc. p&p!! You'll be able to help me with species determinations ;D

Be prepared to see things on the snails you didn't think were possible. You'll be able to see the texture, or lack of, of the nepionic whorls, the mucus streaming from glands (particularly active on Lignus, in fact incredibly so, it looks like they are pulsating.) You'll definitely be able to inspect the mites up close and obviously tiny nematodes become just visible. Not that you want to see them, particularly on the mantle of a snail, but better to know than not to know. I keep using it to check the health and condition of my snails and I've really been able to deal with the problems.

The hard thing is getting enough light, a spot lamp works well and I'll give you one other piece of advice to stop you getting eye strain like I was. Rather than shut one eye and strain through the other...

put your dominant eye up to the lens, with your other eye shut. Focus on what your looking at and you can open your other eye, and your dominant eye will have took over. It makes using it a doddle.

I spent the first few hours wandering around looking at everything up close. Weird... ;D

Still not inspected my carpets or bed though, coz I'd rather not see what I know is there lol. And when you consider on average 25% of the weight of a pillow is bedbugs and faeces , it's no wonder.

[Paul]

section8angel said:

So would a lack of them in the breathing holes be another case for them being "good" mites?

I don't know, I never observed the smaller white mites in the breathing hole, because i didn't have the lens and even with it, you can't focus inside the hole.

Plus, there are probably hundreds of thousands of mite species in this country so I couldn't tell you what they are. They'd probably have to inspected at x50-x500 to differentiate for an expert. That's why the slug test is useful.

The good thing about predator mites is that they breed when prey is plentiful and dwindle when it's not. I'm not sure if that sheds much light, but if you've been having problems with flies and gnats, which I seem to remember you were, it may explain their appearance. Fungus gnat larvae are the main food for the commerical species Hypoaspis miles, although all Hypoaspis are predators anyway. And in my experience they'll take on anything. There are videos of them tackling allsorts on the net if you look for them.

If they did turn out to be Hypoaspis, or other predator mites for that matter, who knows how you ended up with them, they just get around I suppose. I know some mites like spider mites can travel on air currents! People with plants may have come across those so they'll know they can just get in somehow. I'm just thinking that it only takes a few to survive in your tank, suddenly flies get in and lay eggs and the hypoaspis population explodes. There breeding cycle is quick though if I remember right, something like a week, so within a short space of time they can reproduce rapidly if food is plentiful.

[section8angel]

LOL it's Paul the hyper snail researcher
Yep that's what mine cost, I found the link you posted and the seller is still selling them ;D (And now Arno wants one rofl)

I have some daylight bulbs that are lovely and bright so hopefully they'll work well. I really have no idea which of my eyes is better, they're both pretty rubbish without my glasses on so I'll have to try and find out which is best lol.

Nope I don't want to see the bad bugs, but yeah it will be good to know lol.

The fungus gnats have gone from the tanks as far as I know, chiffon is on all the lids and I haven't seen any in the tanks for ages, I have spotted the odd few in my room still though. If the mites appeared because of them then they went a bit over kill lol. Loads of mites to only a few gnats!

I have been growing my own seeds and have put some of them in the tanks, I also bought some small plants and one of those has been put in. Maybe it was from them.

Do you know how quickly they will die out without food? With the snails not being in the tanks there obviously wont be food in there, and I don't want them dieing out without finding out what they are. I'll just have to remember to put some scraps of fruit and/or veg in there.

[Paul]

They'll eat rotting vegetable matter, and apparently they can survive for 2-3 months, but I don't know if that is individually or as a large group that is dwindling. But from my own observations they do last well in humidity. You're not meant to disturb the soil much, and I didn't know that and went mad and they still survived, though I know I killed a lot off. They live in the top inch or so of the soil.

They're a perfect solution in many ways, although I think more experiences are needed to be conclusive. But for an animal that is so sensitive to everything, and with no vet treatment available for them, these mites are a snail owners best friend. Trouble is you have to buy 10000 at a time! I had a word to try and convince them to break them down into small tubs for reptile and invert owners but they get them from a larger manufacturer because they're for organic gardening on a reasonably large scale.

I considered trying to keep a population but that's impossible because you need to feed them somehow so you'd be giving people soil with all sorts in. If only the eggs could be kept in stasis so to speak, and you buy a sachet and sprinkle when needed. More research is needed I think, coz not that much is available. If they turn out to be practical and are proven to actually work really well, we could eliminate a lot of common problems and that's to the benefit of the snails for health reasons and our sanity.

[section8angel]

I'll chuck some stuff in and see what happens. I'll leave the soil alone too. They're in 5 tanks anyway, so at least if I kill any there will still be more!

Keeping the eggs in a sachet would be handy, like brine shrimp etc. Just hatch them when you need them!

Going back to the magnifyer, when I was trying to get photos of these mites the other day I was using my macro mode and I got a really close up pic of Freddies skin. It was so weird to see it that close so god knows what it'll look like at 20x lol

Thanks so much for the pillow info, I'll sleep much better now rofl. I know there are dustmites, but I choose to ignore lol.

[Paul]

Yeah, I thought I'd share that wonderful piece of info with you

[section8angel]

Ever so kind of you I wont ask for any more pearls of wisdom just in case it involves something I love more than my bed, my food LOL

I found a slug, but it's so small I'll have to wait 'till the magnifyer arrives to see if there's any little bad mites on it It's only about 2cm lol and it's light, so that doesn't help!

Does every single slug have bad mites on? Or is it just the majority?

I might let this one go and try and find a bigger, darker one. Knowing my luck this one is healthy lol

[Paul]

Most large slugs I have seen have them, usually just 2 or 3 running all over it. Not seen the same on small ones, and that could be because of the size of the mantle possibly? But either way, they should be visible with the naked eye.

[section8angel]

I'll put this one back then and try and find a dark biggun. Being visible with the naked eye turns into not visable at all when it's white/light dots on a really light body and it's my eyes lol.

Back to slug hunting it is then! Hmm which of our plants do the sods normally go for...

[LisaLQ]

Would these mites sort out the white worms and the mites? I've just found my fulica tub have got mites really badly, they're moving into a new tank tonight, and I'll have to keep it bare to make sure they're gone. But in my big viv, I found 2 mites on one of the little margies, none elsewhere - so I want to sort it out before it gets worse.

So if you do get some predatory mites, and they do help both problems, I'd be interested. And what kind of set up is best - moss, compost, etc? Any other small bugs which help?

[section8angel]

I hope you get yours sorted Lisa.

My magnifyer arrived this morning ;D Just had a look at my pantheras skin and shell, was well cool lol. Still getting used to it though so I haven't managed a bug close up yet. Looking at the one I've got stuck to the fly paper doesn't work well 'cause the light reflects off the yellow

I also just checked everyone in the quarantine tank and there's still no mites on them, yay! Will keep checking though. I'm checking them at least 3 times a day lol
The mites are still in the tanks, I took some soil out of one of them to try and look at the mites close up and there were at least 3 I saw. I'll put the veggies in later to try and keep them going.

Paul, you said about disturbing the soil killed some of them, if these turn out to be bad mites would disturbing the soil kill them too? I can stir it up however many times would be needed to kill them lol.
I'm just trying to find an easy way to deal with them in case they are bad ones. Taking everything out and cleaning it all is gonna be a real big pain. Obviously I'll do it if I have to, but easier options are very welcome lol.


On a random note but still bug related - I have baby woodlice too!! Yippee! ;D I saw 2 in the soil I took out to check. Don't know how my worms are doing though.