mites - let me get this clear......

[treeze]

Hi

I am new to snail keeping, and have had my 2 for about 4 months now. They are eating well and growing like mad. I use coir as a substrate.

I have recently noticed little white thinggies which are a bit wriggly, about 2mm long. I have read the other posts on mites and from what I can can gather these are the larvae of the sciarid fly.

So what I need to get clear is:

1. is that right?
2. are they harmful?
3. how do I get rid? Hypoapsis? If so, how can you make sure the hypoapsis don't go awol when you clean the tank out?
4. Where do the mites actually come from? I didn't have any at first.
5. Where can you get hypoapsis if that is the correct solution to the problem?

Obviously I clean my tank regularly, and bathe the snails, but they are still around, often in the water bowl. Frankly, they give me the creeps, and that picture on the other post will probably give me nightmares!!

Thanks in anticipation
T

[Arno]

If they have blackish heads then these are the larvae and not harmful but very annoying once they become flies.Mites are something different.Cleaning out any excess food will help preventing the problem.They can come from houseplants for example.Hypoapsis mites will help,you will loose some if you clean the tank out but a few will always stay behind.
Here's is one adress in the UK where you can find them:
www.bio.scarletts.co.uk/Sciarid_Fly.html. But look it up on Google and you should find more as I find the prices a bit steep on that site.

[Paul]

It sounds to me like they are worms, and not fly larvae. They are likely to be nematodes that eat vegetable matter. They get onto the snails and then come off in the water bowl. If you look at the food in your tank after it has been there for a day, you may see it shimmering. The worms multiply fast but can be incredibly tiny. Have a look at the threads about nematode worms in this section.

If the problem is worms....

The trouble is that there doesn't seem to be any way to eliminate them entirely. No matter how well you clean you will not get them because some get stuck in the mucus of the snail and can be seen swimming in it, if you have a good magnifying glass. No doubt these then get transferred to food and the process starts again.

They seem harmless to snails unless they are encountered in large numbers and it seems mainly smaller species are affected most. I don't think they attack the snails in any way, I think they just irritate them into sealing up and not eating. There are nematodes that are harmful to snails, some that are used in organic gardening and as some can survive 48 hours in a total state of dessication and be revived by water I wouldn't rule them out as a threat to snails. But if you find them in the food bowl, they are vegetable eaters and just very annoying. You may also see trails up the side of the tank where they have climbed.

Hypoaspis have been shown to eat nematodes, but as Hypoaspis live in the top inch of soil, they'll never get them all. I would suggest putting a minimal layer of soil down to assist the Hypoaspis should you choose to try them. They also don't seem to like venturing on to food being eaten by the worms. Cleaning the snails vigorously, putting them in a clean tank, with a very fine layer of soil, and releasing loads of hypoaspis may be the answer, because I imagine the hypoaspis would do a good job, but it only takes one fertilised worm to start it over again.

Until someone has a major success, we have to try to keep their numbers down. You can do this a number of ways:

Place all food in dishes, change regularly.

Remove food from the soil as you find it.

Increase ventilation in your tank if the species you keep allows it.

Keep one end of the tank dryer than the other and place your food dish there. This will discourage nematodes in the soil from reaching it.

Shower/bathe your snails at key times; when you do a full clean, to limit the spread.

Add competing organisms like normal worms, woodlice etc.

Add predators like Hypoaspis with a very shallow layer of soil.

Hypoaspis are tricky because you will get rid of a lot if you change the soil often. They do survive and breed so long as there is prey for them.

It is likely the nematode worms arrived on food or snails you have received. Some are so tiny they would never be spotted. I suspect this problem is more common than is reported, simply because they are so easily missed.

[teresa]

paul i have mites in my margie and suturalis tanks but the ones i have are all white small and have legs they crawl all up the glass i am having problems trying to get rid of them, have you any idea what they are , if they are harmful , and how to get rid of them, any help or info would be good.

[treeze]

Thanks for your help, but how can I tell the difference between harmful mites and non-harmful white larvae? I can't see a head or anything they just look like tiny little white threads of cotton about 2mm long, and they are often on the snails too.

Treeze

[Paul]

From your description they sound like worms rather than mites. Mites are like tiny spiders, fly larvae are maggots so they taper from one end to the other, neither of which sound like yours.

The only way to determine if the worms are harmful or not is to look where they congregate the most. If you find them in the food dish in large numbers, they are not likely to be harmful. If you find them in faeces they could be parasitic.

Teresa....

Yours sound like one of two things, mites or springtails. If they are round they are mites, if they are elongated they could be springtails, though I'm not sure how well springtails can climb. In any case, the way to get rid of either of them is by using Hypoaspis miles predatory mites. Have a look through this section, there are loads of threads on dealing with mites. If they are mites then the chances are they are parasitic mites that suck blood from the snail, so large numbers can be problematic.

[treeze]

Thanks for your help Paul. This is a huge help. Looking at your post to Teresa (also my name so I was a bit confused there!) I wondered if the white things were springtails. Used my kids' microscope. They are long with some (6 or 7?) segments and legs. Also when I was trying to catch them I noticed that they did jump around so I guess that is what they are. Can you confirm that this is likely? Are they actually dangerous to the snails?

[Paul]

Springtails look like this:




and often look like this...



...on dark surfaces and like this...



...on light surfaces.

Yours do sound like this if they are jumping. They aren't harmful in any way, they simply breed fast because they have no enemies in the tank to keep numbers down. A thorough clean out can get rid of them. And I can confirm that Hypoaspis do eat these, I've tried it.

[teresa]

thanks paul they are the white ones in the second pic, i will get some of the mites you are talking about and hopefully i can get rid of them

[treeze]

Yuk!

Thing these must be them. The one in my microscope did not have antennae but then he was slightly squashed! Can you recommend a supplier for hypo that's not too pricey?

[Paul]

The best place I have found is:

www.defenders.co.uk/sciarid_fly_control.htm

at £9.99 for 10000.

You just can't get less, and I have enquired at a number of places. I've actually been working on a mites pages for the problems section and it's coming along. I intend to keep a colony alive to see how viable it is. I just wanted Christmas out of the way because I was up to my eyeballs in work at the end of last year.