*MITES* - Apologies for Repetition of Thread

[lucyjames]

Hi All,

I have been reading up all the info and stuff on mites - and I figure that in most cases you can *see* them.... which I can't...

But I have found out that since getting Hattie and Bernie, the person that I got them from *DOES* have a mite infestation amongst her snails, and so I am guessing that mine probably do too...

So, my question is (before sending in the predator mites) what else can I do....

I was silly and bathed my poorly boy and his sister (the two that came from the place with mites) with my other 3, so probably spread them around, if they do in fact have them...

Luckily, I am getting my new viv soon so I can start again with most of the snails...

Microwaving the moss - I have dry packaged moss - do I wet it *THEN* microwave it, or microwave it dry...? How long for?

I also have the lucky reptile humus bricks - do I wet that then microwave, or microwave that in it's brick form?

Presumably I can boil all their decorations...?


Anything else that I can do.... I am not sure if I have them as I havent ever seen them, but am thinking that, like on rats, any kind of mite spreads quickly and can go undetected for a while...

Is there anything I can bathe the snails in to help...? Green tea or some kind of tea with antibactirial action... ?

I wonder now if my Bernie was so retracted becasue of mites, and in coming to me perhaps with new substrate and stuff may have helped a little, and thats why he improved a tad...

The person I got Hattie and Bernie from has lost alot of snails recently, so now I am panicking

Help

[birdie]

I think i saw a little white spot walking on one of my fulica today. I took all of them, cleaned their terrarium and gave them a bathe but i didn't see anything more than pieces of cuttlebone...I'll update you but I would need some advices because i have no idea about how to take predators so if it is mites i'll need assistance

[muddydragon]

ok for microwaving dampen it first! microwaves work by exciting water molecules so wont be terribly effective if not wet - however it should excite molecules in nasty critters and kill them off too among other things... as for remptile humus bricks, they should be sterile anyway but again if you really want to microwave it get it in the damp form first. (im not exaclty sure what happens if it is dry when you microwave it i've just been told (by physicists/chesmists) its not wise....)
as for how long for that depends on how much etc, just watch it make sure it doesnt boil or get too hot, the sterilising action is the microwaves exciting water molecules in the nasty critters resulting in them exploding! rather than the temperature of the surrounding stuff cooking them , a few blasts should do it. (you can always take the substrate out of the tank and microwave it again to sterilise more frequently than you would change the substrate)
asuming the decorations wont melt boil away
i've heard good things about green tea but never tried it.
bathing them regularly and seperatly should help
fortunatly i saw mites under the cucumber of some of my snails a while back early on, but non on the snails but went into steralise/bath/wash everything and i havent seem them since.
i think others will be more helpful on the mite dealing with front than I.

[kanin]

If you suspect you have snail mites I think it could be good to do the whole routine just in case; Changing substrate and plants, freezing and/or boiling details, bathing snails and adding hypoaspis as it will save you alot of trouble in the future as the hypoaspis can be present for months fending of any mites that find their way into your tanks. I like to keep my snails in large rainforrest terrarium with lots of plants and authentic enviroments and as it's quite expensive to throw all out and replace I add hypoaspis when I found a new tank and then once half a year to make sure there will not be any major infestations. I do this as I have a major interest in flora aswell as fauna and to me the tank is just as interesting as it's inhabitants. however the hyposapis are expensive so if you, like me, have limited funding you could skip them untill you actually see some as it's possible that your snails are ok. Usually you dont see any negative effect of a mite infestation untill theres a lot of them. The way they hurt the sail is that they suck blood from it like lice. This can quikly hurt young snails and larger ones can cope for quite a while. They can also increase the ratio of how fast diseases spread through your tanks as they spend most their time in the substate and not on the snail itself and thus wandering from snail to snail spreading any bloodbearing diseases that you might get into your tanks.

[kanin]

Oh, one more thing. About bernie, it's possible he has retracted to escape the mites as it's common that they do so when they are getting weakened by the infestation. It is possible that bernie is hiding some mites as they can survive for a while, aswell lay eggs, inside the snail. entering through the airhole. Bathing may help but the surest way would be hypoaspis as they go in after the mites and will destroy any eggs or nymphs quite quickly as they kill a lot more than they eat. The ratio a hypoaspis depleates the mite infestation is that one hypospis eat 0,5 mites a day but kill multiple more and they can quickly erradicate any eggclutches and groups of nymphs.

[birdie]

i cleaned and everything but what are that things eating mites?

[kanin]

Hypoaspis is a predatory mite that eat other mites but dont harm to host animal and is used commonly on most terrarium pets. If you ever would need any I buy mine from Lindesro AB, think their website is predator.se. Note that this is a swedish distributer so it's pretty much just birdie who can use this site. I think the site to use in the uk is Defenders.co.uk

[birdie]

thank you very much i go on checking my fulica but i don't see anything walking