dattofish Posted May 19, 2013 Report Share Posted May 19, 2013 I just checked my colony this morning an noticed heaps of tiny little white dots crawling around the container.. iv tryed researching about it an sounds like bran/oat mites or something? an its to do with the moisture. has anyone experinced this before.. what do i do to get rid of them? an do i need to throw out the entire culture? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted May 19, 2013 Report Share Posted May 19, 2013 viewtopic.php?f=40&t=62495&p=677180&hilit=mites#p677180 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dattofish Posted May 19, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 19, 2013 yup understand that much but do i need to throw out the whole colony or what? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henward Posted May 19, 2013 Report Share Posted May 19, 2013 unfortunatey, the culture is kinda screwed. I find that the culture that has heaps of beetles and large hungry mealworms will be fine, they CAN eat the mites and win the battle. but small mealies will get overwhelmed. you are better to chuck it away. OR if you wanna salvage it, put it somewhere where the temp is 28 to 30c constant mights will die. other than that - nothing you can do avoiding the mite to begine with is the key. heat, mights don't like high heat. but mostly, don't over moisten the culture. itsa touch balance, not enough mlisture and MW eat each othe, too much mite come. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabid Posted May 19, 2013 Report Share Posted May 19, 2013 I wonder if any of these parasitoid insects would help? http://www.bioforce.net.nz/products.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monzae Posted May 23, 2013 Report Share Posted May 23, 2013 My colony seemed to have dust mites, I just moved my mealworm tank to another location (though yes I use a 50 litre fish tank for mine :bggrn: ) and the mites have since dissapeared, within a day in fact haha. At the moment I am just leaving all my beatles and worms together and just moving the cocoons.. kind of just being too lazy to separate them lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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