I love that new keepers can just listen to videos like this after veteran keepers did all the hard work for everyone. Props to people that give effort to spread helpful facts in this hobby.
As a new owner myself I wasn’t where to start. Finding these videos have helped a lot an have brought up things I did t even known I should be looking for. I’m thankful that so many people are willing to share their knowledge so I can provide the best care I can for my Ts.
I woke up this morning with about 50 mites in my B. boehmei’s water bowl. Then upon looking closer to my other Ts I noticed they had a few as well. I was so scared all of my babies were sick! Thank you for posting this, I appreciate all the effort you put in your videos.
If this video came out a day ago, Literally yesterday about the same time I found mites in my Geniculatas water dish so I Imediately took her out and cleaned the enclosure. Anyways keep up the great work bro ;D
Mites are not just arthropods, but arachnids (and not insects unlike said at the beginning). I'm currently compiling research on mites associated with scorpions and tarantulas, and except for this oversight, this was a pretty good vid ! The FB post linked in the description doesn't work anymore sadly. Another subtilies is that many mites maybe be photeric or free living as adult, and parasites in their juvenile stages.
RICHARD I HAVE THESE TINY BLACK BUGS NOT JUST in the enclosure but also crawling all over her like fleas. She is constantly kicking at them and trying to get out of her cage. I have put her into three enclosures with only paper towels as substrate. I also washed out the enclosures with scalding hot water and then put them into the freezer. She seems to be doing ok for now but now I find these things in the kitchen and bathroom sinks. They move so fast its unbelievable. My tarantula hasn't eaten since this started. She was so exhausted her legs were folded up under her. My entire house is infested and I'm afraid the spider is going to die from stress. I don't know what to do.
From research I have done, springtails will also outcompete mites for food/resources and the mites will eventually leave/die off too. I had a massive outbreak of soil mites in my isopod enclosures. I increased the number of springtails in their enclosures and also used tape to get mites that were crawling around on the sides of the enclosures. This combination has worked to bring the mite population at least down to smaller levels. :)
I bought a scolopendra sp earlier in the year at a expo. After having it for about a month I fed it on camera and found parasite mites on its legs and near the holes where it breaths, on the sides of its body. I've had many different types of harmless mites, but this was a little stressful. I separated it out of the spider room, then bought some predatory mites. I ended up sprinkling a little bit in all 100+ enclosures. I haven't seen them again after 2 doses a week apart.
Thank you, that was an incredibly valuable service to the community! I’ve even heard that the dangers of parasitic mites are exaggerated, as they draw very small amounts of hemolymph, and they can’t effectively be bred in captivity, even by those that have TRIED, because of their complicated life cycles (which are still poorly understood). Have you done another video on mold? That’s another exaggerated threat, I believe.
I think mold is more of a threat to the keepers than the tarantula/invertebrate ince our respiratory systems can be harmed by the spores. Plus mold is unsigntly lol
Whew!! Thank goodness. Being new to the hobby, I was worried after seeing a couple tiny mites crawling around in my slings enclosure! Thank you for this info, you've eased my worries. Oh, and I love the shirt!!! Subscribed!
Great information! I am a PhD student who studies insects (we use Drosophila as our model organism). Mites are a big concern in the lab since they can cause damage to the flies. So it was always something I was worried about but I have been reading up on them/watching vids like this and a lot of my fears have gone away.
This has been sooooooo helpful! I currently have 20 tarantulas and have noticed mites in two of my tanks. I commonly see them in my isopod colonies, but first time I have seen them in my tarantula enclosures. Love all this information and how it was presented. Definitely following closely from now on!
Thank you very much, I was really worried since suddenly I observed mites in the water bowl, therefore I panicked a bit, in addition to all the exaggerations I readed on the forum, now with this video I am more calm, I just change the bowl of water almost daily to empty the mites and I let my only two affected terrariums dry out a bit. A certain positive point is that there were not only mites, I also found springtails, so that will have them better controlled
Thank you!! I've been stressing over my spiders with grain mites and this has helped me control my wild mind and think rationally about slowly getting rid of them.
We just rehoused our new p.metallica and noticed mites in its little enclosure. I came straight to your channel to see how much we had to worry about it. Thank you for easing this newbies mind.
I saw a little tiny white one walking across the wall of the enclosure. I couldn’t see any others although I’m sure they are there. This video put me at peace. Thank you x
I am that new keeper that decided to raise my own superworms and found grain mites all over one enclosure and one shelf the superworms were on! I FREAKED and my husband FREAKED and like you said, we went to drastic measures to clean them out. We literally took the entire bookshelf outside. Changed substrate after cleaning enclosures. It was crazy and then I found out what they were and was STILL GLAD we did all that. LMAO! No more raising superworms for me! I live in South Florida and now have an discoid roach colony and have made a few bucks with those roaches! ;)
I'm a new tarantula owner, i have a Brazilian Pink Bloom, i have her in a 20 gallon terrarium and i was never told anything about mites being in the substrate, thank you for making this video, it's just what i needed!!!!
Just wanted to say thank you for this video! First time ever getting wood mites in my tarantulas terrarium and I was freaking out! This video really helped me! I got some springtails, let the terrarium dry a bit, and it’s been looking great! Tysm for all the informative videos!
Really helpful. I'd noticed some soil mites in some of my enclosures, and it helped a lot to be able to see the difference between those and harmful mites.
Valuable Info. I'm having Mites in the breeding Box of my Megasoma acteon Grubs. At First I was worried, but now I think they're Kind of symbiotic. But if they'll get out of Hand I'll try these predatory Mites as You recommended. So...Thanks.
Im a new Scorpion owner and 2 weeks in i just noticed a large amount of "bugs" moving around. took out my macro lenses to take some videos for a close up look and after some research on google image and eventually this video, i now can rest easy knowing its just a harmless mite. Thank you for all of your efforts in educating us with your videos!
thanks Richard i needed this video ive got mites in my millipedes tank ive have done research and gathered they were not actually harm full to them but youve made me a lot more confident and less worried
I got the same issue, my ivory millipedes keep rubbing against cork and the sides of the enclosure, so I’m worried they are bad mites and causing stress to them. Yet I can’t actually see any mites on them just the glass.
i was actually worried that tarantulas were somehow super sensitive to mites because of the mass hysteria. I was thinking if i can even place the enclosure in the same room as my bio active feeder colonies. Thanks for clearing that up 😅
I just had one die and it was coated in mites. Panic cleaned the cage next to it because I saw a large number in that one after closer inspection. 😂 proceed to me panic researching to find out if I needed to buy new substrate before finding some helpful material
Great video man!!! Very insightful 🙃I feel like familiarizing myself with helpful details is a great way to stay updated on possibilities good or bad. 😎
I found some mites after leaving a bit of food in for a little too long. I wasn’t panicking, but they are definitely non dangerous mites. I also found some springtails in the same enclosure. I have also noticed fewer issues with mold in this slightly damp enclosure so maybe this is a blessing in disguise.
Thank you so much for this video I was just checking on my T’s for the night and my daughter called me over to my pink toe that I bought from a local exotic pet store with the already bio enclosure set up so I didn’t think to much about it but anywho she called me over to her enclosure and showed the smallest of little roundish bugs I’ve seen and I’m so glad I came directly to your channel because you have been a heavenly sent to T’s community lol so I knew you would have a video of mites and I can breathe now lol knowing they won’t hurt my T.
Dude, I cannot understand why you don’t have over a million subscribers. You make great content, you’re passionate about the subject matter, the visuals and audio are great, and you’ve got an epic beard! Thank you for putting this information out there for us to see. You’ve become literally my top TH-cam channel over the past couple weeks, and I can’t wait to join the hobby by getting my own grammastola pulchripes sling here soon!
Great video, it really helps out when you are a beginner like me. But, I got to do a friendly reminder. 0:10 Mites are not insects, they actually are arachnids. Beside that, the rest of the info is neat. Thanks, Richard.
Thank you for making this video. I have a humid enclosure and the water dish had close to 100 white mites. After doing research, I determined that they are soil mites. I had noticed that they were completely uninterested in my tarantula even though it usually hangs out next to the water dish. They only congregate in and around the soil of the water dish. There isn’t one that I’ve seen on my tarantula. I’m glad you made this video but I used to be under the impression that mites were pretty much ALL bad for a tarantula, and that you had to get rid of them whenever possible
I have been watching some of your early videos Richard and I’m blown away by how much more professional they now are. They were always good but now they have gone over that edge to be superb.
Here in Australia mites are very bad for reptiles and birds in captivity. People used to use a product called orange something (I forget, over 30 years ago) which was safe for reptiles. We had a budgie that had a real mite problem and we had to paint him with paraffin. It was so bad 2 toes were curled on on both feet. It took 2 paintings to fix it. Maybe the mites we get here in Sydney are detrimental to spiders too? I am contemplating getting a funnel web and this has put a little worry in me because I may have to catch one and have never seen one that was out in the open. I have only found one possible seller and they didn't have any available. But Richard you have given me a great idea for food for it, something easy to keep in a small space unlike woodies or crickets and they are much slower. I will mix up the diet but can no longer catch flies etc because my shoulder was shattered and can't move my dominant arm very well.
Thank you for making this video! It’s very reassuring as I spotted mites recently in one of my enclosures and did a tonne of panicked research (as a newer keeper). Thankfully I found good advice and the mites have depleted in number. This video will be a huge help to many and in helping with the reputation of mites!
A note of interest from my experience with using dwarf white isopods as cleaners (Trichorhina tormentosa). I've never observed my isopods go after a healthy t. - not with my fossorial t.'s, not when I haven't provided food for the isopods in a long time, not even when the t. is in the middle of molting. However, I have experienced them possibly going after a sick and dying tarantula. I had isopods in my MM Chilobrachys sp. kaeng krachan enclosure and they didn't bother him in the two years I had him. A few weeks ago, he began really slowing down, refusing food (the old man has always been a champ eater right up until the end), etc. - all the signs that he was dying of old age. I moved him into an ICU with damp paper towels to keep him comfortable and hydrated, and noticed that there were isopods crawling all over him and into the crevices in his exoskeleton. He died a day later. I'm no authority, but I think they sensed he was dying and started trying to eat him before he was actually gone - poor old man Mally :( I have a second MM - Ephebopus cyanognathus - who had been in a similar set up with dwarf white isopods. He's been pretty slow and scrawny ever since he matured last year, and when I noticed the isos circling him last week I immediately moved him out of there to an ICU. No isopods actually got on him and he managed to weakly eat a cricket for me, so I moved him into a fresh set up with no isopods later. He's still alive today, though I wouldn't have been surprised if leaving him in with the isos would have ended with him being dead now.
While feeding my slings I noticed that there were mites crawling all around my desk. It was hard to tell since they’re the size of a speck of dust. They were coming from an old mealworm bin and crawled out everywhere. I took a damp cloth with water and vinegar and wiped everywhere I saw them. This helped a lot. I still see one or two of them inside a sling enclosure but thank goodness they’re not everywhere anymore
I had a little issue with mites...not an infestation...in my moisture dependant sling enclosures. But I put springtails in and now I see only springtails no more mites ...hopping on my T for a free ride. Although the mites were not harmful I did not like them. I feel springtails do a better job at cleaning too
Just dropping in quick to slap a thumbs up and a comment ;). Love your work my dude, you inspired me to hop back into the hobby after 8 years in hiatus!
Thank you so much. I picked up a packed block of orchid bark for an invert tank and ended up with an ASSLOAD OF TINY WHITE MITES and I've never had such visible, plentiful mites in any enclosure I've ever had and I was pissed. Like really, deeply, painfully pissed. Thank you for laying this shit out, because information was hard to find.
I can absolutely vouch for predatory mites, i use them on my house plant collection and they have been a life saver with regards to spidermite, i have over 100 plants and manual treatment just isn't practical. Good to know they work with my 8 legged friends too
Anyone else heartbroken at the pics with the parasytic mites? The mamma with the egg sac 😭 some great info aswell, I certainly learned a few things 👍💕🇬🇧
I just find 3 mites crawling when I was looking at my tarantulas molt and lowkey got stressed out not knowing if it was bad or not so thank you for this video
Thankyou so much I keep a few 'pet' invertebrates including a T. But just now I went change my giant Asian Centipedes water dish and it was covered in tiny white mites! I was horrified I then checked her and only can see one on her atm. My Mario worms had some mouldy food in with them and that tub was teeming with them. Everything else atm seems fine. Glad to find your video.. proper scared me as heard bad bad things only .. again thankyou 🙏
Iv had a bad outbreak in one of my assassin bug enclosures, although I keep on top of the maintenance for the centipedes, tarantulas etc. And I introduce springtails as soon as I ser up a new enclosure, the assassin bugs are SO messy so the only option is to just chuck all their soil out, transfer them to a new tank while I put hot soapy water soaking in the old tank. Because of this I don't bother adding springtails & it only takes a few dead insects bodies to build up under a piece of wood in the tank & theres a grain mite bloom so big the assassin bugs are almost trying to hop & skip around the tank to avoid them! So annoying & utterly frustrating Iv resorted to just using predatory mites. They have eradicated the springtails in one tank I didn't want them to, but in general Iv found they aren't very good at getting from one enclosure to another luckily. Thanks for the video because I was concerned if I was unwittingly unleashing a new pest I would regret by using predatory mites, playing with fire, but your video put my worries to rest.
I use Predatory mites in my garden and enclosures. They will eat and destroy fungus gnats larva. Along with other pest that inhabit my enclosures or dwell in the soil. Beneficial mites are amazing. Also beneficial nematodes watered into the soil will destroy larva too. Both work really well.
Very good video. I remember in my early keeping days back in 2007 when my t blondi enclosure kept getting white mites and sometimes springtails. I didn't know the benefits of springtails back then and just panicked. I cleaned that spiders enclosure out more than I needed to looking back 😅
I've added springtails to some off my enclosures too help with mold out breaks and I've noticed that when the substrate is proper moist there numbers explode but then when I dry the enclosure out a bit they almost disappear and they have disappeared in some of my enclosures have they died off yu think cause the substrate dried out. Thanks. 😊 👍
Springtails do need a moist environment to thrive and survive, most likely is because the enclosures have dried out, keep good humidity and they will be fine mate 😊
just saw mites in my curly hairs enclosure and have no clue how they got there. her enclosure isn’t bio active but instantly took her out and started to clean. this video will help i’m sure of it
Thank you so much for your videos. The information is so well put together and very accessible. This video will help a lot of keepers for years and years!
Today when i was feeding my versi i noticed some mites betwen her fangs. I am still stresed, eaven tho i know now that these can just eat lefovers of her meal. That’s becouse in the past mites killed my scolopendra, im scared that the same is going to happend to my tarantula. She has appetite but cannot gain weight. Maby i should feed her more.
You nailed the part abkut the causes of death, its devastating when a pet spider dies premature despite being healthy until that sudden death with little to no known reasons to why they passed away. I have this issue with jumping spiders, even more so seeing as they are such a fragile and small species of spider. Bacteria, viruses and general illness is something that really does need to be researched big time
Thank you for the information on those mites. I was so scared they were going to hurt my Mexican Red Knee. I hardly see them and only a few maybe 2 or 3. Should I still take her out and clean her enclosure just to be safe?
Ive been saying this forever matter of fact soil mites and grain mites can be used to control fungus better than springtails just dry the soil when no longer needed. I have used them for a while they never get on the Ts. Now parasite mites are completely different and can be controlled easy long as you dont panic. There are even predatory mites to get rid of the parasite mites..... They are such a diverse interesting invert
With pet mice, you can freeze bedding for a bit before using it if you're worried about it having mites or anything like that. Would that maybe work with substrate as well to help reduce them?
My Goliath and king baboon had the little mites in there’s the king baboons enclosure dried out and they more or less disappeared, and when I introduced the springtails too the Goliath’s enclosure they thinned out noticeably
Would you be able to do a video on your opinion on what is better, living in the wild or living in an enclosure. I am torn on this issue. It’s the main reason I don’t have any pets like snakes or a tarantula. I would love to know your thoughts on this seeing how you have so many and have for such a long time. I think you would have the best judgment on this. Thank you for taking the time to always like and comment on my comments as well. I love your channel ❤
in general, life expectancy is considerably longer for many, many species (vertebrate and invertebrate) in captivity compared to in the wild. and one of the upsides of raising exotic animals is that captive animals can act as a reservoir for critically endangered species that are threatened by industry, habitat loss, and climate change. some of these species can be reintroduced when conditions are improving, but the grim fact is that others facing extinction will only exist in captive populations in the not distant future. I think it's worth preserving them, and they can have long contented lives never going without food or shelter.
I sometimes remove the tarantula from the enclosure and spray with hydrogen peroxide 3% v/v, which seems to kill mite eggs. Drying out doesn't always work
I had a huge explosion of (grain)? mites in my meal worm feeder enclosure like nothing I'd ever seen before or since. They had coated the walls of the enclosure, they were in huge numbers all over the table and they had invaded my cricket enclosure next door on the same table. The mites didn't seem to bother the meal worms too much but the crickets were covered in them and all of them died. Took me a couple months to eradicate them all. I removed the enclosures outside and was wiping the table it was all on twice a day for a month, as they kept building up in groups, mainly near the corners for some reason. I have no clue where they were coming from.
Out of my 30 enclosures 12 have those white mites... these are ALL the containers that were on the same shelving unit as my superworms/crickets/discoid. After reading someone's post on a tarantula group saying their superworms were their cause I checked my feeders and holy hell. The superworms were covered like covered. And it spread to all my other feeders. I ended up rehousing my worms into new Tupperware and tossed out their old. And I rehoused the crickets/discoid into temp containers while I throughly cleaned their prior ones. Washed/ dried and rehoused them back. I moved them into a completely diff room away from my Ts. Wiped the walls inside and out of the Ts and changed their water dishes which are plastic cups. They still have mites but I'm letting them dry out... and I moved them to a different room as well and tossed out that shelf... that shelf was junk anyways and I recently purchased new shelves. Idk what to do. They creep me out even though I know they aren't harmful. I don't mine a couple but I mind a moving wall of them. Idk if I should add springtails... predatory mites to kill the grain mites or just keep drying out the enclosure.
Will the mites go away on their own? I noticed a small amount in the water bowl, not sure where they were coming from. Then about a week later I noticed them infested all over the enclosure walls and top, and the source was coming from the superworm container sitting on the enclosure, there were probably thousands of them. I had to clean the walls and the superworm container (there was only one left so I tossed the container to make sure they were all gone). I noticed they had been crawling even around the enclosure and I am hoping they don’t continue to reproduce if their food source is gone (which I’m assuming was coming from the superworm container?) I think from now on I am just going to feed my tarantulas crickets instead of superworms…
Another great video! I'm new to the hobby and worry about things all the time. I lost a dubia in my tarantulas enclosure and I'm certain he didn't eat it as there were no remains. I think it burrowed but I don't want to pull his whole enclosure apart for the sake of one dubia roach.. now I hope it doesn't attract unwanted guests :/
Thanks, that was great, saw that the majority of my slings had mites, but now I dont need to worry, I was just about to rehouse them all, about 50 slings but I will let it dry out a bit instead and be careful with taking old food and garbage from the container, great video and information, puh...
This video was very needed, I was stressed about this as I even had some in my room and I found out I had to remove humidity from my room I was worried if they where harmful or not at first I think they came from a bag of substarte.
@Tarantula Collective ........... Great video and VERY informative... Thank you so much for making this video as I just experienced this myself in noticing these teeny GROSS creatures LOL 🤣 I am so greatful to have more knowledge about what they are where they come from and why not to be so concerned.. I did want to point out that you showed a tarantula in your video @6:23 and I have to say it is extremely beautiful could you please inform us as to what species it is and as USUAL what a GREAT Video!!!!! 😁😁😁🕷🕸🕷
Check out all my Care Sheets, Tshirts, Hoodies and MORE on my website: www.thetarantulacollective.com/shop
Hey! I also have a TH-cam channel about spiders and other invertebrates! Feel free to check it out!
I love that new keepers can just listen to videos like this after veteran keepers did all the hard work for everyone. Props to people that give effort to spread helpful facts in this hobby.
As a new owner myself I wasn’t where to start. Finding these videos have helped a lot an have brought up things I did t even known I should be looking for. I’m thankful that so many people are willing to share their knowledge so I can provide the best care I can for my Ts.
💯 it’s a lot easier and straightforward with videos like theseeee it saves all the reading😂 and there’s more info on the plus sideee👍
I woke up this morning with about 50 mites in my B. boehmei’s water bowl. Then upon looking closer to my other Ts I noticed they had a few as well. I was so scared all of my babies were sick! Thank you for posting this, I appreciate all the effort you put in your videos.
Were they floating in the water?
Were those oribatid mites ? I saw a similar case recently
Such an awesome video, guy, hobby- just want to thank everyone who’s all in this together!!!
If this video came out a day ago, Literally yesterday about the same time I found mites in my Geniculatas water dish so I Imediately took her out and cleaned the enclosure. Anyways keep up the great work bro ;D
Mites are not just arthropods, but arachnids (and not insects unlike said at the beginning). I'm currently compiling research on mites associated with scorpions and tarantulas, and except for this oversight, this was a pretty good vid ! The FB post linked in the description doesn't work anymore sadly. Another subtilies is that many mites maybe be photeric or free living as adult, and parasites in their juvenile stages.
The knowledge and relief I felt, and obtained watching this video was incredible!! Thank you, Richard!
Glad it was helpful!
RICHARD I HAVE THESE TINY BLACK BUGS NOT JUST in the enclosure but also crawling all over her like fleas. She is constantly kicking at them and trying to get out of her cage. I have put her into three enclosures with only paper towels as substrate. I also washed out the enclosures with scalding hot water and then put them into the freezer. She seems to be doing ok for now but now I find these things in the kitchen and bathroom sinks. They move so fast its unbelievable. My tarantula hasn't eaten since this started. She was so exhausted her legs were folded up under her. My entire house is infested and I'm afraid the spider is going to die from stress. I don't know what to do.
From research I have done, springtails will also outcompete mites for food/resources and the mites will eventually leave/die off too. I had a massive outbreak of soil mites in my isopod enclosures. I increased the number of springtails in their enclosures and also used tape to get mites that were crawling around on the sides of the enclosures. This combination has worked to bring the mite population at least down to smaller levels. :)
I bought a scolopendra sp earlier in the year at a expo. After having it for about a month I fed it on camera and found parasite mites on its legs and near the holes where it breaths, on the sides of its body. I've had many different types of harmless mites, but this was a little stressful. I separated it out of the spider room, then bought some predatory mites. I ended up sprinkling a little bit in all 100+ enclosures. I haven't seen them again after 2 doses a week apart.
Thank you, that was an incredibly valuable service to the community! I’ve even heard that the dangers of parasitic mites are exaggerated, as they draw very small amounts of hemolymph, and they can’t effectively be bred in captivity, even by those that have TRIED, because of their complicated life cycles (which are still poorly understood).
Have you done another video on mold? That’s another exaggerated threat, I believe.
its not the amount of hemolymph , anything that sucks blood have a chance of spreading disease ....
I think mold is more of a threat to the keepers than the tarantula/invertebrate ince our respiratory systems can be harmed by the spores. Plus mold is unsigntly lol
Whew!! Thank goodness. Being new to the hobby, I was worried after seeing a couple tiny mites crawling around in my slings enclosure! Thank you for this info, you've eased my worries. Oh, and I love the shirt!!! Subscribed!
Great information! I am a PhD student who studies insects (we use Drosophila as our model organism). Mites are a big concern in the lab since they can cause damage to the flies. So it was always something I was worried about but I have been reading up on them/watching vids like this and a lot of my fears have gone away.
This has been sooooooo helpful! I currently have 20 tarantulas and have noticed mites in two of my tanks. I commonly see them in my isopod colonies, but first time I have seen them in my tarantula enclosures. Love all this information and how it was presented. Definitely following closely from now on!
The timing of this video!!! Just noticed mites last night. I figured they were unavoidable. Thank you for clearing this up. Much love! ❤️
Thank you very much, I was really worried since suddenly I observed mites in the water bowl, therefore I panicked a bit, in addition to all the exaggerations I readed on the forum, now with this video I am more calm, I just change the bowl of water almost daily to empty the mites and I let my only two affected terrariums dry out a bit. A certain positive point is that there were not only mites, I also found springtails, so that will have them better controlled
Thank you!! I've been stressing over my spiders with grain mites and this has helped me control my wild mind and think rationally about slowly getting rid of them.
We just rehoused our new p.metallica and noticed mites in its little enclosure. I came straight to your channel to see how much we had to worry about it. Thank you for easing this newbies mind.
I saw a little tiny white one walking across the wall of the enclosure. I couldn’t see any others although I’m sure they are there. This video put me at peace. Thank you x
I am that new keeper that decided to raise my own superworms and found grain mites all over one enclosure and one shelf the superworms were on! I FREAKED and my husband FREAKED and like you said, we went to drastic measures to clean them out. We literally took the entire bookshelf outside. Changed substrate after cleaning enclosures. It was crazy and then I found out what they were and was STILL GLAD we did all that. LMAO! No more raising superworms for me! I live in South Florida and now have an discoid roach colony and have made a few bucks with those roaches! ;)
I'm a new tarantula owner, i have a Brazilian Pink Bloom, i have her in a 20 gallon terrarium and i was never told anything about mites being in the substrate, thank you for making this video, it's just what i needed!!!!
Just wanted to say thank you for this video! First time ever getting wood mites in my tarantulas terrarium and I was freaking out! This video really helped me! I got some springtails, let the terrarium dry a bit, and it’s been looking great! Tysm for all the informative videos!
Been waiting for your next video, always learn new stuff from watching you, keep up the good work much love buddy
Really helpful. I'd noticed some soil mites in some of my enclosures, and it helped a lot to be able to see the difference between those and harmful mites.
Valuable Info. I'm having Mites in the breeding Box of my Megasoma acteon Grubs. At First I was worried, but now I think they're Kind of symbiotic. But if they'll get out of Hand I'll try these predatory Mites as You recommended. So...Thanks.
Im a new Scorpion owner and 2 weeks in i just noticed a large amount of "bugs" moving around. took out my macro lenses to take some videos for a close up look and after some research on google image and eventually this video, i now can rest easy knowing its just a harmless mite. Thank you for all of your efforts in educating us with your videos!
What a relief ! Thanks so much for addressing the mite scare issue. It eliminated a lot of stress from both my pets and me 👍😊❤️
thanks Richard i needed this video ive got mites in my millipedes tank ive have done research and gathered they were not actually harm full to them but youve made me a lot more confident and less worried
I got the same issue, my ivory millipedes keep rubbing against cork and the sides of the enclosure, so I’m worried they are bad mites and causing stress to them. Yet I can’t actually see any mites on them just the glass.
thank you so much for making this video! this greatly eased my anxiety and i’m sure will do the same for countless other keepers 🤍
i was actually worried that tarantulas were somehow super sensitive to mites because of the mass hysteria. I was thinking if i can even place the enclosure in the same room as my bio active feeder colonies. Thanks for clearing that up 😅
I just had one die and it was coated in mites. Panic cleaned the cage next to it because I saw a large number in that one after closer inspection. 😂 proceed to me panic researching to find out if I needed to buy new substrate before finding some helpful material
I started with Ts this year and had some trouble with too many mites, this helps a lot! Thanks.
Ventilations and leftover management. Ez
This is what I was looking for many many thanks I had such bad anxiety about these in my tanks now I’m not worried great info as always
Great video man!!! Very insightful 🙃I feel like familiarizing myself with helpful details is a great way to stay updated on possibilities good or bad. 😎
I found some mites after leaving a bit of food in for a little too long. I wasn’t panicking, but they are definitely non dangerous mites. I also found some springtails in the same enclosure. I have also noticed fewer issues with mold in this slightly damp enclosure so maybe this is a blessing in disguise.
Thank you so much for this video I was just checking on my T’s for the night and my daughter called me over to my pink toe that I bought from a local exotic pet store with the already bio enclosure set up so I didn’t think to much about it but anywho she called me over to her enclosure and showed the smallest of little roundish bugs I’ve seen and I’m so glad I came directly to your channel because you have been a heavenly sent to T’s community lol so I knew you would have a video of mites and I can breathe now lol knowing they won’t hurt my T.
Been waiting for this one! Thanks Richard.
Dude, I cannot understand why you don’t have over a million subscribers. You make great content, you’re passionate about the subject matter, the visuals and audio are great, and you’ve got an epic beard! Thank you for putting this information out there for us to see. You’ve become literally my top TH-cam channel over the past couple weeks, and I can’t wait to join the hobby by getting my own grammastola pulchripes sling here soon!
Great video, it really helps out when you are a beginner like me.
But, I got to do a friendly reminder. 0:10 Mites are not insects, they actually are arachnids. Beside that, the rest of the info is neat. Thanks, Richard.
I love tarantulas and scorpions honestly all exotics your content is amazing so is tarantula kat hope y'all have a blessed week
thanks ... and i will send your well wishes to Kat as well!
Thank you for making this video. I have a humid enclosure and the water dish had close to 100 white mites. After doing research, I determined that they are soil mites. I had noticed that they were completely uninterested in my tarantula even though it usually hangs out next to the water dish. They only congregate in and around the soil of the water dish. There isn’t one that I’ve seen on my tarantula. I’m glad you made this video but I used to be under the impression that mites were pretty much ALL bad for a tarantula, and that you had to get rid of them whenever possible
THANK YOUUUUUUUUUUU! Been looking for an updated video on this since I got in the hobby a few months back!
Thanks man great content! Just got into the hobby and love videos like this
I have been watching some of your early videos Richard and I’m blown away by how much more professional they now are. They were always good but now they have gone over that edge to be superb.
Here in Australia mites are very bad for reptiles and birds in captivity. People used to use a product called orange something (I forget, over 30 years ago) which was safe for reptiles. We had a budgie that had a real mite problem and we had to paint him with paraffin. It was so bad 2 toes were curled on on both feet. It took 2 paintings to fix it. Maybe the mites we get here in Sydney are detrimental to spiders too?
I am contemplating getting a funnel web and this has put a little worry in me because I may have to catch one and have never seen one that was out in the open. I have only found one possible seller and they didn't have any available. But Richard you have given me a great idea for food for it, something easy to keep in a small space unlike woodies or crickets and they are much slower. I will mix up the diet but can no longer catch flies etc because my shoulder was shattered and can't move my dominant arm very well.
Thanks so much for this, I have not had any in any of my T enclosures but I get em quite often in my cricket enclosure
Thank you for making this video! It’s very reassuring as I spotted mites recently in one of my enclosures and did a tonne of panicked research (as a newer keeper). Thankfully I found good advice and the mites have depleted in number. This video will be a huge help to many and in helping with the reputation of mites!
not me paying zero attention because I'm too busy fangirling over Richard's LOST t-shirt 👀
The fact this video appeared the day after I found one in my T’s enclosure is wild since I also panicked but now know better…thank you!
The numbers are bad. Didnt realise you were a lost fan, awesome show. Great video richard.
I’ve only ever had to deal with rat mites, and they are super hard to get rid of 😮💨 fortunately haven’t run into any mites with my inverts !! 😊
Thank you! I bought 1 curly hair and 2 B.hamorii.These days i saw some mites and i was freaking out! This video gave me some peace in my mind.
A note of interest from my experience with using dwarf white isopods as cleaners (Trichorhina tormentosa). I've never observed my isopods go after a healthy t. - not with my fossorial t.'s, not when I haven't provided food for the isopods in a long time, not even when the t. is in the middle of molting. However, I have experienced them possibly going after a sick and dying tarantula.
I had isopods in my MM Chilobrachys sp. kaeng krachan enclosure and they didn't bother him in the two years I had him. A few weeks ago, he began really slowing down, refusing food (the old man has always been a champ eater right up until the end), etc. - all the signs that he was dying of old age. I moved him into an ICU with damp paper towels to keep him comfortable and hydrated, and noticed that there were isopods crawling all over him and into the crevices in his exoskeleton. He died a day later. I'm no authority, but I think they sensed he was dying and started trying to eat him before he was actually gone - poor old man Mally :(
I have a second MM - Ephebopus cyanognathus - who had been in a similar set up with dwarf white isopods. He's been pretty slow and scrawny ever since he matured last year, and when I noticed the isos circling him last week I immediately moved him out of there to an ICU. No isopods actually got on him and he managed to weakly eat a cricket for me, so I moved him into a fresh set up with no isopods later. He's still alive today, though I wouldn't have been surprised if leaving him in with the isos would have ended with him being dead now.
Opportunist eaters ..... If it's on it's way out or sick they begin the clean up ..... It's they jobs ...
@@timothytierney8378 Absolutely!
While feeding my slings I noticed that there were mites crawling all around my desk. It was hard to tell since they’re the size of a speck of dust. They were coming from an old mealworm bin and crawled out everywhere. I took a damp cloth with water and vinegar and wiped everywhere I saw them. This helped a lot. I still see one or two of them inside a sling enclosure but thank goodness they’re not everywhere anymore
I had a little issue with mites...not an infestation...in my moisture dependant sling enclosures. But I put springtails in and now I see only springtails no more mites ...hopping on my T for a free ride. Although the mites were not harmful I did not like them. I feel springtails do a better job at cleaning too
Just dropping in quick to slap a thumbs up and a comment ;).
Love your work my dude, you inspired me to hop back into the hobby after 8 years in hiatus!
Thank you so much. I picked up a packed block of orchid bark for an invert tank and ended up with an ASSLOAD OF TINY WHITE MITES and I've never had such visible, plentiful mites in any enclosure I've ever had and I was pissed. Like really, deeply, painfully pissed. Thank you for laying this shit out, because information was hard to find.
Yeah what you may see is mostly springtails and once a T had died springtails May be attracted to the body.
I can absolutely vouch for predatory mites, i use them on my house plant collection and they have been a life saver with regards to spidermite, i have over 100 plants and manual treatment just isn't practical. Good to know they work with my 8 legged friends too
So.. basically soil mites and wood mites do the same job as springtails do? Wouldn't that make them beneficial?
Anyone else heartbroken at the pics with the parasytic mites? The mamma with the egg sac 😭 some great info aswell, I certainly learned a few things 👍💕🇬🇧
I just find 3 mites crawling when I was looking at my tarantulas molt and lowkey got stressed out not knowing if it was bad or not so thank you for this video
Thankyou so much I keep a few 'pet' invertebrates including a T. But just now I went change my giant Asian Centipedes water dish and it was covered in tiny white mites! I was horrified I then checked her and only can see one on her atm. My Mario worms had some mouldy food in with them and that tub was teeming with them. Everything else atm seems fine. Glad to find your video.. proper scared me as heard bad bad things only .. again thankyou 🙏
Iv had a bad outbreak in one of my assassin bug enclosures, although I keep on top of the maintenance for the centipedes, tarantulas etc. And I introduce springtails as soon as I ser up a new enclosure, the assassin bugs are SO messy so the only option is to just chuck all their soil out, transfer them to a new tank while I put hot soapy water soaking in the old tank. Because of this I don't bother adding springtails & it only takes a few dead insects bodies to build up under a piece of wood in the tank & theres a grain mite bloom so big the assassin bugs are almost trying to hop & skip around the tank to avoid them! So annoying & utterly frustrating Iv resorted to just using predatory mites. They have eradicated the springtails in one tank I didn't want them to, but in general Iv found they aren't very good at getting from one enclosure to another luckily. Thanks for the video because I was concerned if I was unwittingly unleashing a new pest I would regret by using predatory mites, playing with fire, but your video put my worries to rest.
I use Predatory mites in my garden and enclosures. They will eat and destroy fungus gnats larva. Along with other pest that inhabit my enclosures or dwell in the soil. Beneficial mites are amazing. Also beneficial nematodes watered into the soil will destroy larva too. Both work really well.
There’s also springtails. I would like to check the difference. Glad you’re passed 100.000 k. Good work.
Springtails jump when disturbed, are always whitish, and more slend than mites
Very good video. I remember in my early keeping days back in 2007 when my t blondi enclosure kept getting white mites and sometimes springtails. I didn't know the benefits of springtails back then and just panicked. I cleaned that spiders enclosure out more than I needed to looking back 😅
Hello great video information Richard
I've added springtails to some off my enclosures too help with mold out breaks and I've noticed that when the substrate is proper moist there numbers explode but then when I dry the enclosure out a bit they almost disappear and they have disappeared in some of my enclosures have they died off yu think cause the substrate dried out. Thanks. 😊 👍
Springtails do need a moist environment to thrive and survive, most likely is because the enclosures have dried out, keep good humidity and they will be fine mate 😊
@@ethanmccormack9561 I've got full water dishes in all my enclosures isn't that enough humidity for them or does the substrate need too be moist. 😊 👍
So helpful. I really love your channel, so grateful for your efforts to educate us.
So nice of you
Very informative content.
I'm watching from Philippines
I have mini flies everywhere in the tank should I clean it out I don’t know if these r harmful or mites they look like fruit flys ?? Help !
I usually check for any left over food in my enclosures, just to make sure. It's all good information to know. Cool content.
Thank you my friend!
just saw mites in my curly hairs enclosure and have no clue how they got there. her enclosure isn’t bio active but instantly took her out and started to clean. this video will help i’m sure of it
Thank you so much for your videos. The information is so well put together and very accessible. This video will help a lot of keepers for years and years!
I never worried to much about them. But I do love this video. A lot of good info. Thanks
Thank you so much. I just noticed some mites in one of mine.
Today when i was feeding my versi i noticed some mites betwen her fangs. I am still stresed, eaven tho i know now that these can just eat lefovers of her meal. That’s becouse in the past mites killed my scolopendra, im scared that the same is going to happend to my tarantula. She has appetite but cannot gain weight. Maby i should feed her more.
thanks for the elaborated and explanation. I just want to know if what I'm seeing is mites but ended up finishing the whole video.
You nailed the part abkut the causes of death, its devastating when a pet spider dies premature despite being healthy until that sudden death with little to no known reasons to why they passed away. I have this issue with jumping spiders, even more so seeing as they are such a fragile and small species of spider. Bacteria, viruses and general illness is something that really does need to be researched big time
Brilliant video Richard, very informative and interesting 👍.
Thank you for the information on those mites. I was so scared they were going to hurt my Mexican Red Knee. I hardly see them and only a few maybe 2 or 3. Should I still take her out and clean her enclosure just to be safe?
So helpful as always! Thank you very much for all the work and research you put into your videos!
Ive been saying this forever matter of fact soil mites and grain mites can be used to control fungus better than springtails just dry the soil when no longer needed. I have used them for a while they never get on the Ts. Now parasite mites are completely different and can be controlled easy long as you dont panic. There are even predatory mites to get rid of the parasite mites..... They are such a diverse interesting invert
With pet mice, you can freeze bedding for a bit before using it if you're worried about it having mites or anything like that. Would that maybe work with substrate as well to help reduce them?
My Goliath and king baboon had the little mites in there’s the king baboons enclosure dried out and they more or less disappeared, and when I introduced the springtails too the Goliath’s enclosure they thinned out noticeably
Would you be able to do a video on your opinion on what is better, living in the wild or living in an enclosure. I am torn on this issue. It’s the main reason I don’t have any pets like snakes or a tarantula. I would love to know your thoughts on this seeing how you have so many and have for such a long time. I think you would have the best judgment on this. Thank you for taking the time to always like and comment on my comments as well. I love your channel ❤
in general, life expectancy is considerably longer for many, many species (vertebrate and invertebrate) in captivity compared to in the wild. and one of the upsides of raising exotic animals is that captive animals can act as a reservoir for critically endangered species that are threatened by industry, habitat loss, and climate change. some of these species can be reintroduced when conditions are improving, but the grim fact is that others facing extinction will only exist in captive populations in the not distant future. I think it's worth preserving them, and they can have long contented lives never going without food or shelter.
Animals are always better left in the wild, putting them in enclosure is a great source of enjoyement, but it's pretty much just for us humans
I sometimes remove the tarantula from the enclosure and spray with hydrogen peroxide 3% v/v, which seems to kill mite eggs. Drying out doesn't always work
You should do a video on tarantula medical care, what to do if your tarantula accidentally breaks it's abdomen?
I had a huge explosion of (grain)? mites in my meal worm feeder enclosure like nothing I'd ever seen before or since.
They had coated the walls of the enclosure, they were in huge numbers all over the table and they had invaded my cricket enclosure next door on the same table. The mites didn't seem to bother the meal worms too much but the crickets were covered in them and all of them died.
Took me a couple months to eradicate them all. I removed the enclosures outside and was wiping the table it was all on twice a day for a month, as they kept building up in groups, mainly near the corners for some reason. I have no clue where they were coming from.
Out of my 30 enclosures 12 have those white mites... these are ALL the containers that were on the same shelving unit as my superworms/crickets/discoid.
After reading someone's post on a tarantula group saying their superworms were their cause I checked my feeders and holy hell. The superworms were covered like covered. And it spread to all my other feeders. I ended up rehousing my worms into new Tupperware and tossed out their old. And I rehoused the crickets/discoid into temp containers while I throughly cleaned their prior ones. Washed/ dried and rehoused them back. I moved them into a completely diff room away from my Ts. Wiped the walls inside and out of the Ts and changed their water dishes which are plastic cups. They still have mites but I'm letting them dry out... and I moved them to a different room as well and tossed out that shelf... that shelf was junk anyways and I recently purchased new shelves.
Idk what to do. They creep me out even though I know they aren't harmful. I don't mine a couple but I mind a moving wall of them.
Idk if I should add springtails... predatory mites to kill the grain mites or just keep drying out the enclosure.
What is that tarantula around the 5:50 mark? If anyone knows please lmk it's beautiful
Will the mites go away on their own? I noticed a small amount in the water bowl, not sure where they were coming from. Then about a week later I noticed them infested all over the enclosure walls and top, and the source was coming from the superworm container sitting on the enclosure, there were probably thousands of them. I had to clean the walls and the superworm container (there was only one left so I tossed the container to make sure they were all gone). I noticed they had been crawling even around the enclosure and I am hoping they don’t continue to reproduce if their food source is gone (which I’m assuming was coming from the superworm container?) I think from now on I am just going to feed my tarantulas crickets instead of superworms…
Another great video! I'm new to the hobby and worry about things all the time. I lost a dubia in my tarantulas enclosure and I'm certain he didn't eat it as there were no remains. I think it burrowed but I don't want to pull his whole enclosure apart for the sake of one dubia roach.. now I hope it doesn't attract unwanted guests :/
Can you make a husbandry video on the Trinidad olive/olive gold tarantula? Also maybe with info on communalism!
Thanks, that was great, saw that the majority of my slings had mites, but now I dont need to worry, I was just about to rehouse them all, about 50 slings but I will let it dry out a bit instead and be careful with taking old food and garbage from the container, great video and information, puh...
This video was very needed, I was stressed about this as I even had some in my room and I found out I had to remove humidity from my room I was worried if they where harmful or not at first I think they came from a bag of substarte.
Great info. Thank you!
@Tarantula Collective ........... Great video and VERY informative... Thank you so much for making this video as I just experienced this myself in noticing these teeny GROSS creatures LOL 🤣 I am so greatful to have more knowledge about what they are where they come from and why not to be so concerned.. I did want to point out that you showed a tarantula in your video @6:23 and I have to say it is extremely beautiful could you please inform us as to what species it is and as USUAL what a GREAT Video!!!!! 😁😁😁🕷🕸🕷
That is a Cyriocosmus ritae, I have a whole video on this genus you can watch here: th-cam.com/video/RSfAnOqGljg/w-d-xo.html
Great information, as a newer keeper this would have caused me a lot of unnecessary stress.
Thank you for clarifying I wont overreact now, as a new keeper your channel is gospel my man
Haha. Love the Lost T-shirt! Good to know that not all mites are harmful to my inverts.