Treble and Clef's Mite Diary

For the discussion of any creepy crawlies that may have taken up residence in your tank, including mites. Please note that isopods have their own forum.
Post Reply
User avatar

Topic author
MauiMama
Posts: 169
Joined: Sun Aug 18, 2019 7:35 pm
Location: MN

Treble and Clef's Mite Diary

Post by MauiMama » Mon Dec 28, 2020 1:50 am

I have been crabbing for about a year, and this is my first experience with finding bugs in my tank. I'm not entirely sure if they are food mites, wood mites, or something completely different. But they are gross and I hate seeing them in my tank and crawling around on my crabs' shells. D: Digging through the files here, I have decided to try the unthinkable and release 10,000 "predator mites" into the crabitat!

My situation is a little unique in that I have a very small setup - 10g with one small and one large crab (Clef and Treble, respectively). I'm concerned about overrunning the tank with the predators, or that they won't eat my particular species of mite, or that I'll just do something generally wrong, so I'm pretty nervous about it! I am also both thoroughly disgusted yet morbidly fascinated in the fact that they will eventually leave the tank to hunt down other pests in the house. Sounds great in theory, but I'm putting 10k of them there myself! Image

I decided to document my journey for anyone else who's thinking of trying this method. I'm totally grossed out about the whole thing, so I hope it's a clean, successful sweep!

I ordered the mites today (Stratiolaelaps scimitus, formerly H. miles), they were not cheap. But I wanted to make sure I was getting the right thing. I got mine from these guys, and ordered the smallest available tube, per their advice:
 https://naturalenemies.com/stratiolaela ... n-1-liter/

I should get them in about a week! In the meantime, I'm tossing a banana slice in there each night and scooping it and the surrounding sub out after a few hours. Hoping that helps with population control until the "big guns" show up.

I'll update the thread as I go - any and all advice is appreciated!

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

•°☆~♡~☆°• MauiMama•°☆~♡~☆°•

User avatar

crabbycasey
Posts: 768
Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2020 10:23 am
Location: NC

Re: Treble and Clef's Mite Diary

Post by crabbycasey » Tue Dec 29, 2020 10:17 am

Good luck!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Post Reply