HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I bathed them, and checked them for mites but I must have missed them! These things are TINY.

The mites reside ONLY on their inner feelers. I know it sounds horrible (and it was), but I cut off one of their feelers so that I would be able to photograph and try to ID the mites. I had to! I feel so bad about it, but it was the only way to even tell if they were mites or not. Forgive me! I tried to scrape them off, but it was no use! Cutting an antenna was the only way. It's going to haunt me for a long time.

The mites seem to have two dark spots on either side of them (which makes me think they are "two-spotted mites" listed in the bug guide). But according to the internet, they eat plants...not crabs...??? Help.

Here are the photos:











I saved the antenna + mites and put it all between two pieces of tape so that I can make a slide to view under the microscope when I get a chance. It's finals week, so it may be a while. Don't know when I can get into a lab that has scopes lying around.

Can any old timers offer any advice? The photos are the best I could do with my camera.

Also, bathing doesn't work. The little buggers hang on tight!

Is it just me or do they all appear to have their heads/mouths positioned over the joints of the antenna? From what I've read, 'bad' mites that actually feed on the crabs cluster around their joints. I looked up two spotted mites on google images and their spots seem to be black or dark, not light or yellow like the ones in the photo.

I'll keep looking and see if I can find anything. I'm sure the antenna will grow back

Maybe try some Hypoaspis miles?

http://crabstreetjournal.com/xoops/modu ... storyid=11

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I've been thinking about trying those guys for a while for the stubborn food mites. Never took the plunge because the food mites don't hurt the crabs. Anyway, just placed an order for those mites. Hope they help.

Oh, and thanks very much for your help, tnt! Much appreciated.

You're welcome I've had crawling things in the tank, but never anything on the crabs...can't imagine how stressful that would be! I hope the Hypoaspis miles work. Do you know how long it will take to get them?

It is stressful! I have never had bad bugs in the tank before. I could hardly sleep last night. Dreamed about spiders.

I chose the two-day shipping so they should be here soon after they decide to ship them. Hopefully they get here before the weekend, because my PO is not open on the weekends. Wouldn't want a tube of dead bugs. And I am a little concerned about the temperatures while shipping them up here. It's still pretty cold up here.

How cold is it there? I think you can store them for several weeks at around 45F...not sure how far below that they can survive.

It's in the 40's-50's (Fahrenheit) during the day, but at night it drops below freezing still. I'm worried in case they have to overnight in a warehouse somewhere.

So I just got a Click-n-Ship notification that says the mites are going to my billing address (which is ~1,000 miles away from where I am). On the order confirmation e-mail I was sent earlier, it has my correct shipping address. I sent them an e-mail to let them know they have it going to the wrong address. Frustrating. But that kind of thing happens, I guess. I just hope I don't lose any money in this deal, as it wasn't my fault!

Oh fun. I've had that happen a few times on eBay and we got confirmations saying the items were being shipped to our PayPal billing address, but for some reason they still got sent to our shipping address. Hopefully they'll correct it in time for you.

I can't seem to find out much about what temperatures will kill them, just that if they drop below 45F-ish their life cycle and development slows or stops.

The guy was very understanding (and mad at himself), so another tube is going to be sent out tomorrow. I felt bad for him! 2-day shipping is expensive!

I would have been able to have my folks re-direct it when it got there, but my step mom just had surgery on her foot (can't walk), and my dad and I are not the best of friends right now.

Good luck with the predatory mites! I've used those for a mite infestation in my assassin bug tank and it worked great.

I would rule out two-spotted mites by the way, as far as I know they don't feed on other invertebrates at any stage of their life cycle.

Here are some microscope pics. Even if they don't help anything, they are still cool to look at! Microscopes are one of the best inventions ever.

wolfnipplechips wrote:Here are some microscope pics. Even if they don't help anything, they are still cool to look at! Microscopes are one of the best inventions ever.

I concur. I have no idea what this shows, but it's interesting. Thanks for posting these. I was secretly wishing I could see them somehow when you mentioned it in your first post.