Guide to bugs in the crabitat 1.2

[Sterling]

I was online googling through products and whatnot and came across this spray called "Mite Off". Personally, I've never used it so I don't know if it works well or even works at all, but it's something to look into since it's only like 3 dollars.

Description of it: Mite off contains colloids, small electrically charged molecules that can penetrate and disrupt simple organisms like mites.

Looked for it online in some popular pet stores such as petsmart, petco, etc but only found it at petco, but I originally found it at reptiledirect.

[Jedediah]

The description of how i's supposed to work it very vague. Colloids are not some type of mollecule, they are a variety of substances, contained in another substance. Milk for example (fat in water, basically) is a colloid.
So until I find a more exact description of what it contains, I would assume that it's something of a placebo

[Nethers]

Guide to bugs you might find in your crabitat

Insects
Insects have six legs and three body parts that are usually clearly visible, the head, the thorax (the breast) and the abdomen. Most of them have wings, although those might not be clearly visible, some insects can hide them in a sort of pouch on their back (like earwigs) and some insects have no wings at all. The vast majority of insects that you might find in your crabitat are beneficial, harmless or a nuisance at most. Usually you can get rid of them by doing a deep clean.
Common insects are:

Booklice aka Paperlice
Very often described as walking grains of sand, booklice are tiny and usually white to grey in colour. They are often hard to get rid of, probably because they can live in the rest of the house, too and quickly return to the crabitat where they find ideal conditions. They are harmless and even beneficial because they feed on mold and fungi.
Interesting fact: there are no male booklice, the females “cloneâ€

This is all I can see. Is it bugged out for me or am I missing something?

[Jedediah]

Huh weird. I copied in the complete text again, you should see it all now. I apologize for the many links that no longer work, though. An update is in progress.

[Nethers]

Huh weird. I copied in the complete text again, you should see it all now. I apologize for the many links that no longer work, though. An update is in progress.

Awesome, thanks for the fix - the original text is great!!

[newbiecrabber]

This was such a great post- thank you! I just wrote about having some type of bug in my crab tank... I think it was a type of mite... ewww This really helped a lot though!

[mouse]

BOOK LICE! Mystery solved!!! THAT'S what's making those bizarre patterns in the condensation! Phew I'm so glad they're beneficial I could literally cry right now. When I realized it was tiny bugs, I thought my crabbies were dooooomed!

[Nethers]

We need some pictures all these seem to be gone

[TheCrabbyTabby]

I second getting this sticky redone. It has some outdated links that no longer work. Maybe, and I know that you mods and admins are all diligently working to keep this site running smoothly and as such have a large amount of things on your plates, someone can be assigned to find new links and whatnot? Or better yet, could someone maybe contact the OP and ask her if she could redo the links?

[wolfnipplechips]

Did some link-fixing and pic-adding.

[Nethers]

Thanks wolf!

[PaleoClipper]

So..um...I can use Pillbugs to keep my crabitat clean? Do I just go gather some and stick them in the cage, or is there something specific I need to do? I don't use any chemicals outside- pure organic person- and we live in the middle of no where.

[wolfnipplechips]

You can start a separate colony or just keep adding them to your tank. I like to start a separate one in a KK so I always have extras available.

Don't collect any that are bright blue or purple, or otherwise discolored. They may have a virus that has the potential to spread to other arthropods. Not saying that it will spread to hermit crabs, just that it might be possible, and we don't know. Plus, it kills the isopods and is contagious among them, so would be dumb to start a colony with terminal isopods. lol

[PaleoClipper]

You can start a separate colony or just keep adding them to your tank. I like to start a separate one in a KK so I always have extras available.

Don't collect any that are bright blue or purple, or otherwise discolored. They may have a virus that has the potential to spread to other arthropods. Not saying that it will spread to hermit crabs, just that it might be possible, and we don't know. Plus, it kills the isopods and is contagious among them, so would be dumb to start a colony with terminal isopods. lol

Ah, thank you very much! I've only ever seen gray ones around here, but I will keep that in mind.

[milpreve]

That is useful advice. I have been thinking about adding them to my tank as well, to help with the cleaning.