Millipedes?

[aameenah]

I'm hoping I can pick the collective brain of CS here!

Does anyone have experience or knowledge of African Giant Millipedes? I'm dealing with one right now that has what appears to be an infestation of reddish brown, fast-moving mites? (I can try to get pics if that helps)

I haven't been successful in identifying them, and have no clue how to treat them! I'm not sure if they came with the bugs (they're a new aquisition, and not mine, ew lol) or if they 'came with' the expanding peat mixture stuff?

Any help or direction would be appreciated, and repaid with numerous intarweb cookies! :crazy02:

Thanks!

 

[DAND]

I believe they are beneficial to the Millipedes. For what exactly I can't remember. I'll see if i can't find the info for you later if someone hasn't beaten me to it by then.

 

[Nanci]

You Need Predatory Mites

(Ignore the following if the mites are, in fact, beneficial)

(And was I amazed when I moved to Florida and the woods were swarming with giant millepedes after a rain! I love them, but they bite.)


This was in a thread on snake mites recently:

When Bugs Get Bugs:
Invertebrate keepers, too, are plagued by mites. However, when bugs get bugs, the "standard" treatments that reptile keepers often use are not possible. One cannot treat their insects and spiders that are plagued with mites with insecticides or chemicals, as these will invariably kill both. It is a common practice among invertebrate keepers to use a particular species of predatory mite to treat mite infestations. The predatory mites prey upon the "bad" mites, then die off after their food source disappears. They are harmless to the host animal.

About three months ago, I found mites on my giant centipede, Scolopendra subspinipes. I found myself going on-line to order some predatory mites (Hypoaspis sp.) to take care of the problem. "Hypoaspis sp." means that the mite is an unspecified species belonging to the genus Hypoaspis.

(If you want to read the whole thing, where the person goes on to describe testing the predatory mites on reptile mites, search for "Centipede Mites.")

Nanci

 

[Nanci]

Mites Are Good? DAND is right!

http://www.whatsthatbug.com/millipedes.html

If you can get a picture of the mites, this website might help you ID them.

There are a lot of conflicting opinions on millipede mites out there, ranging from wipe them off with petroleum jelly or rubbing alcohol to they are symbiotic- millipede provides a home, and mites clean the millipede. I'd say most of the opinions say the mites are beneficial, or at least not harmful.

This is making me want a millipede- I had them when I was a kid. They are so cool.

Nanci

 

[aameenah]

Thank you guys so much!

I'm glad that some mites are beneficial, but the millipede doesn't seem too happy ie. he's curled up 90% of the time and not very active. It has a tankmate (for now) who isn't affected at all. So I'm worried this might be indiciative of another problem. I'll try to remove some of the mites with a soft brush and see how it goes.

Nanci, thanks for those links! I can't beleive I'm seriously considering buying bugs to get rid of the bugs on my bugs LMAO!

(Starts baking intarweb cookies...)

 

[jennrosefx]

I can't beleive I'm seriously considering buying bugs to get rid of the bugs on my bugs LMAO!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That's the greatest thing I've heard all week.