- emperor5 wrote:
- this is what im worried about , my cricket keeper has been empty for about 2 months and i left the cricket food powder in there, and today i saw about 50 microscopic things crawling around in there and i know there not baby crickets , there light brown or white in color,, and in my scorpion cage ive had tiny baby crickets in there for about a month cuase the big crickets had babys but im starting to see more and more baby crickets in my scorpion cage.... and i dont know how them tiny things got in the cricket keeper i dont even know what they are i was thinking they might be mites ???? and i want to know if mites can grow in my scorpion cage ??? im trying to take the best care of my scorpions as possible and i dont want mites to be in the cage, im doing a complete cocofiber change in a week or two to get rid of the baby crickets cuase im starting to see alot of them... how do mites grow ???
Mites usually occurs near dead prey parts. e.g. you have a half eaten cricket lying on your tank's substrate.
Other than having the presence of dead prey parts, they flourish when the humidity and temperature is high (e.g. forest scorpions' enclosure)
Generally speaking, as long that the mites are white and are seen crawling in and out of the substrate, they are only scavengers which feeds on dead preys' parts, some keepers refer them as "Predatory/ Good mites"
What we should be concern about are, mites of parasitic nature. They are more commonly found on wild-caught scorpions and are usually very slow moving and found on the joints of the scorpion. Sample picture as follows:
Picture's source: http://www.ntnu.no/ub/scorpion-filesRegarding to the different types of mites, you may wish to check out the link below or do a google search for "scorpion mites"
https://scorpionforum.darkbb.com/t6296-difference-between-harmful-mites-and-ne- In my experience, I can never have a forest enclosure's substrate free from predatory mites.. probably its due to the the lack of time to "eyeball" each feeding attempts and remove uneaten food immediately
- However, if only a few lots are seen crawling around the substrate, they will be disregarded
- If we're taking about hundreds of them amassing under rocks/ hides, i'll recommend a completed substrate overhaul;
- As a freshly molted forest scorpion can be stressed out and die in extreme scenarios
- The above can be disregarded if your forest specimens are all adults but it'll still recommend a new substrate changed every 6-12 months
Again, there no fault in being new, but it'll be good if you can do a first round of research first. Try to do a simple search in the forum or go to Google and type in your query. You will get your basic queries answered immediately.
Like in this instance, simple search for keywords, such as "Scorpion Mites". Dozen of articles will appear for your reading pleasure. And in the even that after reading up, you still have some pressing issues left unanswered, then please, go ahead and post, this i'm sure you will get more response in your threads.
[HOW TO] Search for Scorpion's Information
