mites in d tree barks of my terrarium

gud day guys. kinda newbie here. jst wana ask bowt d mites. i hv a terarium with barks insyd. i noticed tiny crawling insect in the barks. i heard its not gud for the scorps coz it cud stress him. Any1 tel me wat to do?? i put sme salt in my water spray thinking it wud kill those mites if i spray it with it!!!! i really nned sme professinal help here. tnx guys!!!

If it's not on the joints of your scorpion, don't worry about it. I have them in a few of my containers right now, too.

IN D JOINTS?? MY GOD!!! DAT WUD NOT B NICE TO MY SCORPS!!! HW WUD I KNOW IF MY SCORPS ARE SICK??? SHE EATS ALOT RYT NOW. 2 SUPERWORMS AND 1 ADULT LATS. BY D WAY MY SCORPS ARE h. LONGIMANUS. TNX FOR UR REPLY

Remove left over foods from the enclosure..

Stop.

Take a few deep breaths.

Type in complete words and cohesive sentences, please.

If you collect bark from the wild, you should bake it or otherwise sterilize it to prevent this sort of thing. I suggest removing it from the tank and doing so.

Based on your incredibly vague description, I would hesitate a guess at springtails. If it's not springtails, it's likely it's some harmless species of mite. You probably have nothing to worry about.

However, I would worry about putting saltwater in your tank. That is more likely to kill your scorpion than it is to prevent parasites from harming it. I suggest changing it out for fresh water immediately.

THANKS YOU FOR YOUR REPLIES!! I REALLY APRICIATE IT!!! THE MITES ARE KINDA WHITE AND CREEPY. THE BARK, IGOT THEM FROM A DEAD TREE IN A FARM. HW WILL I STERELIZE IT??? PUT IT UNDER THE MAYBE??

Please turn off capslock. Thanks.

White and creepy . . . possibly springtails. They tend to hop, but they are usually white. Can you get a good macro shot?

To sterilize, just put it in a hot oven for half an hour or so (I suggest 300 degrees Fahrenheit, or 150 Celsius).

[b]Ah ok!!! cant make a shot its too tiny. hehehe

I honestly don't know how effective sterilizing is because I took great precautions and still ended up with mites (not parasitic ones, thankfully). You can try baking it in the oven at around 300-350 degrees F or so for about half an hour. Keep in mind it will give your place a new smell haha.

You can't stop mites; they're everywhere. Usually you just wind up with predators or scavenger species. Baking should hopefully prevent anything too nasty from getting in your tank, though.

do lats roaches eat mites??? kinda wondering. i put lotsa lat nymps in my terrarium.

forgive my ignorance. but how wud i know if my scorps are sick or how wud i know if theres smething wrong wid them

Yup, it's pretty hard to avoid mites, but luckily I've only had 2 of my containers get infested by them. The other ones are mite free despite being kept the same.

Roaches don't eat mites. You shouldn't put lots of roaches in your terrarium with your scorpion; other than for feeding, a lot of roaches will just stress your scorp (how would you feel with a herd of cattle in your living room?).

If your scorp is dying, it will be lethargic with its tail laying out flat. (Running around with tail flat = pooping.) Other than that, you can't tell much if your scorp is "sick."

H. laoticus wrote:

Yup, it's pretty hard to avoid mites, but luckily I've only had 2 of my containers get infested by them. The other ones are mite free despite being kept the same.

Hm, am I completely off here thinking If you got mites in the enclosure, maybe it's time to change the substrate? Why the hell would you wanna have mites in the enclosure and just don't care?

There are harmful ones and non-harmful ones. I don't mind the non-harmful ones because all they do is stick around to eat the decaying leftovers of my scorpions' lunches. Getting rid of them is near impossible anyways. They pose no threat, so I don't waste my time going through each container fixing something that will probably come back again.

H. laoticus wrote:

There are harmful ones and non-harmful ones. I don't mind the non-harmful ones because all they do is stick around to eat the decaying leftovers of my scorpions' lunches. Getting rid of them is near impossible anyways. They pose no threat, so I don't waste my time going through each container fixing something that will probably come back again.

Hm, I must say I disagree! I think you should change the substrate every now and then, not only for mites, but also for the left overs from the scorpion and left overs from the food! After all mites might be the least of the problems when you think about what else could be in there that isn't visuable to the eyes such as bakteria and deseases!

Haha I must say I'm a fan of doing "half changes" in my tank.

Whatever side my scorps are roosting on consistently gets swamped out every four months, while the rest is left.

It's a complete removal of the dirt that's (largely) full of parts, poop, and what-have-you's, while I keep the "cleaner" dirt to ensure that the ecosystem isn't corrupted or changed.

I personally love the "good" mites. They ensure the "bad" mites never come about. I've found switching 1/2 my dirt ensures that the "good mite" population is never overblown.

Although I do agree with Rene, dirt should be changed occasionally. Even for scorpions, living in their own filth is probably not the best thing for them.

Rene, look at it this way: how many times to they get fresh substrate in nature?

Sure, there's a natural process that recycles soil, but it's a fairly slow process. You can have healthy scorpions on the same substrate for years.

And really, after a job I had in college, I found that mites really are everywhere. They're going to get in your tanks one way or another, but since the majority of species are harmless, it's just not worth worrying about.

Well, in nature the ecosystem consists of many, many more species, and foreksample mites are being kept down, because there is other species of animals that has them as natural foodsource, the same with bakteria, dumb and other possible harmfull thingsa.. So making a direct line between wat is acceptable in the scorpions natural habitat and what is in the enclosure, is kind of a far shot I think

Sorry about my lack of ability to formulate myself correct in english!

I don't see the point if they're harmless
I do spot cleaning every other day as well.

With regards to mites issue, i must agree to H. laoticus and Mr. Mordax:

Personally, i'm a person that hates like crawling white bugs on my substrates. I have given my Emps a 4-6 Inch substrate in a 20 gallon tank and frankly speaking, i have been very diligent in monitoring that the leftovers are cleaned almost immediately, sufficient air ventilation of the enclosure and fed only captive breed feeders.
But still... i'll see a few mites running around.

I've "overhauled" the whole tank and changed a whole new substrate but the mites still came back after few weeks. I'm not talking a whole lot but only 1-2 visible on the surface. Probably a few more within the substrate i'm not sure..

Since then, i've given up ensuring mites free living condition for my forest scorps (as long as they are predatory mites) as it is near impossible.. in my own experience..
If anyone who has the solution, pse share, i'm sure many would appreciate your kind gesture!

However, i think i would do an annual or bi-annual substrate change if possible, too frequent changing of the substrate might not be good for the scorps.. putting myself in their shoes..
Destroyed burrows and rearrangement of furnitures (Decos and such) isn't an ideal "Home Sweet Home" for me

What substrate are you all using? I don't have mites problems in ANY of my enclosures (as far as I know, so not visuable anyway), maybe if you use un-disinfected dirt, that could be why you would have mites allready after a couple of weeks?

i spot clean every day and then do a complete substrate change on average every year, ive had mites before but they soon went.