[Marconis]

I know there are countless threads on mites, but I really do think each situation is unique. I honestly hate to make repetitive questions, but I feel with mites it is necessary sometimes. I had a culture that was real moldy and took very long to produce. By the 5th or 6th week it was booming, but the culture was so old and nasty that I was trying to feed as much as I could before I tossed it. On January 23rd, I made a culture that boomed like no other (I made a thread about it, lol). The coffee filters are nearly to the bottom of the media already, and the constant churning of the media seems to have eradicated my mold issue, finally. Anyway, on Monday I inspected my cultures for mites as I do every few days, and the 5/6 week culture had mites. I tossed it immediately. I sprayed more mite spray on my culture paper towel to ensure that my booming culture didn't get mites. Checked everyday since Monday, and still nothing, and I am reallllly inspecting HARD. I made a new culture tonight and added a bunch of those flies from the CURRENT booming culture (it's like the 5th round of pupa).

So, my question is: Since I saw mites in the last culture, what are the odds of this current culture, and my new one, having mites? The cultures never touched.

Thanks in advance, and again sorry for another boring mite question.

 

[dart666]

good if you used the same fly's to make the new one! throw it all away and start over! no use infecting more cultures. just my opinion

 

[Marconis]

Lol you didn't read properly, or I didn't explain properly. I threw away the infected one. I made a new culture with the non-infected one, even though they were near each other (but not touching). Just curious if even if I don't see mites, if they are still lurking in there somewhere.

Edited for further clarification!

 

[Ed]

It is incrediably likely you had mites even before you saw them (as thier life cycle takes about 30 days).. They are present and transferring with your flies even if you don't see them.. typically they are only seen when thier population begins to boom.. which is around the 30 day or slightly later mark.

The whole trick isn't avoiding mites, it is in controlling them to managable levels as you can't avoid them 100% unless you are cleaning the eggs/larva under a scope and transferring them.. there are too many differnet potential sources of contamination in the average house ranging from other cultures to dried grain products stores nearby your cultures.

Ed

 

[Ed]

Lol you didn't read properly, or I didn't explain properly. I threw away the infected one. I made a new culture with the non-infected one, even though they were near each other (but not touching). Just curious if even if I don't see mites, if they are still lurking in there somewhere.

Edited for further clarification!

Unless you used cleaned flies inspected under a scope there is no such thing as a culture without mites in our hobby..

 

[Marconis]

I definitely understand that. So far, there has been no indication of any production issues. My last culture boomed, and that was used from flies from that moldy culture (before I ever saw mites). I'm still happy that I don't see any. If production is affected on my new culture, then I'll start to worry.

 

[Ed]

I definitely understand that. So far, there has been no indication of any production issues. My last culture boomed, and that was used from flies from that moldy culture (before I ever saw mites). I'm still happy that I don't see any. If production is affected on my new culture, then I'll start to worry.

Unless you get a predatory species you won't see it affect production unless you have a population explosion of mites. This is why control is important.

 

[Marconis]

Alright, so I'll just keep an eye out. Thank you Ed.

 

[packer43064]

After 30 days throwing away cultures is a very good system to keep. The mites won't "boom" as Ed has said. That with mite paper, paper towels soaked with mite spray and you should honestly never have a boom. None of my cultures have a significant amount of mites at all. Their there, but I don't see them compared to a 8 week old culture teeming with them. I contribute it to doing what I have suggested above.

Jeff