[hypostatic]

So today I noticed small white/cream colored mites in one of my two FF cultures and I became very intrigued. I have a pretty old culture that I got from petco 2 months ago (The Fruit Fly Company brand) that has never gotten mites. However, the new FF culture that I started (Josh's Frogs brand) about a month ago however has a small infestation.

The older culture has gotten mold though, but never mites, and it is still slowly producing. I also noticed that the old culture is a lot dryer than the new culture, and I was wondering if this affects whether or not mites invade the culture. The two cultures have been treated in the same way and are in fact next to each other, so I'm not sure why one has mites and the other doesn't.

I searched around the forum and I found this link that someone else posted about how FF labs tackle mite problems:
http://evol.mcmaster.ca/~brian/netevoldir/Answers/Mite.infestation.in.fruit.flies.answers
How does everyone else tackle mites?

I was also wondering if anyone uses this:

Its offered at Josh's Frogs' site. I was wondering if it would be alright to spray my FF culture with this, since it means that my frogs would basically be ingesting those chemicals.

I was also wondering how mites affect dwarf white isopod cultures.

THANKS

 

[Boondoggle]

Don't spray mite spray directly on or in you fly cultures.

Products like that are usually sprayed onto paper towels that the cultures are kept on. Alternatively you can buy mite paper by the roll and keep cultures on that. That helps prevents outside re-infestation. To deal with the mite population you already have in your cultures throw cultures out after a month, producing or not. You won't ever completely rid your cultures of mites, but you can drop them down to levels too low to notice.

In my experience, mites seem more prevalent in dry cultures. Whether that's because they actually prefer dry conditions or because older cultures happen to be drier, I don't know.

 

[hypostatic]

Hmmm if reptile spray isn't safe, what about tedion solution? I've read a bit about it on the forums, and I was wondering if it was safe. It seems that there are some people who use it in their cultures.

 

[Ed]

All fruit fly cultures made or sold to hobbyists have some level of mites in them. The whole goal is to manage the mites as you can't prevent them unless you are working in conditions that allow you to inspect each fly for mites before you put them in the culture. This is really only practical in a lab situation (and it unpractical in the terms if man hours). The simplest method of managing them is to discard cultures around 30 days as that is the average time for the mite life cycle and to keep newer cultures far away from older cultures (or keep them on mite paper which is routinely changed).

 

[dablock]

Try the mite cures at Drosophila Co.
http://www.jtresser.com/drosophila.html
I use their Mite-Be-Gone, Tedion and mite powder in combination to control and kill mites.

 

[hypostatic]

Try the mite cures at Drosophila Co.
http://www.jtresser.com/drosophila.html
I use their Mite-Be-Gone, Tedion and mite powder in combination to control and kill mites.

Is all of that safe to use for the frogs?

 

[Okapi]

If your still thinking that products like those are used inside the culture rather than outside, then no, those chemicals will hurt the frogs.

These chemicals are used to line the surface that the cultures are sitting on. They are like a moat around a castle, they keep mites from getting inside the culture. That's one way that they can get in. The other way is by hitching a ride on flies used to start the culture. Thus the reasoning behind destroying cultures that are 30 days old, because that's how long it takes a few mites to breed to large numbers.

 

[Ed]

The mites can also come into the cultures with the media, they just don't come with the flies.

Ed

 

[dablock]

I've been using the chemicals from Drosophila for about 5 months and I've had no problems with my frogs. They kill mites, but don't harm the flies or the frogs.

 

[hypostatic]

Cool thanks for the answers!

 

[fleshfrombone]

Has anybody tried using predatory mites to kill off the grain mites? Or would we run into a little Hawaii in our cultures?

 

[hypostatic]

I think I've read another post on the forum asking about that, and the response was that predatory mites are just too expensive, and that its much cheaper to just get a new culture.

 

[D3monic]