A friend has just urgently contacted me with a possible problem that has stumped me. He's been incubating this clutch of corn eggs for a few weeks now. Apparently he noticed a nodule (shaped like a Smartie or m&m sweet) growing on the top of one of the eggs, but didn't think anything of it as another friend of ours has hatched some odd shaped eggs this year. However he looked in today and seen this lump had "exploded" and the entire clutch is now covered in thousands of tiny white mite-like creatures, smaller than a pin head.



He's incubating on vermiculite and moss and all the other eggs seem fine, with the exception of the mites which appear to have come from this other egg.



He has no sign of snake mites or any other parasites in his collection, but is now worried that they are going to affect the other eggs, and possibly the entire collection.



I have suggested he tries to get some of these "mites" in a sealed container and get them identified, but until then has anyone heard of anything like this before? And if so, what advice can you offer? I have my suspicions that whatever these are they may have come from the moss he's using, but I'm really not sure.

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