Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've been getting enough emails asking about this problem so figured to post here as well.

My understanding about Millipedes and mites is this:

There are two types of mites you can run into with millipedes. One type lives on the millipedes itself and the other will be found crawling around in the substrate.

The mites typically found crawling on the african millipedes are supposedly host specific to those animals and nothing to worry about. It is theorized that they help keep the joints in the millipede clean / free of debris, dirt, etc. Removing these kinds of mites can be stressful for the millipedes and probably not worth the risk if they are in fact supposed to be beneficial for them.

The mites found in the substrate are a different story. These tend to be tiny tiny white round specks moving around (harmless springtails are different - more elgonated and do jump small distances). You can't really get rid of the soil mites; they just happen to crop up in terrarium settings where there is warmth & regular dampness/moisture in the dirt/substrate. Mainly the mites are feeding on the excess food found in the enclosure the millipedes leave behind (they eat detrius just like the milipedes). However, at some point, these soil mites will bloom and get out of control and this can be harmful maybe fatal for the millipedes depending on the infestation - some population explosions can have millions / billions of mites crawling all over the place. This mite problem also occurs frequently with folks that keep tarantulas that require tropical enviornments. Rather than constantly change the cage's dirt, substrate, etc. every 2 weeks to control the mites, tarantula folks have found an easier way to combat the mites is to catch a few dozen garden variety type of 'woodlice' (or pillbugs or rolypoly's or whatever people call them in different regions) and put them in the tarantula's cage. The woodlice require the same kind of enviornmental conditions that the mites do, but they do a better job of out competing the soil mites for the excess food and eventually the mite population will decrease. Unlike the mites, the woodlice are not harmful to the milipedes. The woodlice population will essentially control itself and grow or decrease based on the amount of excess food supply they have available to them.
-----
____

Wyvern

Thanks for that info, very helpfull. Too bad they don't have stickies here.

Wyvern, I give you an A . You certainly know yer biology and you must've raised millipedes for a long time like I've have been doing. I tryed everything on my own for over 20 years and I met a entomologist friend who I haven't seen in quite a while and he came back from Asia, Africa and Madagascar. He did quite and intensve study on the insect life over there. In another part of this millipede forum, i wrote more about this. Like you, I tryed the small pill bugs in the past number of years and yes, they keep the excrement matter down & the fungi problems down also. This could be due to many factors. Does the individual who keeps pedes raises the humidity by covering the wire screen on top with plastic? Maybe one mists the soil too much causing a huge mite population problem? I had these problems in the past and had to clean my tanks and re-do things all over again. Frustrations, but one has to think what could be the problem and do things differently and we all learn from our mistakes. I lost a lot of money on pedes and giant pill bugs in the past and a lot of time i invested in my hobby. Robert Szymanski

Maybe I can help add a little more...
The large, harmless commensal mites have only been found so far on two genera common in the hobby: Archispirostreptus and Dendrostreptus. Those on Dendrostreptus are not as large and hang out near the base legs.

The 'bad' pest mites are grain mites that feed on leftover food. They are a stored product pest. While adding terrestrial isopods (sowbugs and pillbugs) --which, in numbers, also eat millipede eggs and first few instars-- will reduce excess food, the most successful options are to reduce feeding volume and frequency and offer food in a dish. The real problem killing the millipedes is overfeeding leading to rotting food and a poisoned environment. That is what harms the millipedes, not the mites. There is such a thing as a parasitic mite but that is something very different from either discussed here. Foods that are very good for the millipede and do not cause mite explosions are well-rotted wood and leaves. Dog food and fruits are commonly used foods that lead to mites and aren't required. Giant millipedes collected in the wild -while feeding- are found eating rotten leaves or rotten wood almost exclusively. That's the basics but it's detailed enough you could write a book on it.

Elytra and Antenna