Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Okay, finally got some good cultures going with lots of production, and I have mites. I have the cultures in a big tub with about half inch of water and I still get mites. What are some other remedies? I heard something about pesticide paper but haven't found it....what do you guys do?

Thanks in advance,
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Matt

When I had problems with mites in my FF cultures the first thing I did was purchase another culture from a store in my case Black Jungle so that I could start up some new ones. After making new cultures I placed them in another room so they wouldn't become contaminated as well. As for the old cultures I did a couple of things, first I got some of that sticky fly paper that you were talking about to put my cultures on; after I put some packing tape around the top of the cup sticky side out so what ever mites that did get out of the culture would either get stuck because of the tape on the container of the fly paper.

This will not take the mites out of the cultures but at least you won't have to throw them away and be worried about not being able to feed your frogs.
hope this helps
ADAM

um are you guys using coffe filters for lids?...they tend to keep the mites out if you use like 2 or 3 and then put the lid on (mason jars is what i use)

yeah I use one filter per cup...I don't know if I could fit the top on over 3 filters.
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Matt

Try this: when you make new cultures, use fly's that have been coated in flour, then remove flour (I dust them then shake them thru a strainer). Get a hartz 5 in 1 collar and cut it into strips. Place in the area (but not too near ~ 1 foot away at least) where your cultures mature. When no mites show up for several culture periods, remove the strips (Im scared about possible long term effects of exposure of the flies to whatever is in the collars, and the effect on my frogs). It has worked for me, and where I live there are lots of mites.

Thanks, I had read about the flour technique somewhere else....they both are definitely worth a shot
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Matt