Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The fortress walls of all my cages have finally fallen to invading mites. They are white little things that seem to burrow in the Jungle-Earth bedding I have for all 3 of my snakes. I am wondering if you anybody else has had this problem with Exo-Terra's Jungle-Earth and maybe they are just native bugs to that substrate? Somehow I doubt it, as my retics have been laying in their water bowls a lot lately and my anaconda would not eat anything last week, he is presently under decon level one with newspaper, but I just found tiny white bugs in the substrates of both my pythons. I already decontaminated my conda once before, thinking they were all gone, but with the new substrate, they apparently hatched and festered. It is far too expensive to have to remove nearly 100 quarts of substrate every month, so I did some investigating and if being in the army taught me anything, it's that the best way to kill a tank is with another tank! Aprapos, Predator Mites, specifically, Hypoaspis. Has anyone had any experience with these? Your knowledge is greatly appreciated! I am really thinking about trying them out. Info pages here:

http://www.geocities.com/thearkfiles/mites3.html

http://www.biconet.com/biocontrol/hypoaspis.html

I have never heard about these "preditor mites" but is sounds like they would be an excelent alternative to the chemicals. The only worry I would have is can you contain them and will they die off after the mites are gone. It sounds like they should die off once there food suppy(mites) is gone and I remember reading that they will not cover a green house with one point of introduction so I dont think you shouldhave to worry about them getting out of the room. I will save this link...if nothing else they can stop the spread of mites if you are unfortunate enough to get them.

any other opinions?

patrick