Question on little bugs plaguing my SuperWorm Beatles

[Ilike4hornedchams]

2 Questions actually!

1 - Not sure if these lil things are a problem but I look at them in like the very beginning of this video take a look. Let me know what to do they are eating the oatmeal in there like crazy but they are not long at all so they cant be super worm at any state I think. Then again I cant find like any super worm hatchlings! Maybe their eating them!?

2 - What do you think is eating my lily vine in the back? I like that vine and there must be a way to protect it! Let me know!

 

[Andee]

I am not sure about your ivy but your super worms have grain mites. I am pretty sure they don't bother super worms. Unless you have a type of carnivorous mite with them... You aren't keeping the beetles with the super worms are you? The beetles are known for eating the worms if they aren't provided enough food.

 

[ZacharyLeesWife]

Ugh, grain mites. I had to cull my entire mealworm colony because of them. It actually doesn't look like a major infestation, I would lower the moisture and see if it helps. They don't hurt the chameleons, but they can completely overtake the bug colony overnight.

 

[Andee]

Yes grain mites honestly from what I have experienced aren't really a dangerous insect to other insects or animals. However they will demolish any grain based foods, I used to have a colony of grains mites and other types of mites that were not harmful in my large hermit crab colony. They only way to get rid of them in a large herp enclosure is by getting a predatory mite (though I don't think it'd work for insect enclosures. But not sure) I eventually realized they weren't problematic for my crab colony and they weren't spreading the rest of the house at all. So I kept them as they devoured old pieces of food and mold and were very useful for a clean up crew in that habitat. However I am sure they would be a pain in a super worm colony because they devoured all the foods.

 

[Miss Lily]

We had a grain mite infestation earlier this year. Took ages to get rid of them. I think they arrived in a tub of crickets. I keep all my cham food on top of my fridge and the whole of the top of the fridge was covered in them!

 

[Extensionofgreen]

Grain mites may be combated with predatory mites, you can order online, but they are always present in roaches, crickets, fruit flies, and other feeders, so I just accept them in my colonies and keep the gutloads in the fridge and tightly sealed to prevent infestation. Raising or lowering the moisture level seems to have little influence in my case, but it will impact what species of predatory mite you can use.

 

[Andee]

I have never had a problem with grain mites for any of my feeders. Just my hermit crabs.

 

[Ilike4hornedchams]

I am not sure about your ivy but your super worms have grain mites. I am pretty sure they don't bother super worms. Unless you have a type of carnivorous mite with them... You aren't keeping the beetles with the super worms are you? The beetles are known for eating the worms if they aren't provided enough food.

No they are all in separate areas. The Super worms for feeding n one tub, the ones i'm forcing to molt into pupae's in other bins, the beetles in another and the pupae waiting to molt into Beetles in another. The question remains though why don't I see baby superworms after like months and and months of having the beetles? Do they need a heat lamp? I thought they'd be fine with it being like 70-75 in the house most the time. Lastly is there anything I can do to kill off the mites??! Thanks for the info so far btw!

 

[Ilike4hornedchams]

We had a grain mite infestation earlier this year. Took ages to get rid of them. I think they arrived in a tub of crickets. I keep all my cham food on top of my fridge and the whole of the top of the fridge was covered in them!

Yikes!

 

[Ilike4hornedchams]

Anyone know if you can freeze them to death? Like I take the beetles out and throw the bin in the freezer?

 

[Andee]

From what I understand you can technically freeze out the actual adult mites. But it's really hard to kill the eggs at all.

 

[Ilike4hornedchams]

BIG UPDATE EVERYONE: Some people were saying that the only way to really battle the grain mites was predatory mites, I just wanted to say that I did a much simpler technique that some others were talking about, called "FREEZE THEM ALL TO DEATH!!!" Good news everyone, that works! I Carefully just took out my beetles and threw the whole bin in the freeze for three days lol! It's been 2 days since taking them out and there is still no sign of a return of the evil grain mites. I will keep you posted encase they do!

 

[Extensionofgreen]

This will work for a time, but the mites are also attached to the beetles and eggs may have survived, that will hatch later. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, just that you may have to repeat the procedure every so often. Of course, freezing the medium also kills any superworm eggs or larvae.

 

[Bigsky]

This will work for a time, but the mites are also attached to the beetles and eggs may have survived, that will hatch later. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, just that you may have to repeat the procedure every so often. Of course, freezing the medium also kills any superworm eggs or larvae.

Freezing will kill the mites.

 

[Extensionofgreen]

Freezing will kill the mites.

I am not disputing that, but it may not kill all sources of them or their eggs. The mites hitch rides on the beetles themselves and they crawl over the surrounding areas, depositing eggs, so the chances of reinfestation are high.

 

[Andee]

From what I understand of most species of mites, it is very hard to kill their eggs with freezing. Deep freezing for several weeks, or baking may work. But this would only work for substrates and such. Bins it wouldn't work well for so the best way to kill it in the containers would be to do a concentrated bleach bath and lots of rinsing and drying. However they do lay eggs on the beetles and superworms in the affected containers.

 

[ChamLB]

BIG UPDATE EVERYONE: Some people were saying that the only way to really battle the grain mites was predatory mites, I just wanted to say that I did a much simpler technique that some others were talking about, called "FREEZE THEM ALL TO DEATH!!!" Good news everyone, that works! I Carefully just took out my beetles and threw the whole bin in the freeze for three days lol! It's been 2 days since taking them out and there is still no sign of a return of the evil grain mites. I will keep you posted encase they do!

Great to know! Freezing will kill them

Thanks

 

[Ilike4hornedchams]

I am not disputing that, but it may not kill all sources of them or their eggs. The mites hitch rides on the beetles themselves and they crawl over the surrounding areas, depositing eggs, so the chances of reinfestation are high.

I figured that actually and realized that with enough containers its way easier to move beetles over and over and freeze all the mites to death over and over than to buy predator mites and worry about them killing other feeders or somehow escaping to bite me or my chams. Point being is that this is a really easy way to kill them over and over so i dont care how many time they come... For I am ready, and The Winter is Coming...

 

[LarryDavis]

Bug infestation is really a terrible problem about which most of the people are complaining. A small number of bugs can turn into a large colony of infestation overnight. This has happened with my cousin, who took the small infestation of the bugs very lineanent. Thanks to the termite treatment Rocklin team who helped him and exterminated the infestation in time and prevented the surrounding from getting infected. You should also exterminated the small bugs too, and should prevent your super worms from getting infected.