came home to mites. now what

[Just Jay]

so i just got home. my roommate came in my room to ask me something and stopped to ask me what was on my gauges for the tank. i look and its mites. both gauges of my are COVERED. 99% are on the gauges outside my tank. i saw very very few on the gauge wires and even less on top of my glass tank. i am so confused. i know to put it bluntly that food mites are vegetarians and any other type are carnivorous.nothing is new since friday and Saturday. Friday i got two new crabs from petco. Saturday i added new food from hcp. im just worried because as of today everyone is under. two are brand new and distressing so more than ever do i not want to dig anyone up to do a deep clean.

any and all advice is welcome ive never had mites.

[Just Jay]

update i see mites moving down the glass wall getting stuck in the humidity. about to wipe the tank walls down with apple cider vinegar.

[Just Jay]

ok im calmer. my coworker helped me figure out i can get ladybugs to eat any mite.

cause for concern they are toxic. chances of a crab eating one?

before anyone is upset ladybugs are more like cats. they hunt other bug and prefer spider mites over all. they also thrive in warm humid environments. so in no way would i be hurting them by adding them unless my crabs eats one.

other options are welcome and wanted.

[wodesorel]

You do not want ladybugs in your house or tank. Take it from someone who has had to live with them hatching out inside more than once. They smell bad and get into everything! I don't believe they eat grain mites either, they specialize in aphids.

Best thing for mites if you want to fight them head on is predatory mites. They eat the others and their eggs, and then go after themselves and when there is no mites left to eat they die off.

Honestly though, just clean up what you're seeing, watch what your feeding, and in a couple of days the food mites will be gone on their own. They're mysterious like that. Icky as heck, but mysterious.

[Just Jay]

thank you for reminding me ladybugs are related to stinkbugs! i was at the point any bug infestation (that didn't stink to high heck) was ok if it got ride of the mites haaha. (random ladybug fact they are better adapted to eating mites and prefer them. in the wild they stay in leafy plant tops for protection and ease of breeding. there they will eat most to all soft bodied insects available. probably why they are a good garden bug.)

i was worried the predatory mites would go for meat when the mites where gone.

my causes for worry are
-not knowing what brought this in to clean or trash.
-if they eat meat and i dont clean my sub to avoid digging crabs up. are my crabs at risk?
-anything better than apple cider vinegar to clean them up in my tank?
-what would you do?

little extra worried my hamster is on the shelf above my crabs. still 100% visible mites free.

THANK YOU.

[wodesorel]

They only eat decaying matter and do not go after living things. They might hunker down on the crab
when food gets scarce but they are not feeding on them, they have gone into a hibernating like phoretic stage and are using the crabs for transportation to new area that has food. (They are hard wired to do this with large bugs as well.)

These types of mites are everywhere, and were already in your home. A crab tank is warm and humid and has a food source, so they flock to it and then have a population explosion.

The first time it happened I was crabbing for a few months and I tore my tank apart and replaced or sterilized everything. They were back in heavy numbers in 3 days. After that I just left them. Its been eight years and I'll see large numbers maybe once a year, usually after feeding banana, but otherwise they just do their thing. Technically they are a cleanup crew as they do the same job as springtails and pill bugs. They're just a little more visible and gross.