02/07/2023
Brilliant advice from Bug Print regarding mites xx
Good morning you lot!
Wait, it's 2pm? What the heck! I've blinked and missed today!
Anyway, you guys indicated you definitely wanted to see some mite information, so here is my latest poster for you guys.
Hopefully this reassures you that mites are not to be feared or repulsed by. If you're not repulsed by a springtail then there is no reason to be repulsed by a mite either. Not the ones showing up in your enclosures, anyway.
In fact, continuously using chemicals and pesticides can cause harm to your pets. Continuously cleaning enclosures can make the environment unfavourable and actually make mite populations more likely to irritate your pets in the search for food.
The owner of Advanced Husbandry treats their cultures with predatory mites to prevent an explosion in grain mite populations. So if you are handling the culture tubs and finding tiny mites on your hand or phone after, these are usually predatory mites. I can't speak for other companies that sell cultures.
Anyway, my advice to you is to breathe. Mites have a bad name because of a lack of understanding of what they are and why they exist which leads people to do everything they can to eradicate them. The best bit is, you never will. It's just a fact of keeping the sort of pets that we do. Just let them be. Unless they're spilling from your enclosures - I'd then be concerned whether your enclosure parameters are appropriate for the pets you are keeping.
Hope this helps ♡