I am just starting a Dermestid beetle colony and I think I have mites and I read can kill my whle colony, how do i get rid of them
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sorry i couldn't resist
I thought my colony was a goner too. I took the lid off of the tank placed a fan in front of the tank, so the air circulates through it. I suppress from watering my tank. I did this for about 3 days, until I felt the tank was dried out, and boom, I have no more mites.
I killed the 15-20 in my tank that had mites. Then replaced the cedar shaving/cotton ball/cardboard bedding with dry dog food and paper towel tubes cut in half stuffed with a paper towel. The dry dog food allows air to circulate and feeds the new larva. Also clean inside of tank with wet paper towel when I water them. Keep a fan on them to keep things dry.
Overwatering leads to mites but man those beetles are thirsty. Mine run like H when you water them then gather around water drops or on the wet paper towel like cows around a water trough.
Hey terryr
I thought the same thing! Too funny!
Over watering and dry dog food either one is a bad influence on the larve. monitor your water never feed dry dog food, keep them in a temp contorled and humidity controlled area.. I have never had any problems with mine and grew my colony from 75 to 6000+ in 5 months. Hope it helps