Mites

[coledofner12]

CrabbyJo is right the spray I used is reptile spray and I ended up have to clean EVERYTHING. Anyways my other crabs are fine and two are molting. I was misled by a employee that told me the reptile stuff would work. I do change my substrate and clean them every 4 days. They are Huge so it takes awhile to clean them. Thanks for all the help! The mites I had were Grain Mites. They were very tiny and hard to get rid of. I'm deeply sorry to Wai for all the trouble I put him/her through, and I thank CrabbyJo for informing me more about the spray I used and how mites can hurt a Hermit Crab. Thanks for all the help!

[CrabbyJo]

coledofner12, First, what kind of mite killer did you use??

The sad and unfortunate truth here is that crabs are very closely related to insects, so ANY insecticide used on their tank, bedding, items, or on them, is very likely to kill them.

If you used a poison to kill the mites, you will need to deep clean your tank and replace anything in it that is porous, as in woods, cocohuts, etc. as it will be impossible to remove the poison from these items.
Plastic items you may be able to clean. I highly recommend washing them thoroughly in hot soapy water, then rinsing well and boiling. If there is any hint of odor of the poison still left, dispose of them.

Keep in mind that soap, as well, can be extremely unhealthy for crabs, so every trace must be rinsed away.

Wash the tank with soap and water (not usually recommended) as many poisons are oil based and will be difficult to clean out otherwise. Rinse and dry thoroughly, then rinse again with vinegar water. If there is ANY hint of the odor of the poison, wash again. If you can't get it out, you'll have to replace it.

The crab himself you will need to bathe. I suggest a lukewarm salt water bath (so that the water feels neither hot nor cold to the inside of your wrist when you test it). Let him stay in it for a good minute or two. Place him upside down so that he is forced to come out to right himself, which will help flush anything out of his shell. Do this at least twice.
Do this with all of your crabs using a fresh bath water for each one.

It has been long enough that probably any poison on him has been absorbed through their exo, but bathing will remove any that may still be on the crabs or in their shell.

For mite removal, there are safe ways that won't harm the crabs. Because poison cannot be used, bathing and cleaning the tank daily (replacing substrate) for several days, then again a week or so later, is recommended. In the case that there are molters and substrate cannot be replaced (because you should NEVER dig up a molter), there are also predator mites you can purchase (called hypoaspis miles) that will eventually kill all the mites in your tank without bothering your hermit crabs, and then they die off themselves when there are no more bugs for them to eat.

Please let us know what you used (the name of it) and how your crabs are doing, we do hope they will be ok!

[ladybug15057]

I agree with CrabbyJo regarding using any forms of medications, sprays and such to remove/kill mites. This in itself can also be lethal to hermies.
One can bath hermies in an ocean/sea water bath and this will cause majority of mites to vacate a hermies shell and will cause majority of larvae to explode that maybe down within the shell.
It is very important to remove any items that may have this mite killer on it. Do not use soap on any of the hermies items, use a white distilled vinegar. (vinegar is an acid base and can strip quite a few things off of items) Rinse well until all the vinegar smell is gone.
I am sorry to say, but chances are what you are witnessing now with your hermie is due to the mite killer you have used.

[Wai]

ANYWAYS I USED EXO-TERRA HERMIT CRAB MITE KILLER! AND DON'T TRY TO PINPOINT THIS ON ME! THAT WAS MY PRIZE CRAB HE WAS AS BIG AS A FIST!! BUT SINCE YOU DIDN'T RESPOND ON TIME I COULDN'T GET HELP FOR HIM!

Exo-Terra does not have such a product. Also, it's not our fault that your hermit crab died. If you had researched online earlier, you would have known that the substrate or wood that you were using was capable of attracting mites.

WHEN I TOOK HIS DEAD BODY TO A SPECIAL VETERINARIAN FOR EXOTIC ANIMALS THE DOCTOR SAID HE DIED OF GRAIN MITES! ALSO WHEN I TOOK HIS BODY IN THEY SAID THE MITE KILLER WORKED BUT HE DIED OF STRESS AND I COULD OF HELPED HIM BUT YOU DIDN'T RESPOND IN TIME WHEN ALL OF YOU WERE ONLINE!

You could have helped by using the search function on this forum to get an instant answer to your query, but you chose to sit back and do nothing after sending me the private message. Alternatively, you could have posted the question into the forums instead so that everyone else could help you, rather than only letting someone who is studying for exams help you. Questions regarding mite invasions have been answered many times before.

I UNDERSTAND IF YOU WANT TO DELETE MY ACCOUNT BUT THAT WOULD JUST BE STUPID BECAUSE IM NOT BEING IRRATIONAL IM JUST SAD, DEPRESSED, AND ANGRY I DIDN'T FIND THIS. SO RIGHT ABOUT NOW I NEED YOUR GUYS HELP TO PREVENT THIS ON MY 6 OTHER CRABS.

I would be deemed unreasonable if I deleted your account, so hopefully you'll learn a lot more during your stay here.

[ladybug15057]

This post has certainly changed since my reply was done yesterday. (why sometimes IMO the edit feature is not such a good thing for some)
Anyway, re-reading this post IMO you owe Wai an apology.
In your information it states you have been a member here since Sept. 25, 2009 which is plenty of time to have read the crab care section as well as read within other posts about the search feature. Yesterday I believe your information stated you had been a crabber since November 30, 2009? And today it states Dec. 1, 2009? Your avatar, I believe it is a marine hermie.
Number 8 at
viewtopic.php?f=55&t=4&start=0 also states about the search feature and within Wai’s signature it refers to a search feature.
We all have become emotional at times but this does not excuse for ‘snapping’ at others. So I hope you do refrain from acquisitions in the future. The Crab Crew here, as well as Wai has been nothing but helpful and do the best they can. If it were an emergency, and you noticed a reply wasn’t done to your pm you should of posted in the forums.
I’m not sure what type of a special veterinarian you took your hermie to but unless your tank was totally infested with the grain mites they are not harmful. Large infestations can be very stressful to the hermie, but from what I read there is not actually a sure poison that is safe to use for these mites. (due to the fact they attack food)
I know there is info on CSJ regarding grain mites, and they are not a real harm to hermies or do they feed on hermies:
http://crabstreetjournal.com/xoops/modu ... toryid=127
But here is also another article about grain mites, and it too states it feeds on grains:
http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef629.asp

What to do to help your other hermies? It was already mentioned above when your original post was placed here. (prior to you editing it and yelling…caps are yelling)
Do a deep clean, and from this point on inspect your foods very closely. Personally, I grind all grain type foods (and others) up in a blender. IMO this can also grind up any mites or larvae that maybe on the food.

[CrabbyJo]

First, I'm very sorry to hear that your crab died. It did not sound good when I read your post, and he was already on his way out, and there is nothing anyone could have done to save your crab in such a short amount of time (and by that I mean a day or two).
Unfortunately, by the time a crab is showing symptoms of illness or distress, there is a high chance he may not make it. The important thing is to find out what went wrong so that one can fix it so no more of their crabs will die.

And sadly there is a lot of bad information out on the net. You can trust what you find here, we have people who have had crabs for many years (9+) giving input and correcting bad information.


Back on track a little: This may be the mite spray used? http://www.bizrate.com/reptile-supplies ... 40265.html

Unfortunately, this is meant for reptiles. Hermit crabs are not reptiles, they are arthropods. They are closely related to insects, making this a dangerous product for them. I'm really very sorry. We all make mistakes.

Do change your substrate and clean everything, and bathe your hermies. Check the spray - did it seem in the least bit oily to you? I'm going to make a huge assumption that this spray may not be oily since it is meant to be used safely around reptiles. This will make it easier to clean off of things.


We really do try to help. That is why Wai moved the question to the forums for you, since he was really too busy to be able to help, and was hoping someone else would be online soon to help you.
It would be nice if someone paid us to be here. Then we could quit our jobs and spend our days on the computer.
Again, I'm so very sorry your big crab died. Hopefully we can help you save the rest.

[Wai]

Yeah, sorry for your loss. I had my last exam today, so now I'm on holidays for four months! I will be actively working on the site from now on.

[CrabbyJo]

First, even when a thread gets a bit emotional or uncomfortable, it's best to leave the info as it may help others who come across the same situation, or something similar.

It would be good if you just reply to posts from here on out instead of editing your original one, okay? It can be very confusing to anyone trying to read what's going on.

It's good to hear you cleaned everything, and as we have found, there are very few pet stores that really know much of anything about hermies. Most of what they think they know is skewed or outright deadly to the crabs. It's best to come to a site like this or Crab Street Journal for info before doing anything different with them, and they are both great sites to read up and do research on how to best care for your crabs.

So lets get to what you said about changing their substrate every 4 days? Do you really do that?
How do you do that with molters?
We all have different ways of cleaning our crab's cages, I'm curious how you manage this. What kind of substrate do you use that you replace it that often?

[Wai]

Yes, please use the reply button to make new messages, rather than using the edit button to replace your first post. Otherwise, I'll have to disable the editting of posts.

[Salt and Pepper]

I think my tank has mites. I have seen them on my hermies, but I see tiny white dots around the food and water dishes that appear to be slightly wriggling. It looks like white sand, but I use Eco Earth. They're kind of hard to see, but if you look close there are tiny white dots that move ever so slightly around the food and water! I don't see any of them on my crabs. I'm going buy some more substrate and change the whole tank. What are these things? They don't really look like grain mites- they're smaller and white. They look like this-I made this in paint.. They also smell like sweet spearmint.