Mite found in terrarium
Posted: Wed May 10, 2023 12:05 am
Hey, I enjoyed posting here occasionally on the old forum and came back with a new critter! Almost certainly some kind of mite...
Tonight I noticed stringy/webby transparent growth on the back wall of my terrarium (planted 2 months ago). Pretty sure it's mycelium of some kind as that wall is usually beaded with water and gets the most light. While wiping it away I noticed a few tiny animals crawling on that wall. The "gunk" does not look like the webbing of spider mites, which was my initial fear. The gunk lay only along the tank wall, not on any foliage.
It's tough to get a photo of such a tiny animal, so the attached shot isn't great. My fingernail (which looks very horrifying in such close-up) is there for scale. And this was the largest of the crawlers I noticed. It looked noticeably reddish while the others were white. I do not think it is a springtail.
While I'm confident it's some kind of mite, I'm not sure whether it's a pest to be concerned about. It could be a predatory mite of some kind. Spider mites prefer dry conditions as far as I know, whereas these guys were hanging out on the wettest wall in the tank, literally walking on water. I don't see any of them on plant leaves, though I'll keep a close eye on things. Thanks for any advice you might have!
Tonight I noticed stringy/webby transparent growth on the back wall of my terrarium (planted 2 months ago). Pretty sure it's mycelium of some kind as that wall is usually beaded with water and gets the most light. While wiping it away I noticed a few tiny animals crawling on that wall. The "gunk" does not look like the webbing of spider mites, which was my initial fear. The gunk lay only along the tank wall, not on any foliage.
It's tough to get a photo of such a tiny animal, so the attached shot isn't great. My fingernail (which looks very horrifying in such close-up) is there for scale. And this was the largest of the crawlers I noticed. It looked noticeably reddish while the others were white. I do not think it is a springtail.
While I'm confident it's some kind of mite, I'm not sure whether it's a pest to be concerned about. It could be a predatory mite of some kind. Spider mites prefer dry conditions as far as I know, whereas these guys were hanging out on the wettest wall in the tank, literally walking on water. I don't see any of them on plant leaves, though I'll keep a close eye on things. Thanks for any advice you might have!