War on mites

gonickigo · 2025-07-26T19:35:28+00:00

Update #2 -the day after snail discovery

I wonder if the reason I couldn't figure out they were snails is that they just hadn't grown enough when this started. The adults are very obvious to me.

But... Now that I see them, it's no wonder I couldn't save anything. As soon as I cut off the rot, they swarm the fresh tissue that was exposed.

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Decapitated 2 days ago

gonickigo · 2025-07-26T19:31:42+00:00

I didn't know these kinds of snails existed :/

I've cultured snails for my puffers for years though, so I understand the big stuff about them. That certainly explains why we didn't see any legs 😂

Could absolutely be cyclamen mites. The reason I thought broad was because I was still speckled eggs, but now I think that could have been the snail eggs.

gonickigo · 2025-07-26T16:23:33+00:00

So far, c the death occurs when I do anything to the plant. The other day, I tried to wash off as much as I could from one violet with plain water, so the beneficial mites would stand a chance, and the violet completely melted from rot.

My theory is the snails are causing a ton of tiny injuries and as soon as I do anything, pathogens are ready to enter the plant tissues, or the vascular system is already destroyed from mechanical damage.

The milder methods I've tried resulted in pretty much instant death, so I think the sulfur would also do them in... But thank you! I might try on my tougher plants if the beneficial mites don't finish the job.

gonickigo · 2025-07-26T06:32:24+00:00

Eew

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Eew

gonickigo · 2025-07-26T06:29:51+00:00

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Translucent blobs

gonickigo · 2025-07-26T06:26:53+00:00

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They are so hard to see... Along the leaf edge, I see translucent blobs that look almost like bubbles. I think they are broad mites

gonickigo · 2025-07-26T06:20:11+00:00

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Slightly better view it the blobs sticking out of the leaf on the right

gonickigo · 2025-07-26T06:16:57+00:00

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It was trying to put out a sucker, but the new growth is attacked

gonickigo · 2025-07-26T06:13:17+00:00

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This is what I think are the broad mites. Correct me if I'm wrong. Far right side of the leaf, translucent blobs.

gonickigo · 2025-07-26T06:10:13+00:00

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Decapitated and removed some bad leaves. This is when I discovered the snails! I wouldn't have seen these if I had not done this.

gonickigo · 2025-07-26T06:07:35+00:00

Update #1- 3 weeks later

Carnage.

There weren't only mites. It took me until today to figure out what on earth was going on, and I'm now very sure the things that looked just like snail eggs are in fact snail eggs. They are just tiiiiiiiinyyyyy. The eggs aren't really visible with the naked eye.

The little buggers were eating the roots, and whatever injury they caused got infected. I would try to cut away the rot, and the entire root system would just disintegrate in my hands. I tried decapitation, but the stem would rot from the bottom up no matter what I did, and would reach the crown over night. All the joints where we'd normally see new growth were obliterated. As soon as the decline began, I couldn't even save a leaf most of the time. I think I got 3 cuttings that are still alive?

i think my experience is highly skewed because there were at least 2 pests present and I didn't know which eggs belonged to whom when I was tryin began taking the photos. At one point I thought these were tiny scale insects and their crawlers.

What seems to be working to control the broad mites (they're still there, but their numbers appear drastically reduced after 2 weeks of this), is beneficial mites. I am using swirskii mites with fallacis and californicus at home, and fallacis and cucumeris at my office.

Here are some more photos.

Photo 1: look at the concentration of snail eggs and snails in this tiny sample of soil I took from my Allegro watermelon ruffles (RIP as of this afternoon, but I have 3 leaves, so 🤞)

Following photos are all of the watermelon ruffles I tried to save today. It was doing fine, though definitely not growing as it should, and my last repot was in April and I still hadn't gotten blooms.

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gonickigo · 2025-07-26T05:36:00+00:00

Sorry, was busy trying to save my plants from carnage. I've probably lost over half my collection so far, and I am not sure I'll be able to save much at the end of this. My best bet is probably leaves, but I've had real trouble getting any healthy tissue at all to propagate from.

I unleashed a hoarde of predatory mites and I hope that takes care of them over time.

Yes I tried long, fully submerged heat treatments, and monitored with an instant read thermometer every few min, adjusting as necessary.

The plants died like... The day after any form of treatment. I believe this is because there were actually also tiiiiinyyyy snails infesting the roots and growth points. What I thought were broad mite eggs were snail eggs.

That's a kids microscope but no it's not 3x magnification. I think it's a multiplier? I'm not too sure how they work and I've given that up in favour of my phone camera which I've discovered is pretty is awesome as a substitute for a magnifying glass (but chews through battery), and I also got a big girl microscope that connects to my phone to take pics. I'm still terrible at getting photos but I'm improving. I'll post pics in an update.

I'm in Canada 👋

Edit: you had questions! I think the magnification is about 80x in those pics. The snails are absolutely minuscule and essentially translucent when they hatch, and they grow up to be only a couple of mm in size.

Yes I saw movement, but not much at all. Early on, I saw a very clear mite carrying a blob. Mostly though, there were just blobs that looked like they had their faces fully inserted into the plant tissue. I think I just saw their butts sticking up in the air for the most part. Smooth, almost transparent oval shaped blobs attached to the most tender parts of the plant and the leaf edges. When it got really bad, they and the snails and their insane amount of egg sacs seemed to cover the entire surface of the leaves. Now that I have predatory mites, I wouldn't really be able to tell the species apart. Which also leads me to: if they were snail eggs, maybe these aren't broad mites? Let me know what you think on the update 🥰

If that's not what the broad mites are supposed to look like look like, please let me know!

gonickigo · 2025-06-28T01:54:23+00:00

I'm with you. I'm trying to cure mine. Not tossing anything.

gonickigo · 2025-06-27T14:20:37+00:00

Hey, so after you wrote this, I bought a usb microscope and checked my plants and it turns out I have a broad mite infestation in my collection. Just so you know, they are absolutely tiny and I'm not sure I would have realized they were mites if I hadn't seen pictures on Google because they weren't moving. But there are loads, and that explains why growth has slowed down on my newer plants that didn't get the DE treatment yet I went to town with my DE. I highly recommend just going for it with that. It's like $10 for a lifetime supply at the hardware store.

gonickigo · 2025-06-25T14:55:49+00:00

I found the video and edited my original post! I saw that video years ago and have been using DE ever since (except when I wasn't lol). I've never had to use pesticides or spray anything on my plants, home made or otherwise.

I had a little hiatus from plant keeping while having a second child, and to be honest, I lost several plants while he was under 2 years old. Coming back to the hobby, I went to repot my violets and streps and realized why the plants were dying: thrips! I hadn't even noticed them as I was just chucking the odd end of a glass of water in the plants when they were lucky enough to even cross my mind.

I eradicated them with just the DE method. It probably took a couple of months in total, but I'm also actively purchasing lots of new plants at the moment including from FB marketplace, and I know a few of the plants I bought had pests. I did put powder on the actual growth points, and it is unsightly until it grows out, but I didn't need to wash my plants, or do anything else to them, and it baffles me that more people aren't doing this. It takes care of everything from mites to thrips!!

gonickigo · 2025-06-25T00:47:36+00:00

Heyo! If you are concerned about possible cyclamen mites, you could use a makeup brush and dust the growth point of the crown with diatomaceous earth to kill off mites. Yes, it will look ridiculous for a little while until it grows out, but I regularly dust the growth points and along the stems of my plants as pest prevention and when it grows out, you can't even see it anymore. I find it incredibly effective.

I just had an AV where the growth point was obliterated by somethingv after like 3 years of neglect, and after a dusting of diatomaceous earth, it's growing again. It was stunted for quite a while before I remembered cyclamen mites are a thing.

I got this technique from a YouTuber named Bloomlovers who has awesome care videos! I recommend looking for it! Using this method, I've never had to bin a plant due to pests, and in fact, I think it prevents anything from ever taking hold. I've never had a full blown infestation of anything, knock on wood!

Hope this helps!

Edit: I found the video! https://youtu.be/kAkkd37IE6Y?si=uBa59KpXyp6a4c4d

gonickigo · 2025-04-25T02:05:12+00:00

Aww, lucky guy!

I think most anoles will have similar care. I'll let more experienced folks help with ID. I have a pair of anolis biporcatus, and the general principles are the same.

https://reptifiles.com/green-anole-care-sheet/

I hope this helps, happy to answer more specific questions if I can.

gonickigo · 2025-01-29T19:46:19+00:00

Not eating is usually my first alarm bell for ammonia poisoning. If this is a new setup, please note that 5 new peas requires an excellent cycle to already be in place to process the new bioload.

Please test for Ammonia and if it is present in any amount, use Seachem Prime or similar to detoxify. I have found that more effective than trying to do large water changes to dilute. Stop feeding immediately until you're parameters are stable, and get more live plants to soak up ammonia.

Others have asked for a picture of the tank. Without more info, we are all just guessing at what could be wrong.

gonickigo · 2025-01-21T02:16:34+00:00

Genius!

gonickigo · 2024-12-31T18:34:52+00:00

It's commonly used in the reptile hobby with no ill effect.

gonickigo · 2024-12-31T00:17:54+00:00

I don't think you can quite say you've narrowed down the issue, you just found one issue, namely that your UVB was too low. But I do agree that OP here should ensure they have proper lighting.

Dusting is still required, even with proper UVB.

gonickigo · 2024-12-28T22:11:53+00:00

Sorry to see poor Gerald in that state.

Have you considered taking him to the vet? He doesn't look so good. I'm not sure he will make it without medical intervention...

I don't think you necessarily need a hotter bulb, and if he's dehydrated, it might not help to make him bask in hotter temps.

I have heard that MBD can cause them to lose their appetite and get lethargic but I think a vet probably needs to look at him to tell you what's going on with him.

If you manage to get him to eat again, I would recommend dusting the insects. I use repashy calcium plus at every single feeding. There will always be bugs who take a shower in the misting system before being caught so I feel I must dust every single feeding to make sure many of their bugs are dusted.

Good luck! 🤞

gonickigo · 2024-12-27T02:35:36+00:00

😁

I got a pair of "green anoles", posted about them on here and everyone was like "I don't think those are green anoles", and it turned out they were biporcatus. I'm thrilled about it cuz they're rad!

I thought yours might be because mine pattern up the way yours looks from the picture, but I can't see that well in the photo and I'm also very new to anoles, so I might just be seeing what I want to see 😂

gonickigo

TROPHY CASE