Hi, Seasons Greetings. I am not sure if this is the correct place to put this but a few weeks ago I emptied my Viv to clean it, primerily do some maintenance to the water-fall which had developed a leak and change some of the plants which needed a rest from the battering the frogs give them (the plants that is). I have Dendrosoil in the viv with the appropriate custodians. I had hoped to reuse this substrate but when I checked it last I noticed that it now has mites in it, or what I presume to be mites they are very small brown/black dots with short spidery type legs! Is it safe to put this substrate back into the vivarium or should I discard it. I also have two woodlice cultures they are also infested can I treat these with anything to get rid of them or am I going to have to discard them as well - this will be a real pity as they now have hundreds of woodlice in them. I am still new to this especially new to the concept of the Dendrosoil and I only use real plants so I would appreciate any help you can give.
I have also found a lot of mites in my substrate. It doesn't seem to be bothering my frogs at all, but I'm still concerned. I am a student zookeeper, and while working in the Herp area, there were sand mites in some of the desert herp exhibits. I asked the keeper about this, and he told me there's no avoiding them, and that they don't harm the animals. I did not see any in the tropical herp exhibits, though. I was hoping that it's nothing to worry about, but there are a lot of them, and I'm worried that it may be only a matter of time before they affect the frogs.
Take a pic so they can be identified. I know darts will eat mites. Is there anything in the substrate by way of microfauna? I've read that isopods will keep mites in check.
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