Mites?!

[Baelari]

My pacman tank has mites. They're small, about the size of a grain of sand, ivory colored, have smooth rounded butts, and seem to double in numbers every time I look in the tank. They congregated on the fish flakes I stuck in there to feed the little baby crickets, but now that the fish flakes are eaten, they're spreading out through the tank, and some are congregating on top of Lump's head.There's a little pile of them between his eyes. I heard that they aren't harmful to frogs, but I don't like the fact that they've chosen his head as their new hangout. How do I get rid of them and keep them from coming back?

[nickc]

they are most likely flour mites. I recently had a problem with them in my superworm colony. They are attracted to humidity and the fish flakes are bringing them in. The best way to get rid of them is to completely clean and sterilize the tank and replace the substrate. Its a good idea to keep fish flakes out of the tank

[DonLisk]

My pacman tank has mites. They're small, about the size of a grain of sand, ivory colored, have smooth rounded butts, and seem to double in numbers every time I look in the tank. They congregated on the fish flakes I stuck in there to feed the little baby crickets, but now that the fish flakes are eaten, they're spreading out through the tank, and some are congregating on top of Lump's head.There's a little pile of them between his eyes. I heard that they aren't harmful to frogs, but I don't like the fact that they've chosen his head as their new hangout. How do I get rid of them and keep them from coming back?

Basicly, you would have to strip and clean the tank, replace the substrate and wash down all the accents.
You can probably bake the substrate at about 200 degrees (not sure amount of time but watch it so it doesn't set fire) to kill them off and use the substrate again.

They come in on the crickets so most vivs have them but not to the point of being overwhelming. Yours sounds overwhelming though.

Maybe someone else has a easier method but I don't know of one.

[nickc]

Ive also heard people "carbon bombing" their enclosure. You would take your frog out and place dry ice in the tank, seal it up, and let it evaporate. It would kill all the mites

[SkeletalFrog]

How to get rid of most terrarium pests with dry ice

I came across this clever idea online a few years ago. Basically, rather than spending hours and large amounts of money breaking down, sterilizing and replacing your terrarium, just move all the animals you want to stay alive to a holding tank and drop some dry ice in the contaminated tank.

Because mites (and all other animal and fungal pests) require oxygen, and because CO2 is heavier than air, the CO2 will displace all of the oxygenated air in the tank, causing everything inside to suffocate (except plants).

You should be able to find dry ice locally (I know some Super Wal-Marts sell it). Just remove your frog, put the dry ice in a bowl of water in the tank, let it fill with CO2, then seal it off and wait a while. Bingo, all the mites are dead.

Caveat - I haven't tried this myself, I've never had bug problems in tanks that weren't simple to deal with.

[LilyPad]

The dry ice trick sounds great!! I will keep that in mind if I ever have any issues