First, thanks one and all for mentioning, even pushing, The Tarantula Keeper's Guide. It makes Marguerite and me both very proud that you think so highly of it.

And, we have published a webpage on mites and how to deal with them at MIghty Mites .

You need to know that there are a truly huge number of different kinds of mites on Planet Earth, and the discussion often devolves into trying to determine whether yours are harmful or not. This sort of thing is way outside the expertise of all but a few hundred or so experts in the field. So, our philosophy is that ALL MITES ARE HARMFUL and should be dealt with the same way: Kill them. Disinfect the cages. Change your arachnoculture habits to reduce the threat.

However, we are not experts on growing either crickets or roaches. The best we can say is that mites have proven to be a real problem with cricket ranches, and we've seen quite a number of postings where people have found them with their roaches as well.

Face it. They're a fact of life, and there's no way to rid yourself of them permanently. With your cricket colony, try to find out how to raise crickets in such a way as to reduce the mite population to a minimum. Your roach colonies as well.

Commercial cricket ranches use the method of setting up new breeding pens/cages with each generation of crickets. Once the crickets have been sold or destroyed (too may are always produced in an effort to meet unpredictable demands), used cages are thoroughly cleaned and disinfected before they are reused. Often, they are moved outdoors where they are exposed to sunlight and the elements for several days to several weeks as an additional way of disinfecting them.

To paraphrase someone in Alice in Wonderland, "You need to run as fast as you can to stay even with everybody else."

Hope this helps. Best of luck.

thanx to all you guys out their that helped me, yesterday I cleaned out the crickets cage and the t's cages

Dasie
If you wont to start with a colony of roaches you will have to buy a fair amount that are all ready breeding and the coliny is producing a fair amount of Roaches .
Cause to start from scratch on a coliny takes a good couple of months to do.
But you should be able to pick up a coliny at the expo with alot of Roaches allready.!

If you change your crickets over to another container after you buy them and then give them water and fresh food they should last longer and plenty ventilation and keep them dry .
I put the females into substrate so they can lay eggs .
The males I put into another container with egg cartains ,iether news papper or small layer of sand for them.

This way I can keep them alive for 3 weeks .
If I have any deaths they get feed to my Platannas Or throw them away.

But I have started with Roaches know.I have 7 species But Im now where near to start feeding my Ts with them
So Im stuck with crickets for the next couple of months..

Best of Luck

sterkte, ja when and where is the next expo ?

Roaches are better and they breed faster.... glad to help

enjoy

"First, thanks one and all for mentioning, even pushing, The Tarantula Keeper's Guide. It makes Marguerite and me both very proud that you think so highly of it."

Your book learned me all I know about T`s in general...
thank you is the least I can say