For a time, we had constant contamination of our tissue cultures in the lab. Pretty much every plate in the incubator got contaminated with fungi and/or bacteria. After two months of cleaning, sterilizing and checking every material we used we found mites swimming in our cultures! The incubator itself appears to be infested, as cultures there keep getting contaminated several months later. We tried cleaning it very weel, and also tried keeping it at 50ºC (maximum temperature) for a couple of days, to no avail. Has anyone had a similar issue? How did you solve it?
I have considered fumigating the incubator with formaldehyde, but am afraid it will ruin the equipment. I am also considering using some sort of acaricide inside the incubator, but am afraid residues could affect the phisiology of the cells that will be cultured in this incubator afterwards. Do you have suggestions on acaricides that could be resonably safe and non-toxic?
Hi Andre - I think it would help to get some better photos of these mites. They don't look like an ordinary infestation of Tyrophagus, so knowing which kind of mite they are would give us some clues as to where they're coming from, what they're eating and, just maybe, what to do about them. I expect the answer is the usual hygiene but you might be able to focus those efforts.
Best wishes,
Owen.
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