Dear Geoffrey,

both species are known to cause allergies. So I would search for companies producing allergy tests and ask them. Or you could ask pest control companies if they had some cases regarding the stated species (or to call you if there is such a case so you can get some specimens).

I hope that helps a little bit.

I wish you good luck!

Chris

Hello Geoffrey:

The mould mites Tyrophagus putrescentiae  and T. entomophagus are common pests of stored products, especially those with a high protein and fat content (meat, cheese, nuts and seeds, dried eggs. It feeds on the fungi that grow on the foodstuffs, and can become a pest of mycology laboratorie. If you need to start a colony of Tyrophagus mites, You can use cheese or nuts with high content of humidity infested with Aspergillus, a very common  group of conidial fungi in the Ascomycota. Tyrophagus feed on Aspergillus and reproduce very easy. Let  open the containers with food in a dark room with high humidity ( 80% RH and 26°C) to get natural infestation by Tyrophagus in two weeks.

Regards,

Luis Miguel

Respected Luis Miguel sir its nice to know a very easy method of rearing the tyrophagus

Hi Geoffrey,

For pure cultures of these species, try one of the researchers undertaking work on stored products acarology, such as Jan Hubert and Thomas Erban's at the Crop Research Institute, Biologically Active Substances in Crop Protection, Drnovska 507/73, Prague 6-Ruzyne, CZ-16106, Czechia. Jan's ResearchGate profile is https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jan_Hubert

Cheers, Matt

Dear Geoffrey,

I'm actually culturing Tyrophagus putrescentiae mites. Let me know if you are still interested.

Pierre

How we can isolate" distinguish" between Tyrophagus putrescentiaeand and T. entomophagu?