( Latin: Tyrophagus casei)

Cheese mites can also live in corn, flour, etc., but they are best known for their occurrence in cheese, in which they gnaw small holes. A ripe, mite-infested cheese will be more or less covered with a grey powder, which consists of the mites themselves and their moulted skins and faeces. Cheese mites can live at low temperatures but not in the refrigerator. For many cheeses the presence of mites is highly undesirable, but there are certain types in which a culture of cheese mites is introduced. Cheese can be protected by a thin layer of paraffin wax.