Getting rid of mites with water

[Cigam]

I got a baby firefly female last Sunday from a breeder and noticed a few days ago that she has mites.

I think I caught it early because I could only find 1 adult on her and of course a few dozen black specks in the paper towel. I went to the only pet store near where I live and it turns out they are fresh out of all mite sprays like preventamite.

What I've been doing is sterilizing her cage and soaking her in warm water everyday. The weird thing is it seems to be working extremely well so far, has anyone actually killed all the mites this way or is it just a good way to keep the population down until you can get a spray to kill them?

If I can kill all the mites without the use of harsh chemicals I will definitely let you guys know. Just as a disclaimer I'm not using this girl as a lab rat and I will get her mite products as soon as humanly possible if she needs them.

[Seamo]

I would defo still use a prevention. We use ardap in the uk. Can't get PM over here.

[Pythonfriend]

with a nice little bath, all the mites on the snake will drown. its good for driving down the numbers and giving relief to the snake. but the eggs are in the substrate or in and around the enclosure, so i dont think you will reach eradication this way.

provent-a-mite is good, you dont use it on the snake, only on the enclosure and the substrate. it stays active for up to a month, and it kills the mites as they hatch out of their eggs.

with the bath and proper hygiene, you can keep the mites under control and in low numbers until you get provent-a-mite. eradication without using a product like PAM is possible, but i think you need a lot of luck for that to work. it can take a month for these tiny eggs to hatch.

the two biggest risks with mites are that when you have a large collection of reptiles, they may spread. and they may carry other reptile diseases from one enclosure to the next, from one reptile to another. if you only have this one BP, i dont see a risk with trying to wipe them out without chemicals.

[dr del]

If you add a little spot of dish detergent it breaks the surface water tension and drowns them better.

But it won't kill any eggs that have been laid ( and the females can travel a fair distance to lay them ) so you will probably just get constant re-infections unless you treat the enclosure and any nearby animals as well.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

You don't eradicate mites on a snake with a bath just like you do not eradicate fleas on a dog with a bath either.

Adult mites are not the only problems and even if you believe that you eradicated them all, eggs will still be there.

Personally I prefer to eradicate them as quickly as possible knowing that they are gone for good. drowning in water, or water and dish soap and other methods are nothing new and just a waste of time.

[bcr229]

The water will drown the mites on the snake, which is why snakes soak themselves, but not all of the mites will die and it won't stop new eggs from hatching. Also, you don't need a lot of soap in the water, just a bare drop so that the mites can't float on the surface of the water so you ensure they drown. Your snake shouldn't look like she's taking a bubble bath.

Otherwise, you can go to a drug store like CVS or Walgreens, or even WalMart, and pick up the lice treatment like NIX or RID. Get the 2 oz (59 ml) bottle of cream rinse and mix it very well with 1 gallon of clean water to make a weak permethrin solution, and pour some into a clean spray bottle (WalMart also has these). You can spray this in your snake's enclosure, on the newspaper/paper towels you use as substrate, and plastic hides. Do not spray it in the water bowl or on the snake!

Wait for the enclosure, hides, paper, etc. to dry completely before putting the snake back. It will kill the mites during the phases when they are off the snake. Keep some treated paper on hand to replace the paper in the enclosure after your snake makes a mess.

Hopefully you don't have a lot of cage decorations either. I run plastic ones through the dishwasher, and wooden hides (which I almost never use) get baked in the oven at 200*F for 30 minutes.

[Cigam]

Thanks guys, I will definitely get provent-a-mite as soon as i can and I will use it in all of my snake bins.

I have leopard geckos too, do you guys think I should spray their bins too?

Edit: The NIX/water spray is probably what I can get the fastest so I will actually probably go with that.

[Cigam]

The day I made the original post was the last time I saw a mite and I only found 3 that day. She's on paper towel that I've checked very thoroughly with the help of a microscope and I've also looked at her a few times under a large hobby magnifying glass.

Today I got provent-a-mite just in case but do you guys think I can hold off spraying something so harsh in her cage until I'm sure she still has them? I'm kind if scared about putting pesticides in her enclosure unless I have to. Also I would of used the NIX/RID idea but I live in Canada and I couldn't find them in the stores around my area.

Thank you for your help everyone, I really appreciate it.

[BrandyL1193]

Ugh....I had a dream that my snakes got mites last night....I hope not...lol

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[bcr229]

Today I got provent-a-mite just in case but do you guys think I can hold off spraying something so harsh in her cage until I'm sure she still has them?

I would treat her enclosure, hides, and paper towels as described in the instructions. Mite eggs can take several weeks before they hatch. If you had the snake for a week before noticing the mites, chances are her enclosure has eggs in it already.

If you really want to learn more about mites... http://denardo.lab.asu.edu/publicati...snakemites.pdf

The article explains in great detail exactly why mites "keep coming back" weeks after snake owners think they've been eradicated. If you don't want to read through the initial pages of snake mite life cycle, physiology, and behavior, just read pages 8-12 where the article discusses various treatments and how they are best used.