My sister and I are both having issues with mites. If I have any dead rodents (such as dead offspring) or in the case of an old male that died a few months back, I see crawling mites all over the bodies and bedding. I read some info online about rat fur mites. The site says that rat fur mites are nearly impossible to find on a live rat but if a rat dies, the body cools and the mites crawl to the ends of the fur to seek a warm live rat.

Tonight we were cleaning my sister's rat cages and found mites all over the cages and crawling in the bedding. We checked the rats over and found no mites, though on one rat we did find a scab or two, which may be from scratching.

It said Frontline flea and tick spray, applied with a q-tip would rid the rats themselves of the mites but you would also have to treat the area. Other than bombing the area and tanks, is there anyway to get rid of these rats once and for all. We are planning on getting rid of all of our rats except for 2-3 of hers and 2 of mine as pets. The rest will be C02ed and frozen. So we can completely disinfect and treat every enclosure. Do you think these mites are coming from a pet store? We both got rats from the same stores?

I suppose I'm just looking for advice for mites because when I do get new rats, I do not want to run the risk of my new rats getting mites and I really don't want to deal with the mites again.