Mites are just horrible

[Kinra]

I'm currently dealing with mites for the first time and I honestly just straight up hate the little things. I got the mites back in December from the kinked pewter BHB sent me, but I put of treating for them because I was going on vacation and couldn't check for adverse reactions to PAM on a regular basis. I QT in a separate room that I keep the door closed to all the time thankfully and I sprayed the hallway down so only QT appears to have mites. These little things are just horrible and I'm afraid they are going to spread to the rest of my collection.

I know some people accept them as part of the hobby and I guess I could see that as being true if I was getting imports, but I don't think any reputable breeder should be sending out snakes that might (or do) have mites. I really hope I never have to deal with these again and I'm glad I didn't have to deal with these when I first got into the hobby. I would not have been prepared to deal with mites at this time last year and I also didn't really understand the importance of QT back then too so I'm glad my luck held out for as long as it did.

In a slightly related off topic note, my cat and dog also managed to bring fleas back with them from my mom's cats. All I need now is some gecko mites and lice and everyone can be miserable and on medication.

I really hate bugs, especially parasites so I just had to rant about it for a minute, thanks for bearing with me.

[decensored]

That sucks!! Mites are awful, but on the bright side they are relatively easy to kill.

Your whole situation with BHB was pretty messed up! The problem with big breeders with that is that they have so many animals moving through their facility and so many people working in, and visiting it that it's very difficult to address. I don't think there is a good reason for sending someone an animal that has anything wrong with it, mites included - but in their defense, its one of those things that sometimes happens..

Godluck!

[Emily Hubbard]

LAME! I got my snake from BHB and she is mite free.... Probably a good thing to warn Brian about though, just so he knows that you got one with mites. I don't think any good breeder would knowingly send mites, I am sure it was just an over site. That doesn't make it BETTER, still flipping obnoxious, but I don't think it was just complete negligence, more like an unfortunate thing that happens and annoys the crap out of everyone involved.

Best of luck! Vent away, all parasitic bugs are indeed a nightmare. Just thinking about them makes me feel like things are crawling on me. *shudder*

[ballpythonluvr]

I am so sorry that you are dealing with this. My very first ball python that I had back in 2008 came to me with mites. I had a heck of a time with these little buggers. It took forever to get rid of them. I am very picky about where I get my snakes from now. I would rather be safe then sorry.

[PitOnTheProwl]

Mites suck and you are not the first person to complain about them from BHB.
Question though, Did you know the snake was kinked before you bought it??

[Kinra]

Mites suck and you are not the first person to complain about them from BHB.
Question though, Did you know the snake was kinked before you bought it??

No, I wasn't aware that the snake was kinked when I bought it. I made a thread here and on fauna. I ended up sending the snake back for a full refund and as I was packaging her up I noticed then that she had mites. I told them about them and the threads I created, but I never heard back from Lori or anyone else after they sent me the return shipping label. The whole thing was a nightmare and now I'm still dealing with the after math of my lack of better judgement in buying from them.

[PitOnTheProwl]

I was going to post on the other thread but I will post here instead.

The mites are an issue for sure BUT they are treatable.
The kink on the other hand should have been noticed at some point before it made it to you much less into the box. I am wondering if the kink was from incubation or early handling damage?? Could an employee have been trying to cover it up and Brian and Lori didnt know?

Either way it is a screwed situation for both of you and the after math sucks.

[Kinra]

The kink doesn't really bother me that much because I got my money back, but they offered me nothing when I told them my quarantine rack now has mites from their snake. I really do respect all that Brian has done for the community but that doesn't excuse what happened when I dealt with him. If employees are hiding things like this then he needs to deal with that. I didn't buy a snake from some nameless employee, I bought a snake from BHB and as the owners it is Brian and Lori who I hold responsible.

But that wasn't really the point of this thread, I just needed to rant after I finished treating for mites. My poor hog island boas seem to have been attacked the worse, but hopefully the mites will start dying now and stay in my QT room.

[PitOnTheProwl]

dont "read" me the wrong way please.
I am not saying any of it was right and I do know your fight.
my QT room is out bedroom, big mistake with a rescue I took in. I swear I could feel the mites crawling on me at night. they were not that bad and didnt find any in our bed but the thought drove me crazy.

[Kinra]

dont "read" me the wrong way please.
I am not saying any of it was right and I do know your fight.
my QT room is out bedroom, big mistake with a rescue I took in. I swear I could feel the mites crawling on me at night. they were not that bad and didnt find any in our bed but the thought drove me crazy.

Sorry I left out the part in my response where some people on fauna were trying to say that it's almost excusable because Brian has people working for him. So if you want to buy from him you should expect problems like these. I don't need to buy the BHB name if I have to expect this kind of thing. I can find what I am looking for with a smaller breeder who cares about their collection.

I'm glad I use my spare room as a QT room so I didn't have that problem, but I found a lot crawling on me as I was treating the snakes and I swear I could feel them crawling on me until I finished and took a nice hot shower.