Hi,

I am am very new to owning and caring for snakes. Last month I bought my son a ball python at the pet store. I have been taking care of her while he is at his dad's for the summer. She is in a 20 gallon long tank and was eating live hopper mice when we got her and last time I fed her the next size up. Well, before I got him the ball (the guy at the pet store said that would make a good first time snake) but I wanted a scarlet king snake and they didn't have one. So I was on craigslist last week and ran across an ad for a Pueblan Milk snake hatchling and I went and met the guy and he had a female ball in a pillowcase and she looked skinny and he said he'd give her to me for $20 and I didn't really want to but she was all skinny and wrinkly looking. I told him I didn't have a tank to put her in and he said oh you can put her in there with your ball so I did and the very next day I went out and got her a tank. First thing the poor thing did was drinking water and stuff and she's in a 10 gallon now and ate a small mouse and now is just balled up under a log.

Day before yesterday I noticed when me and my friend tried to get Ozzy (my son's snake) out and handle her she was grumpy and even striked at my friend and I thought well maybe she is about to shed or something. I ran some water in the bath tub and let her swim around a bit and had done a few nights before with the new one. I do not think Ozzy likes my friend bc she was all tensed up in the water mad looking straight at him and then I told him get a paper towel roll in case she tries to strike so as soon as he walked out of the room she started swimming and stuff. I do not want her biting my son when he gets home and my friend was making me scared that was going to happen so I thought I'm gonna have to handle her alot more to get her somewhat tame or at least not afraid to be held.

Yesterday I watched some YouTube videos and found a great one and did exactly what the guy said and it worked like a charm she hung out on my son's bed and we went outside together and stuff and she did not get in her grumpy "S" position at me and so I learned how to put her back in her cage and all was great until this morning when I turned the lights on the 3 tanks. I opened up the door that leads to the shower to let some of the steam get in there for a little humidity and went in there and Ozzy was unusually moving around at 5:30am when she is usually sleeping so I looked at her and this little black bug was on her face and I'm like OH NO!!!! NOT MITES!!! My dogs got those mange mites last summer when a mange dog squeezed in thru my fenced in back yard and now I'm freaking watching videos about snake mites. Well I came across one video that is a 3 part video of a guy from canada that put a bottle of NIX lice shampoo in with a gallon of water and made a really diluted mixture and put his carpet pythons in a ice cooler while he sprayed that stuff all in the aspen and on every inch of the enclosure and showed how he got the snakes out and towel dried them and had put newspaper in there and sprayed it all again before he put them in this enclosure. He said it wouldn't hurt them but...his snakes were very large mine are all small.

Has anyone ever tried this? I just read on another forum where a girl poisoned her king snake and had a youtube link to it and it looked like my little Pueblan Milk Snake except hers was a little bigger. The 2 10 gallon tanks that house my milk snake and the new ball are on a stand where they are one on top of the other and the 20 long that houses "Ozzy" is on top of my son's entertainment center. All are in his room right now. I am thinking that the ball python the guy off craigslist gave the mites to Ozzy bc I didn't have a tank for her and so I have gone to Walmart and bought the NIX, a rubbermaid tub, a gallon of water, a spray bottle, a funnel, some 20 mule borax to put all over the carpet, clorox to clean all the decor and paper towels to line the tanks with. I held the smaller ball python and milk snake also last night for a few minutes and it didn't look like it had anything on it. It mainly stays buried in the aspen bedding. I had tried to feed him a pinky Friday but he wouldn't take it but wondered if he would eat crickets when I buy some for my 7 year old leopard gecko. Both ball pythons I noticed the other day has a few little white specks on them & I was hoping that was just from the aspen bedding I'm using.

Can my Leopard Gecko get these mites from the snakes if her enclosure is not in the same room as the snakes? I haven't handled her since I got the new snakes. And can dogs, cats and humans get them too? Like if I petted my dog after handling the snake. Sorry for all the questions I am new at this and I do not want to kill our snakes. I really only got the other ball python mainly to see if I could save her life bc she was so scrawny.

If you have any advice on what to do I would sincerely appreciate your help.