Mites (HELP) THERE'S HUNDREDS

[yaboyyoungd1234567]

Anyone that has successfully gotten rid of mites on here? I plan on buying spray tomorrow at my local pet store to kill the mites. But I've never had them before so how do I apply the spray to my snake and her 40 gall exp terra terrarium. I just need help with the process, she acquired them from my girlfriends beardie unfortunately and there's hundreds. I have a light and uth so if I have to buy a plastic tub to put her in I can use the light for heating, while she's quarantined. But how longs the process and what dos I do??????????

[bcr229]

I wrote this up after my second battle with the little so-and-so's.

Mite Eradication 101:

*** Permethrin ***
Permethrin comes in many forms - Provent-A-Mite (PAM), NIX/RID head lice treatment, Permethrin-10 from a livestock supply store, etc. Once mixed with water its half life is 30 days if kept out of direct sunlight.

PAM has several advantages. It has been tested for use with reptiles, and it comes ready to use. The disadvantages are that it's expensive and most reptile stores don't have it in stock, so you have to wait for it to be shipped to you if you don't have any on hand. Meanwhile the mites are busy feeding and breeding.

NIX/RID is cheaper than PAM and is readily available at WalMart, CVS, and other drug stores. It is also easy to dilute: mix one two ounce (59 ml) bottle of the cream rinse with one gallon of water.

At a dollar per ounce Permethrin-10 is the cheapest of the three options; one eight ounce bottle will make 240 gallons of solution, as only 6 milliliters of it are needed per gallon of water to make an effective mite spray. The upside is that if you have a lot of snakes to treat this will do it very economically. The downside is that it's all too easy to make too strong of a permethrin solution which can seriously injure or kill your snakes.

No matter which product you use, it must be used correctly. I've never applied any permethrin product directly onto my snakes as it's not needed for mite treatment, and permethrin poisoning in a snake can cause irreversible neurological damage or death.

Permethrin use: spray the enclosure, paper substrate, and hides with the diluted solution or PAM. DO NOT SPRAY THE WATER BOWL. Allow everything to dry completely before returning your snake to its home. Also keep a supply of treated and dried newspaper or paper towels and treated hides available so that when a snake makes a mess, you replace the soiled paper and hides with treated ones. Treat the enclosure every two to three weeks.

*** Reptile Spray ***

Reptile Spray kills mites on contact while wet, once it dries it loses its effectiveness pretty quickly. Reptile Spray is a solution of salts rather than an insecticide; it kills mites by dehydrating them. I don't spray the snakes as more ends up on the floor than on the snake. Instead, I spray a white paper towel with it and wipe it on the snake. That way you get even coverage on the snake, you can work it into the area under their chin really well as that's a favorite hiding place for mites, you don't stress out your snake, and you can look for mites on the paper towel to see how quickly they're being eradicated. Apply twice a week. Note - this stuff hurts like the blazes in an open wound.

*** Hot Shot No-Pest Strips ***

Some people take a Hot Shot No-Pest strip, cut it into pieces, put each piece into a small sealed container, poke some holes in the container, and put each container into the snake's enclosure. I've used the No-Pest strip but I just hang it in the snake room and close the door. Either way is effective, especially if you have a major outbreak.

If you do use it, remove the water bowls as the insecticide is strongly attracted to water and you don't want the snake drinking it. After 24 hours remove the strip (or pieces), put them into an airtight container for future use, air out the room, and put the water bowls back. Repeat treatment weekly.

Important! If you also keep tarantulas, feeder roaches/dubias, crickets, etc. do not use the No-Pest Strip as it can kill them too!!!!

*** Mild Dish Soap ***

One or two drops of mild dish detergent in your snake's bath water will break the surface tension and prevent mites from floating in the water so they drown. No more than that is needed, your snake should not look like it is taking a bubble bath.

*** Heat ***

Don't laugh, but a temperature of 135*F for five seconds will kill mites and the eggs. I purchased a heat gun used for stripping paint that can be set to blow hot air from 180*F through 1200*F. Using the heat gun and a temperature gun I heated the surfaces and crevices of my racks and enclosures to kill off any mite eggs that may have been laid outside the tubs. Don't get your enclosure surfaces and joined/glued areas too hot or you can damage them.

Mite treatment should continue for 30 days after you stop finding mites on your snake, as an egg can take that long to hatch.

*** FINAL NOTE ***

Effective quarantine means that you treat every new arrival as if it has mites, and new snakes are kept as far away from your established collection as possible for at least 90 days. I treat the quarantine enclosure, hides, and paper with permethrin a day or so before the new snake arrives, and I wipe it with a paper towel soaked in Reptile Spray as part of my inspection process when it comes out of the shipping box. If it has mites I will know it within a day or two at most. This also goes for snakes from "trusted" sources, my first mite outbreak ever came from someone I trusted.

[cchardwick]

I just had a major infestation as well and finally kicked those buggers in the but HA! I'm scared of PAM and other reptile sprays, they can damage your snake or kill your snake (do a search for it). I used Natural Chemistry Reptile Relief Spray.

https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Chemi.../dp/B000NGU7NQ

What I did was pull out all the substrate. Then spray down the entire tank with reptile spray, wipe it to wet all surfaces, then let dry about 10 minutes. Then rinse it out real good with water. Then really wet a paper towel with the spray and wipe down your snake. In about 30 minutes all the mites will come crawling out of his scales and you can wipe him down a second time. I wiped a few days in a row but almost lost a snake because he looked really bad, you should only wipe them every three days at most. Probably best to wipe down once, then 30 minutes later, then wait at least a couple days at least for another wipe even if you see mites on the snake. Then put paper towels down in your tank to check for mites, I saw them daily and changed out the paper towels and wiped down the tank and let it dry every single day for 2-3 weeks or until you don't see a mite again. Be sure to keep the paper towel substrate humid. All my white snakes had red sores all over that took another couple weeks to heal after I killed all the mites.

Those mites crawl all over the room, seems like mostly on a carpet floor. So it's best to vacuum at least once a day for a couple weeks.

Don't go more than a day without changing out the substrate if you use the reptile spray, they multiply like crazy. I left my snake alone for a couple days and the mites reproduced like crazy.

I just got a new snake recently, wiped him down and a couple mites popped out. The guy I got her from was surprised.

If you switch over to paper towels be sure to spray them down with water, then take a few balled up and soaked paper towels and put them in there too to keep the humidity up. Change them all out every day until you get it under control.

Now even though my mites are gone I still have all my snakes on paper towels. Every day I have several that go to the bathroom and if I see even a single mite I go through the whole rack and change all paper towels. I still spray down all my tubs with reptile spray and let it dry. Even with a new snake with mites I only had about three days of mites and then they were totally gone again. Now that I'm mite free I clean only the tubs that are soiled by removing all the paper towels, spraying them down with reptile spray, wetting all surfaces, letting it dry, washing with water and putting down new paper towels and spraying with water. Every other day I put 3/4 cup of water in the balled up paper towels in the front of the tub for humidity.

There are many ways to fight mites but for me the reptile spray and paper towel substrate works the best and is the safest for my snakes. And it also keeps the tubs super clean, clean tubs stimulate the snakes appetite, most are eating way better than using any other substrate and spot cleaning. I find that cleaning and replacing paper towels is a lot easier and cheaper than changing out any other substrate.

[yaboyyoungd1234567]

Thank you guys I'm thinking of buying PAM and Reptile Spray in the AM! From what I've seen you can spray PAM (Provent-A-Mite) in your terrarium and keep everything in it, except the snake of course. Is that correct? Then I was gonna use the Reptile Spray on on my RTB!

[BeelzeBall.]

Thank you guys I'm thinking of buying PAM and Reptile Spray in the AM! From what I've seen you can spray PAM (Provent-A-Mite) in your terrarium and keep everything in it, except the snake of course. Is that correct? Then I was gonna use the Reptile Spray on on my RTB!

snake and water bowl, i took the hide out too but i don't think you have to, recently picked a new boa with mites, next day i got PAM and reptile spray and i haven't seen mites since, ill keep using the pam to kill the next gen mites,works . careful with the pam though follow directions . also I was reading around and i guess pam isn't a good idea to use on hognose snakes enclosures and i think it was treeboas i guess they die i dunno,its what i read in couple different forums. Good luck.

[yaboyyoungd1234567]

snake and water bowl, i took the hide out too but i don't think you have to, recently picked a new boa with mites, next day i got PAM and reptile spray and i haven't seen mites since, ill keep using the pam to kill the next gen mites,works . careful with the pam though follow directions . also I was reading around and i guess pam isn't a good idea to use on hognose snakes enclosures and i think it was treeboas i guess they die i dunno,its what i read in couple different forums. Good luck.

Thank you very much and yes of course the water dish! And she's a 1 year old red tail so she should be fine.

[yaboyyoungd1234567]

Thank you very much and yes of course the water dish! And she's a 1 year old red tail so she should be fine.

Do you you know where I can by PAM as quickly as possible????????

[BeelzeBall.]

Do you you know where I can by PAM as quickly as possible????????

Igot mine from LLL reptile, i got it quick because they have a location about 30mins away, you should order a can and in the meantime you should use the reptile spray for the snake you'll find that stuff anywhere, i think petco might have it.

[bcr229]

Do you you know where I can by PAM as quickly as possible????????

PAM is just aerosol permethrin. The 2 oz bottle of NIX or RID head lice treatment with the permethrin active ingredient, mixed into 1 gallon of warm water, also makes an effective mite spray.

[yaboyyoungd1234567]

PAM is just aerosol permethrin. The 2 oz bottle of NIX or RID head lice treatment with the permethrin active ingredient, mixed into 1 gallon of warm water, also makes an effective mite spray.

Can can you just spray RID by itself as you can PAM!? I saw that on YouTube.