Well... he's got mites

[BigCeC43]

So I went to grab him today and sure enough there were 5 or 6 tiny little tan colored bugs crawling on top of his hide. I took him out, and although he didn't seem to have any on him the inside of both hides had the little things all over the place. I bathed him shortly (he doesn't like baths yet), and cleaned everything in the tank with bleach and water except for the substrate. I ordered P.A.M. today from the manufacturer's site. Hopefully it'll get here soon. Once I get it I'm going to toss the Aspen and either buy new aspen or maybe a different substrate. I'm going to spary the entire enclosure along with everthing in the tank. I'm assuming and hoping there's directions on the can.

If anyone has any advice in the meantime, or has any tricks/tips once I get the P.A.M. let me know?

[Krazy99CL]

use newpaper or unprinter paper. Use a drip of dish soap and let him soak. Remember the water not to high or hot when soaking.

[hoo-t]

Hard to know based on your description, but it doesn't sound like mites. Mites will be very, very small, the size of a period on a printed newspaper, and black. They WILL be on the snake. They will also be crawling around the enclosure, but if you find them crawling around the enclosure, your bound to find some on the snake. The fact that your bugs are crawling around on both hides suggests that they may be wood mites (different), or some other bug thats attracted to a moist environment. With all that said, the provent-a-mite treatment should still take care of it. Be sure that you are keeping the cage clean and dry, with appropriate humidity. Follow the instructions on the provent-a-mite to the letter! Newspaper or paper towel substrate during provent-a-mite treatment isn't a bad idea when your treating mites, but its my opinion thats not what you're dealing with, and the aspen should be fine. One sure way to tell is to go ahead and soak the snake, using the drop of liquid dish soap in the water. After soaking the snake, check the bottom of the water for little black specks. If you find any, look at them under a magnifying glass or microscope. If they look like miniature ticks, then you have mites. If they look like dirt, then you have dirt. Ok, bad joke, but its happened to me! OH! Under a magnifying glass or microscope, mites won't necessarily be black! They will be more transluscent, almost clear, unless they are full of blood. They will also have a white spot on their backs.

Good luck, and let us know!!!
Steve

[BigCeC43]

They're back this morning. I'm wondering if they're actually mites myself. The humidity was pretty high about a week ago while he was shedding, and my hides are wood. These are small, but they're definetly not black. Hopefully PAM will work (and get here soon).

[juddb]

I know one time i got some cypress mulch with some bugs in it that looked just like mites, but there was 0 on the snakes. So i switched them to paper towels treated them with pam and no problem. Come to find out the bag that had some left over cypress in it was infested with i think they were wood mites or something. So maybe its your substrate. I hope this helps.

[J.Vandegrift]

Did you keep the same Bedding in there??? Many of the mites are going to be in the bedding. I would not worry too much. Once you get the prevent a mite in they will be gone pretty quickly. Even if they are not mites the PAM should kill them. I would also get rid of the wood hide. They are impossible to clean. A platic hide would be much easier.

[West Coast Jungle]

Everytime I used to get cypess mulch it had bugs. I found that some of the other wood based bedding had bugs sometimes too. Now I only use newspaper and no bugs. They shouldn't harm your snake but who wants bugs crawling around the place and if you were to get reptile mites you might not ever notice.

[BigCeC43]

Well I just cleaned the entire tank again. This time I took out the aspen and put paper towels down. For some reason the temps/humidity are all out of wack now. When I first put him back the entire tank was 90+ and the humidity 80%. I've managed to get it back down to 83.8/89/69% but I've got to leave for work and won't be back til 10:30 or so. Hopefully they'll level out.

[BigCeC43]

I soaked everything in hot water and bleach. Now all my driftwood is much lighter in color(suprise suprise). Anyway I also baked it to try to dry it out, but I believ it's still damp which is effecting the humidity.

[crystalp705]

My snake was just treated with PAM a couple days ago. I followed exaclty what the can said and everything so far is going smoothly. My biggest problem now is convincing the pet store that they are infested with mites.....they seem to think its from the bedding. But its not, its defientely mites!