Mites getting worse... I guess... :(

Well, Jackson was soaking in his dish when I got up this morning. Poor baby! I do hope my PAM gets here quick! Apparently the MiteOff didn't even work for temporary relief. He just ate a rather large meal yesterday (graduated him to rat crawlers, it was the quickest meal I've witnessed!), so outside of moving him around too much, is there anything I can do for him while waiting for the PAM? Yesterday I cleaned his tank exceptionally well and also cleaned him and gave him a little MiteOff shower... aw, I am just so bummed that he is uncomfortable...! Thanks!

Miteoff drowns the mites, sort of, naw, it's a waste of money and does very little actually.
Hopefully your PAM gets there soon, mites are no fun for the snake but not really too hard to get rid of if you treat as directed.

Good luck, I have a feeling they'll be under control soon :)

Until the P-A-M arrived try soaking the snake in 83-8ºF water with a bit of dawn or similar pure soap (NOT detergent soaps suds up detergents don't really!!) for 30 min this will drown most of the adults and juveniles while you do that CLEAN the enclosure you can use boiled water to kill eggs slosh it around and clean very very carefully also wipe around the area where it is kept. (be careful of hot water on glass) use diluted bleach quandary ammonia or chlorahexidine to do this. Clean and fresh everything and rinse off the snake (make sure to duck its head a few times) and return it this will get rid on many and at least your snake will have relief I do this exact thing every 3 days for 30 as mite treatment it works perfectly it just take lots of time and labour.

Oh and allow the humidity to drop, mites die at lower than 20% but anything below 70% will slow the reproduction down when we treat rescues we drop it to 40% it doesn't bother the snake but is hard on the mites.

here is a great life cycle description this will help to explain why they are such a problem and how to slow the reproduction.

http://www.vpi.com/publications/the_...of_snake_mites

Hi,

Just to say that while soaking in water with a spot of dish soap in it will drown a lot of them on the snake I would still recommend letting him digest his meal for at least 48 hours before trying it.


dr del

Good call Derek! I should have mentioned that!

Thanks so much! I haven't messed with him today since he's digesting. He has actually been in his water dish ALL DAY. Is that bad for him in the long run or is it ok to let him sit there?

I had a run in with mites and before I had my PAM I ran him under water and stroked my hand over his body which removed most of the mites. I then put a small amount of extra virgin olive oil in my hands and coated his body. I left mine on and when he shed, he shed off the rest of the suffocated mites. Havent seen mites since. I have since stopped using shavings as bedding and have moved to paper towels and havent had a mite yet.

My super secret trick for heavy mite infestations { which always seem to come with rescues } is a shallow warm bath and baby shampoo.

With my latest rescue, I discovered a gentle warm shower and a quick sudsing with baby shampoo really seems to remove pretty much all of the nasty buggers from the snake. PAM the enclosure to complete the treatment.

Don't give up hope yet, just do the best you can until the PAM arrives.

Gale

I've used mineral oil to treat mites in the past. As Rat160 said, just put a small amount on my hands and let the snake run through them until he's well coated. The mineral oil will suffocate any mites still on him, so as long as you clean his enclosure well before returning him to it, he should be fine. (I've also heard of this done with olive oil or baby oil with similar effects.) I always keep a close eye on the snake during his next shed, because it can sometimes be patchy as a result of the treatment, but that's easy enough to handle as long as you're watching for it.