Help with mites please

Alright so my friend just asked me to hold onto his 2 RTBs due to some serious issues with his now ex girlfriend. Turns out one of them has mites, but they were both kept in the same enclosure prior to coming here. They have been in quarantine since the second they arrived in my home(totally separate room from my pythons and geckos). What is the best way to go about treating them? I'm looking it up online, but want to know what you have found to work best.

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Originally Posted by jess6905

Alright so my friend just asked me to hold onto his 2 RTBs due to some serious issues with his now ex girlfriend. Turns out one of them has mites, but they were both kept in the same enclosure prior to coming here. They have been in quarantine since the second they arrived in my home(totally separate room from my pythons and geckos). What is the best way to go about treating them? I'm looking it up online, but want to know what you have found to work best.

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What I would suggest is first keep them as far as you can from your collection,next make sure you completely clean their separate enclosures, I say seperate due to you saying they were housed together. I use a small amount of bleach to water mix to completely clean their enclosures and make sure you totally rince away any bleach residue left allow to dry completely then use PAM Provent a mite spray and follow the directions completely allow this to dry. While you are cleaning the enclosures you can soak the snake in a solution of mild dish washing liquid and warm water this should kill some of the mites on the snakes. Then as said above replace the snakes into their enclosures and repeat a week later or so if a second infestation comes about. Hope this helps.

Provent a Mite is a mite spray that will get rid of the mites in the enclosure. Be sure to read the directions carefully as the vapors can harm a snake. You can only buy this online.

For the enclosure, change all substrate to paper towels until all mites are gone. Remove and disinfectant all water bowls and cage accessories. Mite eggs can be anywhere. Then give the enclosure a good wash and scrub.

In the mean time, you can give your snakes a bath with a drop or two of dawn dish soap.

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A couple articles worth reading.

http://lllreptile.com/info/library/c...h-snake-mites/

(last1/3 of this one)
http://www.qualityserpents.com/educa...mmon_parasites

Several threads here too.
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...highlight=mite

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...highlight=mite

And lastly a thread about 2 snakes in 1 enclosure:
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...highlight=mite

Awesome thanks for the quick replies. They are currently a full 2 rooms away from my collection, and I have bee scrubbing my hands any time I have any contact with them. It doesn't seem like she has a bad infestation so I'm hoping it can be resolved relatively quickly. Also any tips on handling her? She is about 3 foot long and on the aggressive side.

Once you start treatment, I would recommend a preventative treatment of your collection just to be sure they do not get them also. Quarantine is good, the right thing to do, but the mites are there and there is a possibility of transfer.

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Originally Posted by jess6905

Also any tips on handling her? She is about 3 foot long and on the aggressive side.

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Use a newspaper, paper towel roll, snake hook...just something to let her know you're there. Gently push the head away and pick up by the body...she should be relatively calm once you have her in hand.

And handle with confidence.

I'd use PAM on the enclosure and soak them in water with a couple drops of mineral oil as opposed to soap for sure. As much as I hate petco they sell a reptile spray for mites that you can actually spray onto the snakes themselves to kill any mites/eggs that are left after the soak, since you can't actually use PAM on the snakes. Use white paper towels as bedding so you can see any mites and a water bowl in each cage and that's it, keep it as simple as possible until you eradicate the mites. Good luck :)

I had mites show up in my collection about 4 months ago. Only a few snakes contracted them. Provent-a-mite (PAM) really does work wonders. I treated all the cages that day and each time I cleaned them for the next three weeks and I've not seen any since. It works!