Help...Came home from a Business Trip to Find Mites!

Ok everyone, I came home from a three week business trip and went in my office/reptile room and saw mites crawling around on my BTS. I don't know how they got there, my wife said she hadn't taken any of the reptiles outside, she had basically just been feeding them for the 3 weeks. That being said at this point I know I need to treat the issue. I have been doing a lot of reading as this is the first time I have had to deal with mites and I am seeing a lot of conflicting info. I know i need to treat the animal and the enclousure as well as everything inside. I am picking up some PAM and reptile relief after work. I have two other snakes in the room and a Beardie across the house. I assume that I will need to treat the snakes and their enclosures as well? I didn't see any mites on them, but since they are in the same room I figured they have been exposed, but what about the beardie? Are these things like fleas in the sense that they will infest all the reptiles and furniture? Also the office is carpeted and I have clothing in the closest. Does the entire room need to be treated now? Some atricles have said treat the animal and the enclosure and thats it, others have said you basically need to isolate the entire room, pull everything out, wash all fabrics, steam clean the carpet and then you still may not get rid of them. Any input would be appreciated, I have a feeling that I will be at this all night long.:(

The few times I had to deal with mites I did not need to "bomb" the room so that the carpet would get treated. Simply treating the snake with a product designed for on-snake use and then treating the enclosure/tub and paper towel substrate with PAM per the package directions was sufficient. Be sure when the snake makes a mess and you have to replace the paper towels to pre-treat them with PAM and allow them to dry first.

PAM does not kill eggs, but it kills the females when they leave the snake to lay eggs, and it kills the newly-hatched mites when they travel to the snake to feed. This is why it's important to re-treat the tub or enclosure weekly, and the paper towels when you replace them.

I also found it easier to apply the Reptile Relief by spraying it onto a paper towel and then wiping the snake with it, instead of spraying the snake directly. It was less stressful on the snake, and less overall product used. Also you can put a bit on a Q-tip and swab the cleft under the snake's chin as that's one place the mites love to hide.

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Originally Posted by jclaiborne

Ok everyone, I came home from a three week business trip and went in my office/reptile room and saw mites crawling around on my BTS. I don't know how they got there, my wife said she hadn't taken any of the reptiles outside, she had basically just been feeding them for the 3 weeks. That being said at this point I know I need to treat the issue. I have been doing a lot of reading as this is the first time I have had to deal with mites and I am seeing a lot of conflicting info. I know i need to treat the animal and the enclousure as well as everything inside. I am picking up some PAM and reptile relief after work. I have two other snakes in the room and a Beardie across the house. I assume that I will need to treat the snakes and their enclosures as well? I didn't see any mites on them, but since they are in the same room I figured they have been exposed, but what about the beardie? Are these things like fleas in the sense that they will infest all the reptiles and furniture? Also the office is carpeted and I have clothing in the closest. Does the entire room need to be treated now? Some atricles have said treat the animal and the enclosure and thats it, others have said you basically need to isolate the entire room, pull everything out, wash all fabrics, steam clean the carpet and then you still may not get rid of them. Any input would be appreciated, I have a feeling that I will be at this all night long.:(

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You'll just need to treat the animals and their enclosures; while the mites can and will traverse across carpet, they don't infest mammals, so if there's no reptiles they can feed on...they won't hang around. Once you get rid of them, they should stay gone.

Please go back to the Oside store and let them know you're the person Jen sent them (I'm emailing them now to expect you). Treat the skink as you would a snake in this article , just be careful with the mite treatment around the eyes. You may want to spray the reptile relief on a cotton ball or something to get it on and around his head.

I would treat the cages for the snakes, but soak them in water and then look them over carefully before actually going all out in treating them with reptile relief as well. Provent a Mite will make sure that the mites don't get into the other cages. The beardie is probably okay, but mites can get to beardies as well if they're not able to bask warm enough - a spray of provent a mite in that cage as well wouldn't be a bad precaution.

At this point, mites have infested herps worldwide thanks to herpetoculture, so they could have come from anywhere - even wild populations of reptiles have them, and if someone brings an infested pet into a pet store and they fall on the ground, crawl on you, or on bedding, etc... it's easy to pick them up. Even once you eradicate them from your collection, keep the provent a mite around and re-treat your bedding each time you completely clean out your cages. It's what I do at home and here at the breeding center, even though at both places, I know there are no mites. Helps to keep it that way!

-Jen

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Originally Posted by LLLReptile

You'll just need to treat the animals and their enclosures; while the mites can and will traverse across carpet, they don't infest mammals, so if there's no reptiles they can feed on...they won't hang around. Once you get rid of them, they should stay gone.

Please go back to the Oside store and let them know you're the person Jen sent them (I'm emailing them now to expect you). Treat the skink as you would a snake in this article , just be careful with the mite treatment around the eyes. You may want to spray the reptile relief on a cotton ball or something to get it on and around his head.

I would treat the cages for the snakes, but soak them in water and then look them over carefully before actually going all out in treating them with reptile relief as well. Provent a Mite will make sure that the mites don't get into the other cages. The beardie is probably okay, but mites can get to beardies as well if they're not able to bask warm enough - a spray of provent a mite in that cage as well wouldn't be a bad precaution.

At this point, mites have infested herps worldwide thanks to herpetoculture, so they could have come from anywhere - even wild populations of reptiles have them, and if someone brings an infested pet into a pet store and they fall on the ground, crawl on you, or on bedding, etc... it's easy to pick them up. Even once you eradicate them from your collection, keep the provent a mite around and re-treat your bedding each time you completely clean out your cages. It's what I do at home and here at the breeding center, even though at both places, I know there are no mites. Helps to keep it that way!

-Jen

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Jen,

We are heading into Oside in a few hours, thank you so much for contacting them ahead of time. I greatly appreciate it. I will keep you posted.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

The few times I had to deal with mites I did not need to "bomb" the room so that the carpet would get treated. Simply treating the snake with a product designed for on-snake use and then treating the enclosure/tub and paper towel substrate with PAM per the package directions was sufficient. Be sure when the snake makes a mess and you have to replace the paper towels to pre-treat them with PAM and allow them to dry first.

PAM does not kill eggs, but it kills the females when they leave the snake to lay eggs, and it kills the newly-hatched mites when they travel to the snake to feed. This is why it's important to re-treat the tub or enclosure weekly, and the paper towels when you replace them.

I also found it easier to apply the Reptile Relief by spraying it onto a paper towel and then wiping the snake with it, instead of spraying the snake directly. It was less stressful on the snake, and less overall product used. Also you can put a bit on a Q-tip and swab the cleft under the snake's chin as that's one place the mites love to hide.

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Thanks for putting my mind at ease about the overall room!

pick up Permectrin™ II

Reptile Relief in now called Reptile Spray. PetCo has it for $8. When I had mites I actually sprayed the carpet directly around my new arrivals with the mites and then vacuumed the floor. Not sure it was needed but I did it and I only had to treat once.

I put the three snakes in a tube and sprayed them with Reptile Spray and left them as I cleaned the other items. Half way through I placed them in a different tube with some warm water for a little soak. This rinsed of the excess spay plus allowed the water to get the spray in tough spots like under the chin. I took them out and lightly died them before placing them in their clean tubs.

I did it that way because they were three young bloods I just ordered and they were pissy from shipping and very nippy. Spraying was much better for them and me over trying to go hands on.

I treated everything and still had alot left in the bottle. I bought the small bottle.

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Originally Posted by KMG

Reptile Relief in now called Reptile Spray. PetCo has it for $8. When I had mites I actually sprayed the carpet directly around my new arrivals with the mites and then vacuumed the floor. Not sure it was needed but I did it and I only had to treat once.

I put the three snakes in a tube and sprayed them with Reptile Spray and left them as I cleaned the other items. Half way through I placed them in a different tube with some warm water for a little soak. This rinsed of the excess spay plus allowed the water to get the spray in tough spots like under the chin. I took them out and lightly died them before placing them in their clean tubs.

I did it that way because they were three young bloods I just ordered and they were pissy from shipping and very nippy. Spraying was much better for them and me over trying to go hands on.

I treated everything and still had alot left in the bottle. I bought the small bottle.

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That's what i had first but never seem to fully get rid of them

Well ive been cleaning since 3:30pm and am just now finishing the last enclosure...I probably went a little overboard but I bleached all of the cages,bleached the hides and water bowls, put all the wood in the oven at 200 degrees, put the skink on paper towels for now put all his stuff in a plastic trash bag sprayed it with PAM and tied it off... I didn't see mites on any of the other reptiles but I still bathed them all and treated them, replaced the substrate and sprayed all the enclosures down with PAM...vaccumed the carpet and sprayed that with PAM as well.

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i would not use any product directly on the snake, since it is not necessary. and here accidents can happen and the snake can rapidly die from poisoning if things go wrong.

just treat the enclosure with PAM, follow the directions. (its not to be used directly on the reptile, it needs to dry until the smell is gone before you put the snake back in the enclosure). it stays active for a month, which should cover one generation of mites, so one use can eradicate the mites by killing all that are out of the egg and by sticking around intil all eggs have hatched.

to give the snake a relief, give her a bath in lukewarm water. add one tiny little drop of dishwashing fluid into the water, just to break the surface tension, then the mites will drown even faster. that should kill like 99% of the mites on the snake. provent-a-mite will do the rest.

just one product and maybe a bath, thats all you need, no need to complicate things or to add addtional risks and additional chemical exposure.

and now i noticed you last post, seems like you took good care of the issue :)