Preventing snake mites

Okay so I work at a local petsmart. Our snakes have mites and I'm paranoid about accidentally bringing them home to my collection! How to I prevent this? I also read that Pam kills mites? Everyone at my work isn't taking any action and id like to fix this. I've been bathing the snakes daily.

PAM does kill mites, but you need to follow the directions to the letter, because PAM can also cause neuro issues and even death in snakes.

Unfortunately the mite eradication process requires getting rid of natural substrate and wood from the snake's enclosure and using treated paper and plastic hide boxes so the mites can't hide from the insecticide. I doubt the manager at PetSmart will go for that.

To avoid bringing mites home to your own collection get yourself a can of OFF and spray yourself with it in the parking lot before you get into your car when you leave work each day. When you get home head straight for the shower and then either launder your clothes immediately, or put them in a plastic bag, spray them with more OFF, and close up the bag until laundry day.

Thanks for the feedback! I love my animals too much to use Pam if it causes neuro probs! Yeah I just put the ball pythons to the back and put them in tanks with only paper towel. I have this mite off spray by zoo med at home, will that do anything? I haven't had a mite problem ever so I only have that in the case of an emergency.

I always worry about this when going to reptile shows. Should we follow the "off spray" routine for shows too?

Reptile Basics sells an all natural mite spray that wont harm your snake.

Get some Proven-O Mite and use it every month, with mites it's always better to be proactive rather than reactive. Mites go through a stage called the nymph stage, the nymphs are so small that they become air born which means that flat as dust. it's not only important to kill the mites, but unless you're killing the eggs you're only putting a band aid on the situation and Provent-O-Mite is the only product I know of that kills the eggs. In my opinion unless you proactively kill the mites and the eggs on a month to month basis getting mites isn't a matter of if, but a matter of when.

Feel free to call me at 408-981-6694 if you need advice on how to use it.

I have about 200 snakes in my collection and I've only seen 3 mites in the last 12 years.

Best of luck.

Brian Gundy / For Goodness Snakes

1 Stop bathing snakes daily not only is this necessary but it is stressful and could lead to much more severe issues than mites, if you have mites treat the enclosure with PAM (Provent A Mite)

2 How to prevent mites if you work at a pet store, comes in contact with other animal than your (reptile expo, friends etc)? Simple when you get home do not go to your snake room, go get undressed, take a shower and wash your hair and put different cloth back on before interacting with your animals.

3 If you bring a new animal home quarantine that animal away from your collection, treat the enclosure for mites and follow strict quarantine procedures.

In 10 years with strict quarantine procedures I never had any mite issue.

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Originally Posted by L.West

I always worry about this when going to reptile shows. Should we follow the "off spray" routine for shows too?

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I have but only if I'm not bringing home another critter, since most react badly to contact with DEET.