Identify! Pattern or mites??

Help please! I got my lil baby a month ago, but I'm a little spooked because I feel like these small dots are multiplying, but maybe I'm just panicking?? She's 3 months old
http://m.imgur.com/Wag6rax
http://m.imgur.com/aZs9Xqj

What does the water bowl look like??

They look like they're just part of her pattern, but if you run your fingers over the spots, and push down slightly hard, if they're mites, they'll move.


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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

What does the water bowl look like??

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No black specks, and she's not soaking...
I'm stumped because she's been really restless for a week and I can't put my fonger on what's wrong. I switched from aspen to cypress mulch, but it has been a week. Coild it be that she doesn't like the new substrate..?

Mites will typically hide under the scales or in areas like the heat pits or under the chin where they can feed easily get a magnifying glass and see if they look like little bugs with legs and the whole bit. If not your safe, or get some reptile relief and wipe the snake down if the spots die and fall off you'll know. ;)

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

Mites will typically hide under the scales or in areas like the heat pits or under the chin where they can feed easily get a magnifying glass and see if they look like little bugs with legs and the whole bit. If not your safe, or get some reptile relief and wipe the snake down if the spots die and fall off you'll know. ;)

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Checked her scales, and found them.. UgH
What should I do to keep her comfy for the time being??? I can't go out right now to get reptile relief and provent a mite, but should i leave her in the same tank or place her in her travel bin? :C

I'd get her a nice big water bowl that she can soak in, one that she can fit her whole body in. They will soak to kill most of them. Be careful with Reptile relief, I almost killed my snake with that stuff. Works great but be sure not to use it more often than the directions say. And you may want to wipe the snake down with water and give them a break if they get lethargic. Provent a mite is also dangerous if used too much. Most big breeders will lightly spray the substrate, wait a few minutes and then put back the snake and fresh water. I think they treat again after two weeks, just two treatments should do the trick. I used Reptile Relief and put the snakes on paper towels, took me months to get rid of them. If I had mites again I'd use Provent a mite and just lightly spray the substrate. Be sure all the aerosol is gone from the enclosure before putting the snake back, I'd probably wait more than just a few minutes to be sure.

If you use Provent-A-Mite, leave the water bowl out for the night. If there is/was a spot you missed that didn't get completely dry and the snake crawls over that and then in the water bowl, you will be in trouble. I learned this the hard way. Cost me $150 in vet bills.

My advice is pull everything out of the cage that mites can hide in such as thermometers and anything porous. You can leave the substrate in. The time I had to deal with mites, I left the one snake with em on aspen. Then lightly spray the cage with the hides in there and cover it for about 15 mins. Then remove the cover and let it air dry for about 2 hours(can wait less but I liked to wait longer). While waiting, spray a rag down with PAM and wipe down the top rim of the cage if its a glass tank. Also wipe down the table its on. Basically you want to create a barrier so no mites can escape. Then put the snake back in with no water bowl. Leave it until morning, then replace the water bowl. Do this with any other cages. If they are PVC cages, use the rag to wipe down the outsides around the vent holes and the doors. And again try and create a barrier to keep any from getting in the cages. One treatment was enough for me for my other cages. The snake who had the mites, I did the above once a week for 4 weeks. Then on the 5th week, I threw out all the aspen and washed the cage outside along with the hides.

Any plants or thermometer, you will want to seal in zip lock bags and leave them sit in your garage for a month before using them. You also hit them with a shot of PAM inside the zip lock and seal it.

And when I talked to Bob about the stuff, he said PAM will stay active for months. They had to say 2-4 weeks because that's what the EPA made them put based on the tests being done on an outdoor sand pit for Komodo Dragons. He said the stuff indoors will stay active for a month at least. I also wipe down the outside of all my cages usually every 2 months with it sprayed on a rag as preventative per what Bob told me incase of unwanted hitchhikers.

Nuke them till they glow and then shot them in the dark. I'd get PAM and reptile relief as quickly as humanly possible. change the substrate out to newspaper or paper towels. Give the evil little buggers fewer places to hide. Pam the enclosure, the hide, the substrate. Then wipe the snake down with the Reptile relief, do this for every snake in your collection. Repeat this every 2 - 3 weeks until the little buggers are gone..Where most people run into problems is they treat the snake and not the surrounding area. So the snake gets clean and 30 days later the mites are back. Why? because the mite crawls off the snake and on to the nearest surface they can lay an egg on. There the egg lays for 30 days give or take till it hatches and then crawls down and finds your snake again.

This is why after every show we do every snake gets PAM and reptile relief and isolation of 3 weeks and mite treatment for 2 months. Not that we have a problem but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.