Oohhh.. steaming mad.. mites.

I was completely enraged a few nights ago, to the point I was in tears. I came home and noticed that Bela and Gobby were both soaking in their water bowls; definately NOT normal. Well, upon closer inspection I saw some MITES on them. I swear, I had tears in my eyes; usually I am not an emotional person but this just hit me like a ton of bricks.
I had started using aspen roughly 2 weeks ago; it could have been the cause of this. I noticed the bag was opened at the store (actually it is the best herp store in Buffalo in my opinion, not mentioning the name.) I thought nothing of it, and just asked the lady to tape the bag shut. Well that might not have been the cause; come to find out, one of the snakes I was handling at a different store, had mites.. I bet the little suckers got on my sleeve or something.. let me tell you guys, I don't claim to be perfect. But my snakes have the best care available and this just floored me. I want to tell everyone a Thousand times; don't handle snakes from anyplace, period. Look what can happen; I had no idea.
I completely tore down all four of my tanks, bleached the hell out of them, and treated everyone with Preventamite. They are all sitting on fresh clean newspaper; ugly but effective.
I never thought this could happen to me..

Sounds like you are dealing with it in an effective manner.

It can happen to anyone, as long as it's taken care of everything will be okay.

I've know a lot of people who have "spontaneously" gotten mites, that's why I treat once a month with PAM, and everybody gets a soak once a week. It can happen to anyone, all it takes is one egg hitching a ride home on your sleeve or in the aspen or on a mouse if you feed live.

Wow, good idea there. It can't hurt to spray them once in awhile; that way, I guess if one mite rode in on, say, my shirt, that could be effective in killing it before it breeds!
Any advice on the aspen I got? I still have half a bag left; could I maybe bake it in the oven to kill off anything that might be in it? Or should I just ditch it? I already threw out the stuff that was in their cages.

I'd put it in the freezer for a week if you've got room, that'll kill anything any eggs that may be in it, or anything else. I would not put it in the oven, too much of a fire hazard. You could probably use it without freezing if you've sprayed the cage with PAM, but if you can take the extra precaution, I would.

Cool, so it'll definately kill off any eggs? I have a big freezer (lotta deer hunters in the family, hehe) I could put it in there. I hate to waste it. I think I'll wait till I am sure the cages now are free of the little pests; I plan on recleaning them tonight because I am just that paranoid :)

Yep, if you leave it in the freezer for a week, it will kill any eggs that may still be in there. Actually, a lot of the people I know will put the bag in the freezer as soon as they bring it home whether they're using aspen or bark or any other organic substrata.

I think I will. My boyfriend is vehemently against me putting it in the oven for some reason; then again, he has nearly burnt the house down cooking, so that shows how much he knows :) I think I'll stick it in the freezer to be safe.

I'm with your boyfriend on this one. There's a technical term for aspen shavings in the oven, it's "kindling".