Mites!!!

Yesterday I took my girl out for a bit and my boyfriend noticed a little black dot and he was like, "OMG I think it's a MITE!" I looked and there was a grayish balckish dot with legs crawling on my snake! I was like, "AH!" and grabbed it and it squished in my fingers and all was left was a black smear. I checked her all over, dug through her aspen bedding, looked all over her hides, and checked her water bowl very thouroughly (and a bit psychoticly...) and I couldn't find any trace of mites. I'm not stupid, I know that if there's one there's more but it makes me MAD. I've never seen a mite before. I'm guessing this thing was a mite. What the hell else could it be? So now I have to get some Prevent-a-Mite but my car is DEAD. I'm freaking out now. How long can I safely wait to get her treatment? I've never seen her soak EVER. Drink yes, soak no. I would have never even known she had mites if I hadn't taken her out when I did. *sigh* I'm sad.

First...take a slow, deep breath. ;)


Your car would not likely help you get PAM anyhow, as it is rarely available in retail petstores. Just google Provent-a-Mite and you'll find a number of vendors that sell it. Your snake will be fine to wait the few days it'll take to ship.

In the meantime...you might try taking out the substrate and putting down plain papertowels. Let the snake live on those for a few days, and it'll be clear if you really have mites or if that was just a random bug crawling on your snake. (They happen!)

Another thing you could try while witing on your PAM, is go to Pets Mart and get some Reptile Relief. You can spray this directly on your snake, and it will help keep the mites at bay until your PAM arrives. Once you get the PAM, I would spray the bedding following the instructions, and continue to treat your snake with Reptile Relief. This is what I do, and I have had good luck getting rid of mites, if that is what you found.

personally i would just wait on your P.A.M. - especially since chances are it's not a huge infestation if you can't even find any trace of mites.

the P.A.M. works GREAT!!! no snakes even get to come into my house without their enclosures being sprayed down first. it's a great way to safeguard against mites and not infect your entire collection!

:)
aleesha

so where do mites come from though?