Mites?!!!HELP!

I went to check on my ASFs today, and found one dead. I was like that's weird...then I noticed that there are millions of little black bugs in the tub, and all over the remaining rats! They don't look like fleas...they are TINY TINY. OMG! I checked all the other tubs and found the same bugs in one of my group up tubs, but no where near as many, but all the tubs are very close together. What are they? What should I do?

The rats are also kept in the snake room, I checked all the snakes and didn't see any bugs, but one of them was soaking in her water bowl and I've never seen her do that before. I just ordered some PAM just in case.

Also, I've had no new rats in like 6 months. I bring the feeders from the pet store into that room, but they aren't put into the same cage. My new snakes are in quartine on another floor of my house.

If its some sort of rat mite, can it transfer to the snakes? Can it transfer to me?

Depends on the mite or flea. Some rat mites can bite you, like chiggers and a few species, and fleas dont mind taking a bite of human flesh either.

If you brought feeder rats into the room from the petstore, you've broken quarantine.
If you've handled or worn the same clothes you were wearing while you handled the feeder rats, and were in the room with the asfs, you've broken quarantine.

I can't say this enough ,QT is the singly best protection you can exercise against many destructive diseases and pests!

I have heard of people using PAM (prevent a mite) to treat the bedding and tubs, however I do not know the effects this will have on the ASF's.

Depending on how many ASF's you have, I would honestly put down all of them except for one group. It's easier to treat this way.

You can purchase Revolution for cats, or Frontline spray . Do not waste time or money on Zodiac or any of the weird ones for sale at petsmart.



Another option is to use ivermectin paste that is used to treat horses. This treatment I am quoting is for domestic RATS, not asf's, you wouldnt want to give them too much to avoid killing them. So please be careful and ask a VET!!!

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Originally Posted by satanticintention

Ivermectin PASTE needs to be used, it's only 1.87% for the whole tube that treats a 1000lb horse. They each need a grain of rice sized dose every day for 2-3 weeks. You can use that or Frontline SPRAY(not the concentrate drops) or Revolution for Kittens(they all need weighed so a specific dosage can be given, but it treats for 30+ days).

Tell her to get the paste or the Frontline spray and don't use the injectable stuff made for cattle/goats. Too high of a dose and tastes freaking awful.

What kind of bedding is she keeping them on? Carefresh is notorious for having mites in it. I get aspen and have never had problems. She may want to freeze the bedding before using it. Did she bring a new rat in that wasn't quarantined?

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BTW, you cant feed them off for at least a month, and the females should not be nursing as I've heard it will kill the pinks anyways while treating with ivermectin.

That sucks. I'm so careful with the snake quartine, I don't know why I just didn't think about bringing the feeders into that room.

I have like 50 ASFs. I can't imangine killing that many. :(

Do you think I could treat them with the frontline and bleach all of the tubs? Also, I have a nursing mother. Should I just not treat her and keep her away from the treated ones until she's done nursing? Or treat her and just give up those babies?

Will the mites try to infect the snakes? The snakes and rats are all in the same room. Should I move the snakes?

And I have two exams this week.....:(:tears:

Will the frontline kill babies that aren't born?

You should not feed any of the rats you have treated for at LEAST a month to avoid any side effects. Sometimes you will need to retreat the month after initial treatment to make sure there are no more pests.

Rat mites will not infect or live on your snakes.

I have no clue or proof the effects of frontline spray or ivermectin on the unborn or even the newborn.


You really need to face that you will have a lot of ASF's sitting around being treated for a month or more. I personally have over 140 ASF's hanging out in my home, but the high majority of those are babies and grow ups. I would quickly dispatch of all of them if I had an outbreak that was so severe my animals were dying.

I think I have only 9 breeding adults in my 3 groups. They reproduce quickly, you wont be without for too long.

I would seriously advise you to cull the numbers down to a small workable amount of adults. It was a mistake you made to break QT, but now you know better.

You dont want to chance the mites/lice/fleas to coming back because you missed a few of the animals. Smaller numbers means you have better control on treating and monitoring all of them.

Thank you for your help. I'm going to get the numbers down and treat with Frontline spray. This is so depressing.

Ok, my room-mate, boyfriend and I just spent like 4 hours bleaching tubs, treating rats, and trying to clean the room as best we could.

We bleached all the tubs, culled some rats, treated the rest of the rats, sprayed stuff on the carpet, and cloroxed everything we could possibly clorox.

They look like chiggers to me. I had about six tubs and they were only really bad in one of the tubs, another tub had some infestation, and all the other tubs I couldn't see but one or two bugs. We treated everything, but why would they be so bad in just that one tub?

Also, I have one nursing rat, and three pregnant ones...so hopefully the spray won't adversely affect the pregnant ones. I feel like the nursing babies don't have much of a chance....this was a very sad day.

If you're desperate to keep the babies, and you have time, there is another option. You can bathe your nursing/pregnant rats with Dawn dish soap. You wet them down, dump Dawn on them, COVERING every part that you can, like you would with flea shampoo, let the Dawn on for a few minutes (five minutes I believe it is) and then you rinse, pulling anything off that you might find that shouldn't be there. The babies can either be picked clean, or if they're older, they can be put through the same treatment. Clean their tubs in the same way as the others. I've used this method on young puppies and rats/mice and their babies. It honestly does work if done properly, and you only have to worry about keeping their body temperature up if they're young. It IS time consuming, but, if the rats are more important than time, then go for it. This method simply suffocates the pests.

Betta: Thanks for the advice, I've already used the spray though. If it ever comes up again (hopefully this was it :please:) then I'll try that instead.