I have mites on my snakes HELP!!

Wait.....
You have been cleaning with Reptile Spray and then rinsing out with water??
If so that could be what has taken so long to rid yourself of the mites. Install paper towel substrate, mist paper towels with Spray and insert snake. No rinse needed.

Keep us updated in 2-3 weeks (average lifecycle of the mite)! I hope you finally got rid of those pesty ectoparasites.

Considering that an egg can take up to 30 days to hatch, I treat for mites for two months after finding the last one. Otherwise you end up with a "reinfestation".

Well I spot cleaned my rack today and sprayed down the paper towels that were dried out (all of them LOL). I found one tub with two mites OH NO! Looks like those little buggers are persistant. I decided to go to the dark side and ordered a couple cans of Provent a Mite. I'm planning on spraying some paper towels, letting them dry, and putting them under the tubs in my rack between the levels. That way they are not in direct contact with the snakes. If mites crawl through my rack they should crawl over those PAM paper towels. I'm guessing the PAM will last longer, if they are in the tubs the PAM would be in contact with the snakes, and if the snake spills his water I'll have to replace the PAM paper towels. Not so if they are not in the tubs.

I actually spray down the tubs with reptile spray, wipe them so the reptile spray is in contact with all surfaces, let it air dry and then wipe them out with water. I only wipe down my snakes if I see mites on the snake.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cchardwick

I actually spray down the tubs with reptile spray, wipe them so the reptile spray is in contact with all surfaces, let it air dry and then wipe them out with water. I only wipe down my snakes if I see mites on the snake.

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Thats probably the reason you have dealt with them for so long.

So I started going through all my tubs twice a day to check for mites, none at all in the last few checks, I may have finally wiped them out! And all of the red and brown spots on my pieds are almost completely gone now and they are a beautiful bright white color. I'm amazed that with just 17 snakes I have at least 2-3 (or more) snakes going to the bathroom in my twice a day checks and have to change out the paper towels. It really shows up on the towels and stinks much worse than aspen or cypress mulch. My snakes have totally mellowed out too, it's so amazing, I can reach in and pick up my baby black and white king snake and he is as tame as a puppy dog. A couple weeks ago he was so scared of me he would musk and pee on me, no so anymore!

I've also put a cup of water in each ball python tub today and it's really keeping the humidity up and my snakes look even better, it's way quicker than spraying the tubs with a spray bottle. I think a cup is too much, tomorrow I'm going to cut it down to 3/4 of a cup. I sure enjoy my snakes a lot more checking on them twice a day, and it seems to be much less labor, only takes me a few minutes every day compared to a whole rack of messy tubs once a week. And the snakes love it since they get clean paper towels soon after they mess them up. Plus I just love their new attitudes!