ECLARK - mites

You are completely wrong about Greed and wanting to make a quick buck, the balls that came in with the mites was something I bought for myself to keep and were not going to be sold. I have a quarantine area, but totally blew it on this one. :(

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vomitore

With proper quarantine none of this would have happened. He wanted to make a quick buck and look what happened? Greed consumes all. Sorry, but to know you're gonna sell a reptile to someone with 39 reptiles? Imagine what could happen? April still isn't out of the clear. Like I said in aprevious post. If you're gonna sell reptiles, you better have the utmost STRICT quarantine.

---

Whoah. This is shocking news from such a well known and respected breeder like Ed. Quarantine should be EVERY breeder's policy. Whether you have three snakes or three thousand snakes, it only takes ONE mite to produce thousands-quickly. It only takes one mite to infect several other snakes with disease. If a breeder valued his/collection not just for business sake, but the established animals' sake as well, he would always quarantine-NOT quarantining every new animal is taking a risk. It's like neglecting to replace wearing tires-it may not happen the first 100,1,000,or 100,00 miles.....but sooner or later them tires is gonna blow!....all because of neglect on the owner's part. If precautionary measures are always taken, these things wouldn't happen. People value their lives as well as others right? That's why we get new tires. I have only had one snake with mites- a new animal from a show that was found to have two mites on his chin after thorough inspection on the way home. I have however NEVER had mites on any of my established collection. A fact I can attribute to my strict quarantine process-any new animal goes into the quarantine cage, for exactly 90 days,and still gets a POM treatment on the liner regardless if mites are found or not.....you can never be too careful. IMO, even just skipping quarantine ONCE is being careless. just my $.02.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ECLARK

I have a quarantine area, but totally blew it on this one. :(

---

I think this thread should come to a close, Ed has clearly admitted this, and everyone else has expressed their opinions and if they haven't the whole topic has been beaten to death. The more the two sides of the topic post their opinions, the more everyone is going to argue and be aggressive towards each other. It is okay to state your opinion but more than a few of these posts have been aggressive and almost try to belittle the previous poster, which no one in my book has the right to make someone else feel like dirt or any less than someone else no one's place. Ed has made an effort to make things right and i am sure he will help out whatever way the two of them feel fit if the problem escalates, doesn't mean its right to have happened in the beginning but an effort has been made.

I think everyone needs to relax and realize this is a community and it doesn't matter who is the poster is they need respect. Opinions should be respected. This is my 2 cents.

~mike

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 4theSNAKElady

ONE mite

---

Really? I thought it took two. Or do mites asexually reproduce like that komodo dragon? :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ginevive

I just hate, despise, and loathe these types of threads. It is like Mark my fiancee said when reading over my shoulder; like sharks grabbing onto bait. Personally, if I bought a snake and it had mites, I would be irate. I would not make a thread on a forum until I contacted the seller and only then if he/she refused to remedy the situation.

---

Just to clarify a few things...

First off, this was a rather unfortunate incident that could have easily been handled if Ed dealt with it when April initially brought it up to him. I'm sure Ed is a great guy, but there were a lot of mistakes he made that you may have overlooked:

1. He didn't handle it immediately when April first brought it up to him. He made a joke about "The gift that keeps on giving" and didn't offer any compensation. That was the end of his involvement which was why she brought it up here.

2. He claimed he had a quarantine procedure when in fact he didn't. Although I give him credit for acknowledging that he did make a mistake.

3. He told April he got the mites from a pet store rodent, and then told the forum he got it from a well known breeder without offering proof one way or the other. Claiming a big breeder has mites without proof seems rather irresponsible.

4. He admitted that he kept incoming, unquarantined snakes with other snakes that were already sold.

5. He continued to advertise his snakes without waiting for the mite treatment to take effect or at least explaining how they might be safe (although he did in a previous post to this one).

So it's not just a group of people wanting to bash Ed. Ed made a lot of mistakes, and he still hasn't answered some of the questions regarding some of those mistakes such as implicating the larger breeder without proof or why he kept April's snakes with unquarantined ones.

I believe the people on this board realize that mites happen and mistakes happen, but it's how one deals with it that really makes a difference. I think Ed can still remedy this situation if he just answered all of the questions that were asked and stop advertising any new snakes until he is completely sure that there isn't a continuing mite problem.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JasonGranger

Really? I thought it took two. Or do mites asexually reproduce like that komodo dragon? :D

---

I believe they are, but if she is pregnant then they have no problem breeding mom to child/sibs etc for many generations.

~mike

No. They don't asexually reproduce. It does only take one though.......if that one mite happens to be a FEMALE about to lay EGGS.

VPI has a great page on the life history of mites on their web site including this,



"There is a common belief among keepers that mite eggs in some conditions may remain viable for extended periods. While this has been documented for some species of ticks, Camin's research on mites found no evidence to support this belief. "

Taken from here http://www.vpi.com/publications/the_...of_snake_mites

~mike

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 4theSNAKElady

No. They don't asexually reproduce. It does only take one though.......if that one mite happens to be a FEMALE about to lay EGGS.

---

thanks for posting, i thought that i had read that they were asexual but it might not have been snake mite, thank you for clearing that up.

~mike

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by xdeus

1. He didn't handle it immediately when April first brought it up to him. He made a joke about "The gift that keeps on giving" and didn't offer any compensation. That was the end of his involvement which was why she brought it up here.

---

I don't think anyone can speak for April as to why she created this thread. And since Ed didn't bring this to her full satisfaction immediately, we'll never know if she would have chosen to share this with the members even if he had taken care of this situation immediately.

Lawrence, you can speak about your own experience... but April's motives are her own. We can guess at them (I am guessing it was to also alert other potential buyers that Ed has a mite issue) but it's only a guess.

;)