Pleas help! Can I use NIX lice shampoo for mites on ball pythons?

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

P-A-M is effective just be careful and treat it with the respect it deserves. I would be tempted to spray the P-A-M outside and wear gloves too. It is not hazardous if used exactly according to the directions. FOLLOW THEM! read it over a few times before use it, and plan out what you are going to do gather the things you need and then use it. Chemicals can bite back and what you do not know WILL hurt you.

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Thanks for that piece of advice. I will do just that and let them air dry outside also. Will this chemical smell really strong even after it's dried? I don't think my baby peublan milksnake has these mites and I was wondering if I should even spray his enclosure. The reason is because of the neurological damage and finally death of another girl's small king snake from using the nix which does have the same ingredient. I'm not sure if she sprayed it on the snake or in his enclosure but she had sprayed it in her other snakes tanks. I am not sure what happened to the other ones.

Thank you, do I just put some olive oil in a tub and rub it all over them? It's the bigger more aggressive one Ozzy that I worry about biting me. I kind of wish she would go ahead and do it so I won't be afraid of that anymore. LOL I saw a girl trying to do hers with vegetable oil and it was hissing and bit her and she had a little paint brush to put it on its head. I can try that but would you recommend just using my hands and rub it all over them even their heads? How long should I let it stay on them before I dry them off? And do I dry them off with the olive oil on and then return to the enclosure?

I took everything out of there and put a wooden half log in the oven for 1 hour and then sprayed a strong clorox/water solution on all 3 tanks, put all the decorations in bleach water and soaked most of the night, I put the snakes in water with dawn and wiped all the tanks out then put a paper towel bedding in all three tanks only leaving 1 hide and the water dishes which I also soaked then rinsed very well to where I couldn't smell bleach on them.

I had a prescription left from the vet for a dog mange dip I had thought about making up and spraying the bed and carpet while my son is not at home and the smell dies when it dries bc I used it on my couch and everything when my dogs got that last summer. It kills fleas too and I was just afraid if I sprayed the room that the snakes are housed if the fumes from when I first spray it (which its a regular spray bottle not aerosol) but if that could harm them. So I did put 20 mule borax laundry detergent on all the carpet in my house and got it real good and in the carpet with a push broom and going to vacuum it up today. I'm hoping that will kill any that may have gotten in my carpet.

Olive oil will do nothing except smother a few of the mites that are ON the snake. It will NOT kill all of them and it won't do anything for the ones that are walking around the cage laying eggs in the crevices and corners. The main advantage of using P-A-M is that it lasts a VERY long time and will kill mites as they hatch.

I used oil on my snakes before. wanted to give the snake some relief without using something harsh on the snake. it seem to kill them as I didn't see any afterwards on the snake. I also treated the enclosure with pam at the same time. as everyone else stated, read the directions on the can, and make sure the enclosure is dry before placing the snake back in. and if the enclosure doesn't have good ventilation, this might be a reason for bad results when some keepers had problems and others don't.
if one snake has mites and others are kept in the same room. I would treat every enclosure thats in the same area. I only used oil on the snake that I could see the mites on them.

I have never tried oil. I have had to rescue snakes with mites a few times and have always used a few drops of dish soap in water (1/2 the depth of the snake) soak and lots of hard work.

While the snake is soaking in some water with soap. (drowning mites)

Completely clean the enclosure and surrounding area (newspapers and stuff to be discarded need to be paced in a garbage bag a moth ball tossed in sealed up and removed to outside.) the enclosure needs to be washed with steam or scalding water. To kill any eggs in the enclosure. Mites can walk up to 3m away so the surrounding area needs to be isolated. I use diatomaceous earth to do this. I like to use tubs for mite infested snakes, so a tub placed into a larger tub that has the floor covered with the DE this does not allow mites to leave the inner tub or enter it. Then it is a matter of killing as many adults as possible and as many eggs every day for 3 weeks. (EVERY DAY) at this point there is no adults and no eggs and no mites. It is a lot of work. I live in canada and many mite products are simply not available here due to restrictions on Permethrin. This hold true for most of Europe and NY state (cal and florida too? not sure on that.) Dri-Die also works too in place of DE. That is the old school method it works just as well today as it did 15 years ago. It is just a lot of hard work.