Mites make me sad :(

Well I have had my first ball for a week and I took her out for her first feeding. I put her in her feeding bin and noticed a little critter crawling on my hand. At first I thought it was just a little fly but noticed quickly it was moving too fast. I knew it was mites :(. I have worked in horticulture for a long time and I know mites very well. Fast mites = predators. Slow mites= herbavores. Anyways, I had to hit class and during my break phoned around for prevent a mite. No places sold it so I had to use the Nix method as is fairly commonly mentioned on snake forums. Anyways, seems to work great and I think they are all dead. Will follow up with a spray to kill any stragglers. What a huge pain in the butt. I love spiders, but mites are one arachnid I can do without:P

Just thought id share. Poor tuna is not off to a fantastic start. I hope she feels better now. Oddly I didnt notice her use her water bowl to drown the buggers. I killed at least a couple dozen too

I feel your pain. A couple years ago I had a friend take one of my BP's to a herpetologist to have him sexed - came back loaded with mites. I was furious.

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Originally Posted by LeviBP

I feel your pain. A couple years ago I had a friend take one of my BP's to a herpetologist to have him sexed - came back loaded with mites. I was furious.

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ouch that sucks. I find it very irritating that breeders will sell them covered in mites. Such irresponsible people out there :(

Mine had a case of mites I still don't understand. I had had my little girl for 4 months and there was never a sign of mites. She has never been around other snakes, I only have one, then I came home one day to her soaking in the water bowl and I saw the little brown specks in the water. I ordered PAM online but did not want to wait for it to be shippede so then I went to the local pet store and found a mite killing spray there. I used it and they went away immediately so now I have the PAM in reserve. I just have no idea how she got them in the first place.

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Originally Posted by TomC

Mine had a case of mites I still don't understand. I had had my little girl for 4 months and there was never a sign of mites. She has never been around other snakes, I only have one, then I came home one day to her soaking in the water bowl and I saw the little brown specks in the water. I ordered PAM online but did not want to wait for it to be shippede so then I went to the local pet store and found a mite killing spray there. I used it and they went away immediately so now I have the PAM in reserve. I just have no idea how she got them in the first place.

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Did you ever handle other snakes like at a pet shop (or even go to a pet shop?). Its also possible she had them the whole time and you didnt notice.

We picked up mites a couple of weeks ago as well. The *only* place it could have come from is the local pet store where we currently buy our rats.

I had to order P.A.M. and I guess we'll be doing monthly sprays as preventative maintenance just like everyone else :/

What's PAM? and can snakes get mites from being outside in the grass?

PAM=provent-a-mite, a must have if you own snakes.

PAM is Prevent A Mite, I had to order it online. From what I have heard it is the best thing going for mites.

Yes I am in and out of pet shops all the time buying rats and when I go in sometimes I handle the other snakes I did not know humans could carry snake mites. I am well equipped to handle it now so she should not have to worry about it any more.

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Originally Posted by TomC

PAM is Prevent A Mite, I had to order it online. From what I have heard it is the best thing going for mites.

Yes I am in and out of pet shops all the time buying rats and when I go in sometimes I handle the other snakes I did not know humans could carry snake mites. I am well equipped to handle it now so she should not have to worry about it any more.

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Yep, the mites can crawl on you and then onto your snakes. Breeders must be very careful at shows for them

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Originally Posted by chessfighter

What's PAM? and can snakes get mites from being outside in the grass?

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Yes it is possible. If you have wild snakes in the area they may be carriers. It is unlikely though :D

I wanted to use PAM but no shops had it. I had to use nix diluted in water (great vids on utube). It kills all the stages of mites so we shall see. Will have to do 2 more treatments to be safe :). I found lots of dead ones when I gave my snake a bath :)

I just dealt with them as well and used a topical spray then PAM in the enclosure. It worked great but like clockwork, the mites moved up the whole rack one tub at a time. The two snakes at the top of the rack were the only ones I didn't treat and low and behold, this morning I saw my female soaking and saw the mites, so I have to treat both of them this evening. Mites really are a pain.

When I first got my BP (almost a year ago), I found that she had mites. At the time, I didn't have the internet, so I called the reptile store where I get my feeders and the woman there told me her method to kill them.

She uses a mixture of water with regular (gold/yellow) Listerine (ratio is 1/10). She told me to soak the snake in regular, warm water every other day and, while she's soaking, rinse the tank out with the Listerine misture and to do this for 2wks. She told me to make sure the tank was thoroughly rinsed out and did NOT smell at all like Listerine.

I wasn't able to follow it to a "T" because of my work schedule but I did it every 3 or so days for 2wks and they are seriously gone. I've been on the lookout ever since for mites and haven't seen ONE. I know a lot of people will be against this method, but it worked for me and it's super cheap.