Mites mites mites (and more than four of them)

Ok so.

Recently, we brought home our first giant, a just under 3 foot albino burmese male. He's gorgeous and all sorts of feisty, but after some calm handling has been proving that his bark doesn't have too much of a bite.

But, he has mites.

I'm posting this as a new thread because I searched 'mites' in every way I could and scoured through the results to no avail, most everyone who posts says, "I found -a- mite" or "I found -four- mites!" Well, our poor boy has a heckuva lot more mites than that. :C He has them around his eyes, nose, and every inch or less on his body. There are easily 4 or 5 just crawling on him.

Here's what I've done so far, and it hasn't had a dramatic impact as of yet, but I'm not sure if we need to wait for results or if some of this should have helped a little.. I also don't know what is a -bad- case of mites. :/ I don't think he's there yet, but I don't want to take any chances.

I have both 'Reptile Safe' (a natural and topical mite treatment, the 'use every 3 days' kind) and of course, Provent-a-mite.

We tried to wipe him down with the Reptile Safe, but he was being a stink and was acting snappy so it made it a little bit difficult. We got him pretty well, though. Fast forward and tonight we soaked him in luke warm water, for an hour while his tank ventilated from being PAM-ed. When he was done soaking it didn't look like there were that many of the little jerks floating around, and there were still tons under his scales.

Should I just wait and see how the PAM treatment works and soak again in 10 days with a bit of dawn? Am I being a worrywort about this? This is the most mites I've seen and I'm pretty upset about it. I don't know how to treat his eyes, there are a good amount of mites aroudn them. Poor little guy.. I really just wanted some input on mite cases where more than just four were spotted and how to deal with that many. I also wanted to vent, it's upsetting that a place specializing in reptiles would have a snake with THAT many mites.

Anyways, here's a picture of the little guy on the drive home. (He's been nicknamed 'Bad Dog' but he'll be getting a real name soon. :]) Thanks for reading my massive post too.

http://i55.tinypic.com/347btxt.jpg

The Pam should take care of them. The dead mites won't all fall off. The stick under the scales and can look alive even though they're not.

If you soak him again, and it won't hurt, put a few drops of dish washing soap in the water. It coats any mites that might be alive and helps to make them dead. Keep him on paper until you're done treating. If you have anything organic, branches or hides, put them in the oven at 180 for about 20 minutes. That'll kill the mites.

First off the Dawn dish soap isnt going to get you anywhere.... I use Natures Chemistry diluted in water to soak my snakes in and treat the cage and bedding with pam every 5 days a total of 4 treatments.... just make sure you take the water bowl out while using the pam.... I would also spray the outside of the cage just to make sure they dont spread

( I have had really good luck using equate or walgreens brand lice bedding spray it is the same concentration of the same active ingredint as pam at a third of the price)

Thanks to you both. :] Fingers crossed that the mites are actually dead and just being jerks about leaving his scales. I can't wait for him to be mite-free because maybe he'll be less of a jerk, too. ;]

So with the PAM, five days is a good time to wait then, yeah? Or is that too soon..? The can says 2-4 weeks, and I'm paranoid.. lol. Which is obvious from this thread!

egg cycle is around 10 days. So, every 10 days for a couple weeks should get you out of the bugs.

How would vinegar in water work for soaking the snake in?

Not sure, i use RID bed spray from wal mart. Same active ingredient and lost cheaper then PAM

I used a very mild betadine solution mix to soak mine in. I also used a stronger mix of the same to wash down the housing and used the spray like you did. That worked very well for me. Good luck getting them gone!

When you say soak him, are you sticking him in a ventilated container and filling it very close to the top, allowing for just enough room for him to breathe?

btw, I'm a hypochondriac and reading this thread has caused me to start itching.

Did the mites come home with him?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jjmitchell

First off the Dawn dish soap isnt going to get you anywhere....

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The dish soap in the water for a soak isn't to eradicate the problem, its to give the animal some immediate relief. The dish soap breaks the surface tension of the water. When the mites get caught in the water they can't float anymore so they drown and die.

Use the PAM every 10 days for a month, you should be just fine. If the snake will stand being soaked you can do that to, but use regular water for the first few minutes because they'll drink it.

I pre-treat all new arrivals as well to make sure I keep mites out of the rest of my collection.

I had a honduran milk snake that I got from a reptile shop a few years ago and she had the WORST mite problem I'd ever seen. They were pushing up her scales on her chin and crowding around her eyes. There had to be at least 30 of them that I could see. The PAM did the trick, I just gave her a soak to get some of the mites off of her.

Hey OP Im kind of late into the thread but I would like to share my mite experience in hopes to help you out. I bought my granite burm from a reputable breeder in my local area and 2-3 days after it was situated in its cage I decided to handle it. I noticed it had a pretty standard case of mites. Nothing I would call a bad infestation, but they were definitely there, and definitely upsetting my burm.

I did a lot of research online and this is what I ended up doing to alleviate my python from these parasites.

I went to my local pharmacy and bought some Nix brand lice shampoo. They come in small bottles, I think two to a box. I emptied one of these bottles into a 1 gallon jug of distilled water, and mixed the two ingredients until they became one. I would put the mixture into a spray bottle.

I would take my burm and place him into a Tupperware container, and spray him liberally with the solution and let him sit with it on him in the Tupperware tub for about 20 minutes. While he was in his tub I stripped his cage of everything, and sprayed the whole thing down with PAM. After the PAM application I placed paper towels in his cage in place of a substrate. After this process of prepping his cage was completed, I would spray him down one more time and place him back in his cage. I didnt rinse off the solution.

This process would be repeated every 3 days for two weeks. I would replace the paper towel substrate each time. It didnt seem to stress him out after the 2nd application, and he hasnt had any mites since. This was 4 months ago.

I hope this gives you a little guidance, and I hope your burm shakes its mite problem.

Pro-venta-mite,


Take snake out of enclosure as well as the water bowl.
Spray down the bedding, furniture and enclosure. wait till it dries. Place snake back in as well as the water bowl, treat again in 30 days or 20 days or 10 days,



FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS<<<<<<<<
They are written at an 8th grade level

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jadonh

Pro-venta-mite,


Take snake out of enclosure as well as the water bowl.
Spray down the bedding, furniture and enclosure. wait till it dries. Place snake back in as well as the water bowl, treat again in 30 days or 20 days or 10 days,



FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS<<<<<<<<
They are written at an 8th grade level

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No need to be mean. Sometimes things don't work as well as they should so people look for extra advice or alternative methods.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kinra

No need to be mean. Sometimes things don't work as well as they should so people look for extra advice or alternative methods.

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I apologize i had no intention coming off the way I did.
There are 1000's of ways to treat mites and in 30 years I have tried and used alot I would suggest using the proventamite, Because it works, 100% works.