Mites! Help!

So quick story, just had a snake dropped off at my house (yes, I am quickly becoming "the snake girl") anyway the poor creature has mites everywhere and since everything but walmart is closed I'm not sure what to pick up. What was the lice stuff that you can use on mites? I know I saw a thread on it a while back but can't find it. There are many other things wrong but I will go over that later. Right now I want to take care of the mites on this poor guy.

Really? No one? I just want to help relieve his suffering a bit until I can get some PAM.

Lice beding spray should work fine. Spray the bedding and around the cage, I would repeat again in 2 weeks or so to make sure all the eggs are dead. There are different method you can use to get them off him to give him some relief, I don't remember them off the top of my head, but I know you can let him soak and it should drowned most of them. Good luck getting rid of them, hope there isn't too much wrong with the poor thing.

I had mites once, and what i did was use betadine. Its this antibacterial solution, fairly expensive (but hopefully won't have to use it much).
Use the betadine by mixing several drops into a few cups of water.
Use cotton balls dipped in the solution on your snake.
Make sure to rub ALL of your snake. make sure to focus on the eyes, the heat pits, and the cloaca. Then let the snake soak in the betadine solution for a few minutes or 2 to kill any stragglers.
In the meantime, buy a new tub that can house the snake reasonably. Line it with paper towels. get a new water dish too.
Bleach everything your snake has been in. let it dry 24 hours before using again.
The trick to dealing with mites is to not panic, and to be thorough

All the best

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Originally Posted by Kateesaurus

Really? No one? I just want to help relieve his suffering a bit until I can get some PAM.

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PAM and standard lice bedding spray have the same active ingredient, so you will be fine just going to walmart for it.

Nix is the brand name of the stuff you're thinking of. If its late, a 24-hour pharmacy should have it too.

Yeah, you can also soak him in a tub of water with a little bit of dish soap added. The dish soap breaks up the surface tension of the water and drowns the mites, and you could try washing his enclosure down with some soapy water as well. Good luck, and I hope you can get some PAM soon! It's nice to know he found a good home! :gj:

dish soap? that seems a little... dangerous for our slithery friends.
Maybe you're only using like, a bit'o soap?

Haha yeah just a little, not like a bubble bath or anything :P And obviously you would rinse the snake off after it had time to kill the mites. I've never done it personally, I just remember seeing it suggested on another thread on here.

you can try betadyne in water too...

Thanks everybody, just bought betadine, NIX, lice bedding spray and a bunch of other stuff and he is soaking in the betadine solution now. I placed him in a spare tank with paper towels as soon as they dropped him off and put everything they brought with him outside and poured bleach water in it. Pretty much everything that he had with him is useless to me anyway since maybe a tadpole could fit in that water dish and they were using a heat rock! Also of course not a hide in sight and no belly heat. Poor guy has stuck shed all over and scales that are obviously pushed up by mites as well as retained eyecaps. Hopefully he will be looking much better soon. The only thing that isn't bad is that he does look like he has been fed properly so at least there's that.

Poor baby. Sounds like you've got it down though...he should be feeling better in no time.

Hopefully the fact that he's a good weight means he's consistently eating and only *looking* horribly uncomfortable. :(

NIX is meant and tested for humans, not reptiles. It may be alright short term but I'd still invest in the PAM to be sure and safe. Good luck.

Wait.... what?

You are prepared to use a potentially lethal poison on the snake but think a spot of dish soap in 86f water might be dangerous?!?!!!

There is a reason we recommend Provent-a-Mite.


dr del