question for people who have had mites

when you have mites will they be in the water dish or will they only be in the water dish if the snake is soaking in the water dish? im not sure i have mites cause ive never seen my snakes soaking in their water dishes. but earlier today i smashed 2 small bugs that didnt make any noise or leave any blood on the paper towel, the other reason why i think i might have mites is cause after i put one of them back she yawned twice about a 1 min apart and i read that mites get in their mouths and vents so i thought that maybe one was making her mouth itch and thats why she yawned 2 times, but when she yawned i didnt see any black dots in her mouth.

do some snakes not soak themselves to try and drown the mites?

is there any other signs that you can tell there are mites besides visibly seeing them and knowing what they look like?

They will soak once they are infested with them, treat to be on the safe side

yea i would treat if ur unsure... u can get expensive mite spray from like petcos... ive even gone to tactor supply and boughten IVORMECTIN i bet its spelt wrong they use for cattle and gotten large spray bottle and dulite to like a 1 part ivor to like 15 parts water... spray a rage and wipe down snake and enclosure...

i took in a year ago a female albino redtail baby that wasnt taken care of that literally had thousands of them on her, in her eye sockets and everything we were WEEEKS treating her !!!! finally got them all then she was very happy and docile snake...

Give them a bath, you see them jumping off you got em. Also during the bath hold head under water for a couple seconds.. ( This is advice I was given and I no longer have them) Also had mite killer and a very diluted bleach disinfectant.

I have gone out and purchased the prevent-a-mite or p.a.m. for short not to be confused with the cooking stuff. It to me is by far worth the money. I had a horrible infestation of mites on my male normal. I mean it seemed like one night he had no mites and the next night he was crawling with them. Prevent-a-mite is a god send literally poof they were gone, you spray the entire area they live in after removing their water and the reptile and put them back in when dry, then retreat 2 weeks later. When they have mites, they are miserable, they rub themselves all over their enclosure non-stop, in and out of the water, or constantly soaking. Yes you will find them in the water, and no it doesn't drown the mites. And not always will you hear a popping sound when you smash them, unless its a really engourged mite. Eeeew!!!! BTW it was my stupidity my snake got the mites, I brought an outside tank in and set his tub on top of it and literally overnight he was crawling with mites.

Sorry to hear but glad he got better.. Mine was from my stupidity too. I bought from pet supplies plus... Ours around here is horrible

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Originally Posted by Scaleyz

I have gone out and purchased the prevent-a-mite or p.a.m. for short not to be confused with the cooking stuff. It to me is by far worth the money. I had a horrible infestation of mites on my male normal. I mean it seemed like one night he had no mites and the next night he was crawling with them. Prevent-a-mite is a god send literally poof they were gone, you spray the entire area they live in after removing their water and the reptile and put them back in when dry, then retreat 2 weeks later. When they have mites, they are miserable, they rub themselves all over their enclosure non-stop, in and out of the water, or constantly soaking. Yes you will find them in the water, and no it doesn't drown the mites. And not always will you hear a popping sound when you smash them, unless its a really engourged mite. Eeeew!!!! BTW it was my stupidity my snake got the mites, I brought an outside tank in and set his tub on top of it and literally overnight he was crawling with mites.

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Originally Posted by szynk.reptiles

yea i would treat if ur unsure... u can get expensive mite spray from like petcos... ive even gone to tactor supply and boughten IVORMECTIN i bet its spelt wrong they use for cattle and gotten large spray bottle and dulite to like a 1 part ivor to like 15 parts water... spray a rage and wipe down snake and enclosure...

i took in a year ago a female albino redtail baby that wasnt taken care of that literally had thousands of them on her, in her eye sockets and everything we were WEEEKS treating her !!!! finally got them all then she was very happy and docile snake...

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Not the best advice to pass around. This is not a pesticide to take lightly, as the one your telling about is a pouron for cattle. used to help kill parasites on cattle before slaughter and so on.

This pesticide is not something you spray on snakes or reptiles for that matter. mammals its a different story.

Not to mention Provent a mite is more than just that pesticide in the can.

Just buy can of Provent a Mite and your set.

As far as I know, ivermectin is not in ANY reptile mite product. Which means it has probably never been proven safe for reptiles. Therefore, don't use it with reptiles.

The active ingredient in provent-a-mite is something completely different. Just order a can of that and follow the directions exactly. You will not have mites if you do. Do not spray it on the snake.

PAM does work wonders. I always have a can on hand.


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Yep, Provent-a-Mite for the win. I had an outbreak last year, and immediately ordered a can... I treated all (approx 25) tubs, and also sprayed the most affected snakes with Reptile Relief. There was a minor recurrence about 3-4 weeks later, but one more light treatment with the PAM killed them for good. Haven't seen a mite since! :gj:

P.S. I used that one can for about 25 tubs x 2, so that's like treating 50 tubs... and I've still got a LOT left, so it's well worth the $14 or so I spent.

Some great advice has already been given here, especially regarding the use of PAM. However, a great way for the inexperienced keeper to definitively determine if they have mites is described next. Take a paper towel. Wrap the paper towel around the snake completely neear the head. Let the snake crawl completely through the paper towel. Unwrap the paper towel, and if your snake has mites, you will see black dots on the towel (a few or many depending on how sever the problem is). Those black dots shoudl crawl around. It is a very easy way to tell if your snake has mites, and will generally detect it when there are only a couple ther. That is key to treating the problem before it gets more serious.

As others said, even if the trick above does not yield any mites, and you have any shred of doubt, a quick, easy application of PAM will not hurt and could be extremely beneficial.

Hope that helps,

thank you everyone for your help, i ordered P.A.M. and i will treat the enclosure's as soon as i get it to be on the safe side and i will try wrapping her in a paper towel and let her go through it to see if any mites come off of her, i have her on white paper towels so do you think i would see them running around on that? Or only if i had them really bad cause i dont see anything on the paper towels and i just triple checked her mostly on her head around her pits,eyes, and mouth and i didn't see anything, no black things running around on her or discolored scales that could be a mite that isn't moving.

I would try the bath give it a bath and then lightly hold her head under water a few seconds.