Yet another rat problem

If you guys have read one of my older threads, I had a problem with a bunch of my new colony dying. Well the good news is that about 3/4 of the population survived and I had no ASF fatalities. The other rats seem to be doing great and have even produced a couple of litters.
But now the bad news; I was checking the water supply yesterday because I knew it was about to run out and I kept feeling like I was getting bit my Mosquitos or something were biting my legs. I looked down and noticed 7 or 8 black dots on my legs that appeared to be fleas. I picked them off and drowned them and went back and started checking my colony for fleas or mites or anything. I couldn't see anything actually on the rats, even the light colored ones.
I checked the ASFs and couldn't find anything either and they're all light colored. But when I stand within like 5 feet of my two racks I get about 7 flea like things that jump on my legs.
We do have two cats that have the occasional problem with fleas but it's never been anything extremely bad, just the occasional flea. But the thing is, all the cats stay upstairs and do not have access to where the rats are.
So I don't really know what's going on here. It doesn't SEEM like the rats are infested with them but they are tiny and rats are kinda hard to check for fleas. I'm not even sure they actually are fleas or fur mites or what. I've looked up fur mites but there's no really distinctive pictures.
I tried to take a picture of them but my camera won't that close up.
Any insight as to what's going on here? I haven't added anything new since the deaths of the last ones. Any comments would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Well if they are all over your legs even just feet away from their tracks I can guarantee you they are on the rats.

Sounds like fleas. And if the cats have them, they will NOT stay to a certain area of the house. They cling and jump onto everything! Nasty little buggers. I'd recommend a dawn dish soap bath for the kitties, and if you really want them gone, same for the rats, unpleasant as it may be. Alternatively, you can feed off your entire colony, scrub the crap out of the room and rack, then start over. Neither option is very fun. I guess you could also save some females and their litters, and only give a couple baths. Fleas are much easier to spot and pick off of pinks.

Buy a tube of horse dewormer Ivermectin paste from a feed store. It should run $2-7 a tube. Give a rice grain sized dose to all of your juvi and adult rats.

That should take care of fleas and mites. Any rat that is a feeder, don't bother with treatment. Separate and QT your feeders and just feed them off.

And be aware that nursing babies will be treated through mom's milk. So don't feed those off for at least 3 weeks.

Or spread food grade Diatomaceous Earth around the rat racks, in the bedding, and on the rats themselves. Its non toxic and all natural. Safe for mammals. It kills anything with an exoskeleton. And if ingested, it acts as a dewormer as well.

(Not to be confused with pool filter Diatomaceous Earth)

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Cool I didn't know ivermectin worked on fleas. Ya learn something every day!

So the diatomaceous earth would be safe to use on the feeders as well? Where do you get that from?

My feed store sells DE

Yes. DE is safe on feeders.

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Is this it?http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/09/30/ja3atudy.jpg

Yep


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Would this stuff be effective against snake mites too?

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Originally Posted by mattj8501

Would this stuff be effective against snake mites too?

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I'm not certain. It's typically used on mammals and bird dust bath material. It's harmless to them.
Theoretically, I think it should be alright. But I personally wouldn't try it on the snakes since it hasn't really been tested or tried yet.

The way DE works is that it cuts up mites, fleas, and general insects with an exoskeleton. It destroys their bodies. I'm not sure what affects it will have on a reptile's scales.

That would be interesting. In theory it seems a lot safer than PAM.

Ok so DE kind of sparked an interest for me, and I've been doing some research on the topic. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like there are any scientific studies on the effects on reptiles. But everything I've come across leads me to believe that it would be safe for them. I simply do not believe it could penetrate scales. My only concern would be some of it managing to get between scales and irritating the snake.

It's been used for ages in chicken bedding,and if any of you have experience with chickens, this means they're constantly stirring it up and inhaling DE, with apparently no ill effects. It can be a skin irritant for mammals, and I assume that would be the extent of damage to a reptile.

I did find a technical report that stated Sonoran desert tortoises burrow in DE, so take that as you will. There has been anecdotal evidence that it repels snakes, others report that it absolutely does not work for them. All in all, there's really not a whole lot of info out there.

All that said, I wouldn't be willing to risk my snakes for the sake of research :)