Little bugs on BP

Im looking at my BP under the red light. There are small pen point sized brown or red colored insects crawling on it. Are these mites? What should I do to fix the issue. I just bought the snake and it has had no contact with any other BP outside of the store. Could these insects have come from my house? Can they live on me or spread to humans?

K so I just looked around on the internet and if they were ticks they would be very large. These are too small Im almost positive theyre mites. Whats would be the cheapest and most effective way to deal with this? I just bought the stuff to put in my terrarium less than 5 days ago.

Everyone on here says provent a mite (PAM) I think thats right. Anywho, never had mites so I couldn't tell you for sure.

Yes, you purchase Provent-A-Mite (PAM) online and when it comes in the mail follow the directions exactly. PAM is not to be used on the snake or in/on the snakes water bowl. It is used for the bedding (substrate) and the entire enclosure, plants, logs, etc. It treats the mites and the eggs that are certainly there as well. If you use PAM according to the instructions, all should be well.

These mites can not live on you and I am pretty certain that they came with the snake; not anything the snake picked up in your home ;)

You've definitely got mites. They most likely came with your BP. Get some Provent-A-Mite ... Follow the instructions on the can exactly and you will be good to go.

I only found 2 sources to buy Provent-A-Mite from? They look like ebay stores
Is there a store that carries it?

I have a dog will these mites be harmfull to it?

mites, can be transmitted to you, and your dog.
make sure, to wash your hands after touching the bp or the cage.

put her on paper towels if you already havnt.

if you cant get prevent a mite
i used, flukers reptile releif spray.
it worked for me.

you can find it at most pet stores... like

"petco, petsmart"


and follow the directions.

http://www.vareptilerescue.org/mites.html

This site helped out a lot. They are host specific mites and dont bother humans and other animals. Only herp.

I just hope I can get it taken care of before Wend when I leave for my trip.

Try Zoomed Mite off, should be able to get it from most pet stores(or they can order it in for you) Easy to use , just spray the snakes body up to the head and all the enclosure. Over here in England i have not seen prevent a mite so cant comment on that, but have used mite off with success.:cool:

regards Scott

Hi,

Some good information on PAM.

If you are going to be away on a trip then it is definately the solution I would be looking for owing to the effectiveness and long lasting effect.


dr del

The real issue is how fast I can get it. If I buy and ship it Ill never get it in time. What retail stores carry it?

One real important thing you need to do before you find any type of insecticide for the mites is take everything out of the enclosure, spray everything down with 10% bleach solution, really make sure you get up in the top corners and even spray and wipe every hard surface within a 5 foot radius of the enclosure....

Lay down simple paper towel substrate and soak hides and water bowl in 10% bleach solution. Also get a plastic tub with a lid that will fit inside the enclosure. Fill the tub with luke warm water until it is a a level no higher than half of the snakes body. Close the lid and place the tub on the warm side of the enclosure and let the snake stay in there for several hours... Take the snake out and rinse it with luke warm water... (mites will drown in the water, but it wont kill eggs, this will also give some relief to the snake)... Put snake back in the enclosure when done and only leave paper towels a hide and a water bowl in the enclosure...

When are you leaving for your trip? Choose overnight shipping from either http://www.entirelypets.com or http://www.pro-products.com.

Definitely order a can, whether it will get there in time or not - you're still going to need if. For immediate relief and to kill the mites currently on the snake, go to a pet store that carries reptiles and buy some Reptile Relief and wipe your snake down and treat the enclosure. This will kill the mites, not the eggs.

Then when you get back from your trip, and the P-A-M has arrived, treat the enclosure, and you should be rid of the mites and the eggs will be killed.

Reptile Relief will rid you of mites for about 30 days and then the eggs will start to hatch.

One more piece of advise I can give you is to never buy a snake from a pet store, no matter where they claim to have aquired it from. Pet stores will lie about where snakes come from and also pet stores are a paracite breeding ground... There are plenty of breeders out there who offer cheap normal babies....

Yes maybe next time I will make my choices more intelligently. I treated it with Mite-Off from ZooMeds. So far its working good. Im going to check the paper towles and snake for mites in 48hrs. I will also order some of the PAM. Thank you for your help

What kind of substrate are you using? I used to love repti-bark but after the last bad came with hundreds and hundreds of mites, I won't use it anymore and for now on will only use Apsen...so far so good with that.

Originally I used the petstore mite treatment stuff but it was a waste of time and money!
PAM is awesome! One treatment was all it took. While she soaked non-stop before PAM arrived, she has not soaked once since and it's been about 2 months or so. I got my can from Pro-Products. Tthey sell PAM cheaper than anybody else but their shipping prices are high so it all washes BUT they get it out ASAP! I recommend them.
Good Luck!

Got my mites from a batch of aspen. Horrible little things mites, you'd think bleach would get rid of them!! ohh no, crazy little things!:taz:

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Originally Posted by scotty99

Got my mites from a batch of aspen. Horrible little things mites, you'd think bleach would get rid of them!! ohh no, crazy little things!:taz:

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It's highly unlikely that you got snake mites from Aspen bedding. What color were they?

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Originally Posted by jglass38

It's highly unlikely that you got snake mites from Aspen bedding. What color were they?

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Unless they purchased from a store that had a mite infestation.

That's the only time I've heard of bedding coming with mites, when it was later realized that the pet store had a mite problem.

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Originally Posted by rabernet

Unless they purchased from a store that had a mite infestation.

That's the only time I've heard of bedding coming with mites, when it was later realized that the pet store had a mite problem.

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Even then, it seems pretty unlikely. Mites in a sealed plastic bag of Aspen, far away from the reptile hosts that they rely on to live. I have seen small white bugs (aphids) in multiple types of substrate including reptibark, aspen and cypress mulch. The cypress mulch was purchased at Home Depot by the way. I am not saying they weren't mites, they very well could have beeen. I am just curious if they were white bugs or black or red bugs.

Pretty sure they came in on the aspen, and were defo snake mites The bag was bought from a specialist reptile store, and they had a mite problem themselves when i went in the next week. Mites appeared 5 days or so after adding the new batch of aspen.Only had the snakes in my house for 2weeks, as i was looking after them for a friend, so never had any other pets/reptiles in the house for years, so the only logical source is the aspen, i guess??? Had them on newspaper since with no return of mites

regards Scott

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Originally Posted by scotty99

Pretty sure they came in on the aspen, and were defo snake mites The bag was bought from a specialist reptile store, and they had a mite problem themselves when i went in the next week. Mites appeared 5 days or so after adding the new batch of aspen.Only had the snakes in my house for 2weeks, as i was looking after them for a friend, so never had any other pets/reptiles in the house for years, so the only logical source is the aspen, i guess??? Had them on newspaper since with no return of mites

regards Scott

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Glad you got them taken care of! Best bet with Aspen is to get it in sealed bags from a feed store or a quality pet store. You could also pretreat it with mite spray but if you have to go through that much, you are probably better off using newspaper.

I have purchsed cypress in the past and it had so many bugs it was practically moving:O

I boiled it and it was a pain.

Aspen from an infested reptile place could have gotten on the bedding you bought or possibly even you(they can hitch a ride) but many beddings come with wood mites and critters that are probably not a threat to your snake but who wants them running around your house.

I am strictly newspaper now, much less mess IMO

Yes I did buy aspen, and now I think that it did come from the aspen. Im using paper towels and newspaper and I washed the snake twice and used mite-off. Everything looks good so far, and my snake ate a live mouse today. So I hope thats the reason. Any good ideas on substrate that wont have mites and is easy to clean?

Cheers Jglass, yeah if i decide to go back to aspen i will buy from a different source that doesn't have livestock, hopefully reduce the chances of mites hitching a lift to some fresh snake victims to munch on!!:D

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Originally Posted by PythonBlitz

Any good ideas on substrate that wont have mites and is easy to clean?

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Plain white paper towels... Or newspaper... :gj: