Critters (eek)

Our ball python just shed, and when I was unrolling his skin, I noticed some little black critters quickly crawling up my arm. I've never noticed these bugs before (we've had our python for a little over one year now). I'd guess they're mites, but rather than looking like little black spots, they clearly have a head, and squish easily.

I changed the cypress mulch in his aquarium, and cleaned off his hiding place and water bowl and hosed out the enclosure, but I found one on my hand after picking the python up this morning. He's eating alright, and looks and acts as he always has.

Any thoughts? Mites? What should I do? And can it wait until this coming weekend (5 days from now)? And are our geckos at risk from the critters, too?

pics most likely mites but mites are pretty small, about the size of a small flea. Get some PAM (prevent a mite) you can find it easily online. Follow the directions on the can exactly and no you cannot spray it on your animal only the enclosure but it works great.

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Originally Posted by Laura

I changed the cypress mulch in his aquarium, and cleaned off his hiding place and water bowl and hosed out the enclosure, but I found one on my hand after picking the python up this morning. He's eating alright, and looks and acts as he always has.

Any thoughts? Mites? What should I do? And can it wait until this coming weekend (5 days from now)? And are our geckos at risk from the critters, too?

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I have heard of people getting wood mites in cypress mulch..However a treatment of PAM will be enough to cure the problem.

As for the geckos..Yes if they are reptile mites then they are at risk without proper QT procedures. Even with proper QT there is still a slight risk of transferal.

Thanks, both of you! I briefly saw the substrate poll on this site, and saw that only a minority of people use cypress mulch. I used newspaper before, but Cutie (yes, my seven year-old daughter named him!) does like to burrow, and really likes hanging out in a space underneath his water bowl.

By the way, presuming the problem just started within the last week (I didn't handle him for several days, because he was getting ready to molt, but otherwise I handle him daily), and presuming it's not some horrible infestation (I don't see any on him, though they're clearly there if I'm finding some on me when I hold him), can this wait till the weekend to change out his cage and all the rest?

I don't see any reason why it can't wait until the weekend to treat. And just to clarify something..."PAM" means Provent-a-Mite....not the cooking spray you find in the grocery store. :P I'm sure you know that, but I wanted to put it out there for any beginners that may be reading the thread.

I used cypress many years ago and it was always riddled always with bugs so I used to boil it first. They are probably wood mites, treating with PAM would probably be a good idea just in case. Who wants buggies in the enclosure anyway even if they are not reptile mites.

Now I only use Newspaper.

What? No cooking spray??? :)

Does it work to bake the mulch at, say, 175 degrees for an hour or so and then letting it cool before using it? Or will that just set my kitchen on fire?

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Originally Posted by Laura

What? No cooking spray??? :)

Does it work to bake the mulch at, say, 175 degrees for an hour or so and then letting it cool before using it? Or will that just set my kitchen on fire?

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Baking is only a good idea if you use a cooking spray. :rofl: Sorry, given the several up thread posts about PAM I couldn't resist. Good luck. We use Aspen bedding and haven't had any problems with it.

^ LOL!

I have never had a problem with aspen, but using cypress I have had wood mites. "PAM" takes care of them... she's a multitasker fo-sho!

Be careful baking stuff... I caught moss on fire last year in the oven. :oops:

I think baking would work to kill any bugs that may be in the mulch. However, it would also totally dry out the mulch, but one of the advantages of cypress is the moisture it holds. You could just re-wet it. Boiling probably does a better job of sterilizing the mulch, but totally sterile isn't necessary, unless you are planning on doing surgery, or maybe for egg tubs. The downside of boiling is of course the opposite of baking; instead of too dry you end up with too wet. You could also just treat your enclosure with Provent-a-mite each time you add new mulch. Whichever method works for you should be fine.

I am pretty sure you are in no danger of your kitchen catching on fire. I looked it up once (before giving a piece of drift wood the oven treatment) and if I remember correctly, the combustion point of wood was higher than my oven would go. Just to be safe, I do recommend using the lowest setting, and set a timer so you don't forget about it.

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Originally Posted by Laooda

Be careful baking stuff... I caught moss on fire last year in the oven. :oops:

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OK, I hate it when I get a phone call in the middle of writing a post, then finish the post, but in the meantime someone has posted something that alters what I would have said in my post, but so much time elapsed between their post and my post that people are going to think it must have been there before I started posting.

I totally retract my statements about baking stuff in the oven being safe. I highly suspect that the difference here is that moss would catch fire more easily than wood, but I'm not an expert, so I'll leave the research up to you.

My understanding is that most mites (dust mites, animal mites and so forth) need certain temps in order to hatch eggs and to survive to reproduce themselves. From what I can gather anything much below 35F and above 105F should do it. Personally if you have access to a larger chest freezer (pick up an old, used one off craigslist) I'd just store the cypress in the freezer and bring it out to come to snake room temp when needed.

You can, of course, just pre-treat it with P.A.M.