Well, looks like I have bugs...

[Mike.P]

So I think I have bugs. Not sure that they're mites though. When I've seen mites before, they were super tiny. The only way I could even tell, was just seeing a mass of them squirming... I just took Spooky out to feed him, and he had three bugs running around on him. Still very small, about the size of a the point of a pen. Black, perfectly round. Are they mites, or something else, like ticks? Ugh!

So what should I do... PAM, I'm assuming? Never used it before. Should I throw out all the substrate, or just leave it be and treat it all along with the enclosure? The good news is that Spooky seems fine. Got the bugs off of him, and he ate without any issues as usual. Really hope my herp store has some of that stuff on hand. Of course this happens before a weekend, else I'd have it over-nighted.

Any advice?

[llovelace]

Not sure that you can purchase PAM at the pet store, it's usually ordered on line.
Toss all bedding in enclosure, then treat.

[purplemuffin]

Sounds like mites! PAM would kill any bugs anyway, so that would work for this even if they aren't.

You want to take out the water bowl(DON'T spray the water bowl) and spray down the cage, the bedding(I like using paper towels when there is a mite infestation, you can see them), and the cage furniture according to the directions on the bottle. Now wait until the PAM fully dries and airs out and it's now safe to return your snake to the enclosure!

If you still see mites by the time it's time to clean again, do the PAM thing again! It gets rid of them fast though!

[Mike.P]

Thanks guys! I just ordered some. Going to call them in the morning, see if they'll do Saturday delivery on it, whatever it costs. If they can't, anyone ever use ZooMed's stuff? That at least I know for sure I can get, until the PAM shows up.

[scubadude]

the zoo med treatment is basicly soap and water, to be honest I didn't really have any success with that method about all that could be said is it kept the mite numbers down until in my case the callingtons mite spray arrived, then that did the job.
Good luck with the battle

[meeistom]

You can get reptile relief at most petco's and petsmart's works great on mites. Throw out any bedding from the cage and put the snake on paper. Also if there is carpet in the room run the vac over it a few times as mites will lay eggs in there and once they hatch you'll be back to square one. Good luck

[Mike.P]

My local store had PAM. Time to murder some parasites!

Hmm I didn't think about that. Is a vacuum enough? Can I blast the carpet with some PAM too? lol