TICKS!

[Wizill]

Well, figured it would happen sooner or later. Was cleaning out the bci's enclosure last night, and found a tick in his water dish... i then proceeded to check him over, found nothing. looked the cage over a bit and found 2 tiny ones. i'm guessing i just overlooked them with the dim lighting in my room and the black specks all over his body. i haven't handled him much lately, and now i feel horrible about that. anyway, i emptied the cage out and soaked both hides completely for about 30 minutes. i then wiped down the cage with bleach, every inch. i checked him over probably 30 times before i put him back. i think i eliminated the problem, but we'll see. is there anything else i could do to be absolutely sure? thanks for reading...

You sure they were ticks? You can just pick the ticks off....they don't reproduce like mites do.

[Wizill]

tiny little black bugs, but big enough for me to pick up with my fingers... im pretty sure they were ticks because when i smushed em with my finger, they popped.

Sounds more like mites to me.....*very very* rarely do CBB herps get ticks. Unless you took your BCI back to South America and left it in the jungle for a while you don't have ticks, lol.

[Wizill]

well, this definitely is a biatch. edit if you please, only word i could think of.

[JLC]

Oh that sucks, Will! Where would they have come from in the first place? Did you check the rest of your animals? Sounds like you may have gotten a handle on it early enough to keep it from being a huge problem.

[gozetec02]

Ticks suck Will. A sure place that they get them is if you take them outside and let them crawl around in the grass. Especialy around oak trees. Also ticks can hitch a ride on you by your shoes or socks or clothes. Jojo had a tick not too long ago my guess is that he got it from one of those real wood bark hides because I cut it in half and found little burrows in the wood.

[Marla]

tiny little black bugs, but big enough for me to pick up with my fingers... im pretty sure they were ticks because when i smushed em with my finger, they popped.

That sounds like mites to me. Mites pop easily, unlike fleas, and at their biggest are maybe the size of the period on your keyboard. Ticks, especially if engorged, get much bigger, and can even get bigger than the O on your keyboard. If it's ticks, you should be able to get them with tweezers and alcohol and not worry too much. If it's mites, you definitely need to take a proactive approach.

[Wizill]

thanks for the cocern guys. since noticing the parasites, i have checked him over twice. also his enclosure. i haven't found a single thing, and i even use a magnifying glass. im pretty sure these werent mites bc ive had mite problems before with kingsnakes.

[gozetec02]

When Jojo had his tick it looked just like a scale. But it wasnt engorged. It couldnt get a clean bite but it wedged itself on top of a scale and between some scales and it made him blend in and look like a scale. Take a picture if you can. If you saved them check your snake carefully with a flashlight ticks are not that obvious when they are not engorged. When you use the flash light they will glow bright red.

Here is a picture of what a tick looks like.