Mites?

[Rvnhawk]

I believe these a mites if I'm not mistaken. This is the first time I've noticed them in Maria's water. She's been soaking pretty much constantly for 2 days, so I decided to check. So I'm not sure how long I've had the problem or if they came in the newest bedding (compressed paper) I got for my breeder rat pair I've had for 2 months now? Or she could have had them this entire time and I never noticed and that's why she's been so hard to get to eat for me.

But anyway, what do I need to order to treat her and her tub and the tank I have the tub set in? I'll get it ordered right away as soon as I know what I need to order.


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[SDA]

It happens to almost everyone. Thankfully it's not the end of the world.

Suspecting mites, you would need to setup a quarantine enclosure for your snake and completely sanitize their existing enclosure.

There are several option to treat mites. One is a diluted solution of Permethrin, the same stuff in lice removal. The ready mixed product that contains it is called prevent-a-mite

There are also natural remedies like the product by natural chemistry called reptile spray or jurasismite.


I used reptile spray to treat my baby when I got him as he had mites and this worked well for me and I didn't want to use Permethrin.

I had my plastic bin that I setup as a quarantine cage with paper towels to monitor his progress. I sprayed the tub, paper towels in the tub, and my snake with reptile spray and made sure he had adequate heat and water (don't place a water bowl for a day after treating as it can lessen the effectiveness of the spray). I kept him in his enclosure for 3 weeks, repeating treatment weekly. When I first removed him I gave him a good soak bath and before finishing his quarantine, I gave him another.

I took his enclosure and removed everything. I bleached the entire enclosure inside and out and did not replace anything to make sure everything in there was dead. I also applied a bleach solution to all the decor, hides, and water bowl. I then ran all of them through the dishwasher on sanitize mode to ensure the bleach was off and to completely clean them and get it hot (heat kills those suckers dead).

After the 3 weeks was up, I then replaced the decor and put in fresh substrate.


Now I got lucky only doing this for 3 weeks and I am sure some of the better people on this forum can give you the definitive guide on how to best treat them but that is what worked for me. It can take over a month to kill the entire life cycle of these mites and you need to keep up checking for that entire month. DO NOT feed during this time at all.


One thing: your snake is stressed from the irritation and will continue to be stressed during quarantine and treatment. You can do your best to keep them comfortable and warm but they will be uncomfortable and you can't help that. You are treating an infestation so that is the important part to remember.

[Rvnhawk]

Ok, I just ordered Provent-a-mite direct from ProProducts site. I'm ordered the Reptile Spray from Petco right now too. She's in a little 6qt tub set up right now because she's a hatchling and I was having such a hard time getting her to eat. She's only eaten once every 3 weeks for me since I got her anyway. She did just eat what was an oversized meal this past Saturday (it's all I had, but looking at the stress she'll be under and not eating during treatment maybe the oversized meal will work out.)

So, onto paper towels she'll go, and the main tank that the tub is sitting in will be bleached and treated along with her. And her hides from that tank and the silk vines as well. Nasty little buggers.


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[Stewart_Reptiles]

Best treatment will be for you to buy PAM http://pro-products.com/provent-a-mite/ (Provent A Mite) and use it as directed, not only will it take care of the adult mites but it will take care of the other stages as well which other products may not. Getting rid all all stages is very important to prevent re-infestation in 30 days.

*Jurassimite is and nature chemistry do not treat all stages

There are home brew recipes however I will not recommend those since you have limited experience, those can potentially be dangerous.

Do not use oil as some may suggest.

As for where are they coming from and can you have miss them them, well it's always a possibility, keep in mind it only takes one to lay egg to get a full blown infestation, most people will notice right away when checking a snake on arrival, some will notice later because of their snake unusual behavior and extreme soaking.

Mites are species specific so mites found on rats are different than those found on snake.

Mites can hitch-hick on another animal or even a person (which is why people coming in contact with other reptiles will usually strip and take a shower before handling their own, that's what most do when they go to shows.)

I have been using various bedding over the years and never had snakes mites I would say it's very unlikely.

[Rvnhawk]

Thanks Deborah. Then it's likely that either she's had them since we got her, or one has hitchhiked home from that reptile show. We haven't handled any of the reptiles at the pet stores but that's not to say looking at them up at those habitats didn't provide the opportunity either.

provent-a-mite is ordered and also ordered Reptile Spray. lol I'm a little skeeved out, so I ordered it all.


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[Rvnhawk]

Thank you both for your advice.


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