Mites in my coco husk :(

[Edian]

Hello everyone, this is my first post on the forum. Thanks to everyone for all the information you guys share!

I recently ordered a block of coco husk to test out in place of the aspen that I had been using previously.

Thew two girls who i put in this new brick of coco now have a couple small mites. I changed them to paper and sprayed them with the repti spray (the non-aerosol bottle) from the pet store. I will re-treat them as indicated on the bottle tomorrow.

I am under the impression that the block came with mites because nothing else changed for those two girls aside from that.

I did some googling and found that this is a normal occurrence with natural substrates.

Has anyone else here experienced this, or was i just unlucky with the bag?

should I break up the rest of the brick and bake it now? or toss it and ditch the coco husk idea?

Thanks in advance and all opinions and suggestions are appreciated!

[sur3fir3]

What kind of mites? Are they white? Are they black? If you squeeze them do you see blood? There are many different types of mites, and most of them will not harm your snake.

[sur3fir3]

one more thing yes bake at 200 for 2 hours. Most people bake at 250. I dont like going that high.

[Edian]

Thanks bud, I appreciate that. I had mites once with a new snake and these new ones appear to be a bit more bulbous in shape. They are black. The first time I dealt with them they seemed flatter. The only reason I noticed them this time around was because one of the girls was in her water bowl. I then saw one on her head. It looked like the same shape as a lady bug- only jet black and much smaller. I then checked the other snakes in the rack and found two on the one just above her. (She was at the bottom of the rack, the 2nd one was just above her. I had just transferred them into my rack with the new husk... the other 3 in the rack do not appear to have any mites yet. I sprayed the rack unit just Incase ( didn’t treat the other 3 in the rack yet but I might just in case). I assume they are irritating her since she was in her water bowl trying to get rid of them. I’ll try to take some macro pics today with my good cam.

[Moose84]

Were you having any issues with aspen? Just curious as to why you switched. I have used aspen every since I have had snakes and have never experienced any issues.. People seem to hate on aspen but I have always had perfect sheds and no mites..

[Godzilla78]

Were you having any issues with aspen? Just curious as to why you switched. I have used aspen every since I have had snakes and have never experienced any issues.. People seem to hate on aspen but I have always had perfect sheds and no mites..

For some climates, aspen doesn’t help enough with humidity. also aspen is good, but coco really absorbs the odor and waste superior to anything I’ve tried.


Kaos Balls

[Godzilla78]

The black bulbous mites “fat poppy seeds” are snake mites and they must be eradicated carefully.


Kaos Balls

[Waterman]

Has anyone else here experienced this, or was i just unlucky with the bag?

now I’m gonna say this with an *. I got my Suriname about 3 weeks ago. Put her on newspaper at first. Everything was fine. A week after getting her I put her on reptile prime bedding. It’s a coconut husk bedding. 4 days later she starts soaking. That’s when I realized she had/has mites. Now I don’t know if it came from the bedding or with her, but she wasn’t soaking period before I put the bedding in.

Waiting on prevent a mite. I’ve since soaked her 2 days in a row, in a bath consisting of a little bit of dawn dish soap and water. 4.5 hours total. Also bought her a new cage, but only because I found a good deal on one of those 40gal Zillow critter cages ($55 new). She has an animal plastics cage coming at some point. She hasn’t soaked at all since the first dawn bath, and I’ve only noticed a couple of dead mites on the paper towel she’s on now. Still going to use the provent a mite on her cage when it comes, and I’ll use it on her ap cage when it gets here as well, just to make sure.


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[Bogertophis]

These sound like snake mites to me, but to be sure, squash one on a white paper towel...if you see blood, it's for sure sucking on your snake & it's essential to get rid of them A.S.A.P. as they carry diseases & can kill your snake by dehydration, shock & organ failure...yes, these tiny things will be lethal if ignored. Your snakes are also verifying that these are snake mites by soaking.
I also don't think mites of any kind are likely to come in a dehydrated brick of substrate...

[Edian]

I had everyone on aspen. two of them had bad sheds on it so I figured I’d try the husk.

I’m using “natural chemistry - reptile spray”. Should I get proven a mite instead? I like this stuff because I can spray the snake directly.