Provent-a-Mite as prevention with substrate

[qwerty53]

How much you spray? How long it needs to sit? Its not treatment. Its prevention question.
We use coconut husk as substrate.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Prevention for new incoming snakes in quarantine? It would be best to have the animals on paper towel throughout quarantine and spray PAM.

As prevention for your collection, I honestly would not subject my animals on a regular basis as preventive method not even once a year, mites just don't appear out of thin air, my collection over the last 14 years has NEVER been treated preventively, the only animals treated are new arrivals.

Now if you still want to do it you need to spray a fine mist on the surface of the substrate and than stir the substrate and let it dry for 30 min to 1 hour.

[bcr229]

How much you spray? How long it needs to sit? Its not treatment. Its prevention question.
We use coconut husk as substrate.

IMO this would be a waste of PAM as you'd need quite a bit of it mixed with the coco husk to be effective. You'd be better off wiping the snakes down with a damp white paper towel once a week and then checking the paper towel for mites.

[Craiga 01453]

Like Deb said, mites don't just appear out of nowhere.

Therefore, beyond quarantine, it's up to you to be careful what YOU bring into the house. For example, if you visit a pet store, reptile shop, expo (someday) etc.... It's important that you wash up and change clothes before going anywhere near your snake(s).

Beyond prep for an incoming animal in QT I've never used mite spray either.

[AbsoluteApril]

I only use Provent-a-Mite on incoming snakes for QT* and all QT snakes are kept on paper towels. I spray the enclosure 24 hrs in advance to give more than sufficient time for it to air out before adding the towels, water bowl, hide and snake).
I would not suggest using PAM on a porous substrate like bark or coco husk.

(*learned my lesson in the 90s when I brought in a new snake in that had mites and didn't QT, had to treat my entire collection, only 5 at that time, moved everyone to paper towels until they were eradicated)