Pulling my hair ou! Mites!

[Kahlua]

I've been battling mites for about a month now! I guess this post is more a vent

Everytime it seems like we've won, I sure enough see a big black speck and then I see all the babies...ughhhhh!!!!

My poor snakes are being driven insane & it certainly puts a damper on the whole hobby in general...I was looking to get another snake with my tax money, but now I'm second guessing that idea & course all the while we have mites we can't anyway

When I went to pick up some feeders somebody else was in the store buying Reptile Relief & POM...so I guess I'm not the only one dealing with this! & I feel awful for people with large collections!

I'm tempted to just put my snakes in bins & throw out their enclosures, decor, everything! & as soon as I am confident the mites are gone buy brand new enclosures...so expensive tho! But idk what else to do!

My BP just shed which I thought would help in the battle [immediately disposed of the skin] but nope back on her beautiful new skin & my Rosy boa refused to eat today...they are hitting her worse which is worrying as she is so small.

Wish there were a pill or something like they have with dogs that you can feed & BOOM they are all dead & gone!

Wish me luck! ....

[CrazySnakeLady0]

I hope things work out!

[jclaiborne]

what are you doing to treat them? Is their enclosure down to bare essentials?

[George1994]

Sounds horrible I have no experience of this but I wish you and your snakes the best!

[CatandDiallo]

When I got mites one time, PAM helped the issue completely. Never saw another mite again. Provent-A-Mite.

I'll let others explain more since I'm on my tablet and it's annoying to type.

[bcr229]

http://denardo.lab.asu.edu/publicati...snakemites.pdf

This article explains in great detail exactly why mites "keep coming back" well after you think they're gone. If you don't want to read through the initial pages of snake mite life cycle, physiology, and behavior, just read pages 8-12 where the article discusses various treatments and how they are best used.

[Kinra]

what are you doing to treat them? Is their enclosure down to bare essentials?

X2

I've battled with mites before and even though it was a bad case I managed to wipe them out quickly. My snakes are in tubs which might have been the different, but what I did was:

1.) Bleach everything (tub, water dish, hide) and then dry them with a towel
2.) Lay down paper towels in the tub and spray the tub, bottom of the water dish and hide with RID Lice Bedding Spray (Yes I know it's not exactly the same as PAM but it works)
3.) While the tub was drying I coated my snakes with Olive Oil to kill the mites still on them
4.) After 20 minutes wash the Olive Oil off with dish soap and lukewarm water
5.) Check that everything is dry before putting the snake back in the tub

I also sprayed around my rack and the shelves of my rack with the RID while all of the tubs were out. It was very effective in killing the mites, after 2-3 weeks I re-sprayed the tubs with the RID.

[Reptile Frenzy]

Want to know what we did? Dump all your bedding out and replace with papertowels. Next provent a mite sucked for us! Never really worked for us but doesnt mean it doesnt work. We live in North TX if that means anything. We had did a trade for a collection to get us started and well we started off with mites and RI problems from the get go. We were new and didnt lknow a thing about anything. Anyways what we use for mites is promethrin 10. We buy it at TSC. Mix it 3/4 ounce to 1 gallon of water. Take the water bowl out of the snakes enclosure and spray the whole enclosure and the snake. We spray it directly on the snake while avoiding the eyes and never had a problem. Replace the bowl after 24 hours that way the snake dont soak with chemical on them and then drink it. It knocked the mites out within a week. we did 3 treatments that week with success. You also want to spray the outside of the enclosure and the whole room. Mite eggs will float in the air and you might kill them in the enclosure but that hatch somewhere else in your room and boom your infested again. once a month we spray as a preventative. Hope this helps.

[Kahlua]

Thanks for all the tips everyone...going into battle this weekend! Will keep you posted. Appreciate all your responses & the snakes are being kept down to just bedding & a hide...but maybe I need to scrap the bedding & just use paper towels as suggested! Thanks again!

[Wamba681]

I'd also chuck out the bedding bag that you have and go buy fresh. The bag you have may be contaminated by now, too.