Mites.... yok

[Escher]

Well... Like I said, its been a while so I'm looking for advice. When I went to spritz my litttle guy this evening I notice tiny red moving dots.... From my recollection, mites... correct? We also have 4 cats and 2 dogs, but have never had a flea problem, could this be fleas? No body is itching...

Anyways, I got rid of all the sibstrate, gave him a couple of warm soaks, and now am using white 8.5X11 paper as his substrate.

Any other suggestions?

Also, I have an under the tank (stick on) heater... Will this be too hot for him with no extra subsrtate layers?

Thanks!

- Chris

P.S. Why is it when you find mites or something you start to feel like you are itchy all over.... psychosematic I guess.

[Anonymous]

Reptile UTHs usually get SUPER HOT, so you should use a dimmer and a digital thermometer to check the temps.

By the way, if I was you ... I'd pick up the ten dollars human heater from Walmart.

[RobertCoombs]

Provent-a-Mite..... check it out
http://www.pro-products.com/miteandtemp.html

[Escher]

I just orderd the "Provent-a-mite". And will pick up the heat pad today.

Thanks for the help. I had forgotten about how poorly kept most snakes are right from the store.

Thanks again!

[Ginevive]

I don't think it's fleas. We just fought a battle against them in our house, and if you had them, every mammal in the house would be itching miserably. you should see my poor bit-up ankles! And my poor cat was miserable. I got them frrom visiting this friend of mine who has a bunch of cats running around. You'd see tiny jumping black things on your clothes and body whenever you sat for more than five minutes, lol.

I never had mites on my snakes, but I had a tick problem that was somehow overlooked and led to the ticks breeding (which shouldnt happen if you remove the big ones just after you buy a snake, but apparently we missed one tick, and Bam...) Preventamite does wonders on ticks, and should knock those mites out fast. Good luck!

[sophie42204]

I don't think snakes can get fleas. Fleas prefer hairy creatures as hosts. We fought a royal battle some months ago w/fleas ourselves (having 3 dogs and 2 cats). In Florida fleas are a year round problem..can be up north as well, but at least they die outside in the winter...in any case, definitely sounds like mites. Good luck w/the treatment. Oh and like Blink said, the human heating pad is a great idea. Also, I would use papertowels or newspaper.

[Smulkin]

THey were red, you say?

[Marla]

Red sounds like chiggers, but I never heard of chiggers feasting on reptiles.

[Stormyva]

I agree with Marla.... mites are usually a dark brown color. For some reason I cant find a pic of the mites that used to be floating around... I will keep hunting though.
As for the treatment... You can save a lot of money by going to Walmart and getting Repel Permanone (in the camping section) or RID Lice Spray (in the personal care section). Check to make sure that the active ingredient is .05% permethrin. A can of that can be had for arond $4.00 It's good to keep a can or two of that stuff around for pre-treating substrate and other stuff too. I have also found that it works like a champ at getting rid of those annoying little black ants when they find a way into your house.

[gozetec02]

I honestly don't know about that Repel because it could have some ill effects on your ball python. I have used provent-o-mite before and it works pretty well. I would house your snake in a sterilite with some papertowels for a little while so you can monitor the mites easily. You can then work on cleaning his permanent home. A soak in warm water also works good too.