Heebie Geebies (Pet store)

[Vasiliki]

Oh man

Normally I'm not squeamish at all. Really. Toss me a tarantula or any creepy crawlie and I'm usually pretty happy. You name it, I've probably encountered it.

Well. I finally had a moment of sheer 'EW!' the other day. I even did the girly 'Get it off me!' dance. Oh yeah. It was priceless.

On our local reptile society forum, a new member posted about her purchase of a ball python hatchling from a local pet store. She expressed concern because she had paid for the snake, and they were holding onto it because it hadn't eaten. When she requested a refund, they told her they do not give refunds, but neither would they release the snake. She then found out that 'it ate', but that they had force fed it. Upset, I offered to go with her to check out this animal and see what we could do to get the situation resolved. I'm fairly confident and outspoken, so I wasn't afraid to make a scene (haha).

Met her there and we went to the reptile area of the store. The guy working there was actually pretty genuine and nice. We asked to see the BP. So behind the scenes we went, and he opened up the temporary set-up. I picked her up and was examining her pretty closely. She was such a sweet little snake. But small.

Then it happened. As I was scrutanizing her mouth, nose and eyes for any signs of damage or mites... I felt something on my hand. Then another thing. And another.

I look at my hands and there are half a dozen full grown mites crawling on me.

..... I didn't drop the snake. In fact, I put her down quite nicely before I proceeded to grab and squish every single mite that was on me (to avoid waving my arms and hurling them to god knows where). I checked and checked the rest of my arms. Asked my friend to check and make sure I hadn't missed anything. Then I proceeded to do the girly 'shake it off-get it off me' dance just a bit.

After I regained composure, I calmly informed the employee that we would be buying none of their animals and that the manager needed to come speak to me now.

Long story short, she got a full refund without hesitation. I asked them what they planned to do about the mite problem, and the manager calmly replied: "Oh it's okay, we have Nix. We'll get it resolved here shortly." The way she was so casual about it was such a huge red flag. This python was amongst easily a dozen other snakes on the same shelf in the back room, all with substrate. I highly, highly doubt that they will treat it effectively. I asked about the animals on display, and was told: "They haven't been exposed to her, so they're okay."



Upon coming home, I went to the backyard, undressed in my yard (Hahaha), threw my clothes in a plastic bag then directly into the washing machine, and then jumped into the shower myself.

I've never felt 'grossed out' by bugs before. But that? That was just too much. Yuck!

[rabernet]

Yeah, mites creep me out as well. Any time someone with snakes visits my collection, I go to a show or I visit someone else's collection, my crew gets a booster treatment of Provent a Mite at their next cleaning. One rogue mite can quickly become many.

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[Anatopism]

Reading that gave me goosebumps, and now I'm all itchy.. thanks . I understand the feeling. All the furry pets get treated for fleas once a month, new additions for snakes get preventative treatment with PAM. I find one mite or flea, and I have bad dreams for a week. Fortunately we haven't had an issue with mites in a very long time. Not being cautious ends up with results that cause far too much anxiety!

[Andybill]

Oh man its like reading about people and their lice problems... Your head gets all itchy and you become paranoid and you have to stop what you are doing so you can go clean up and feel better! It was good of you to help your buddy!

[DooLittle]

Boy, you aren't kidding heebie jeebie! I hate little unwelcome bugs. I am so paranoid about mites. Have a can of Pam on hand just in case. I actually just asked in another thread if anyone has pictures of them on a snake, papertowels, in a water dish. I am curious to what they look like. It's a good thing you went with your friend and she didn't bring that snake home.

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[Cendalla]

Aaaand now I'm all itchy. Yuck

Glad you got it resolved for her though

[Coleslaw007]

That's great that you got her a refund!!! Good job

That's the same reaction I had when I found mites on one of the little lemonbacks we got a few months ago. Poor little guy, they were crawling in his little nostrils. He only had a couple thankfully and no one else seemed to have any and they were all in quarantine from my original snakes but we soaked every snake we own and treated all the tubs. I've re-treated everyone's tub every few weeks but I haven't a single bug since the first treatment.

The guy I got them from works in a local pet store and he had brought those 2 into the store to give to me and he called me a couple days later (and a day after I noticed the mites) to tell me that the store had suddenly broken out in a small mite epidemic and to check the snakes I'd gotten from him. I assume that's where they from since bought them with a group of other snakes from the same guy and no one else had mites (I treated anyway) and none of the others went to the store, we picked them up from his house. So at least the little guy only had them for a day or so.

[Valentine Pirate]

Blaaaagh! After seeing the tick pictures on the Reptile Report and now reading this thread I'm actually kinda queasy. I don't usually have an issue with crawlies, but when it comes to parasites I'm more than prone to the "GROSS!" reaction. Glad you got the refund and investigated!

[OmNomNom]

Hah, I think we all have our "heebie-geebie" triggers, no matter how many creepers or crawlers we're used to.

I had my own little "girly-dance-and-run-out-of-the-room-shrieking" episode with a cockroach. Some how this.....thing.....had crawled up through an open vent the last maintenance crew left open, and into the bedroom of my apartment.

Now, most cockroaches will scatter and scurry off when you turn on the lights. Not this one. I came home, turned on the lights, and this 4" cockroach spun around to face me, clearing demanding "What??".

That's when I knew I was in trouble.

And really, I'm fine with bugs....but I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep with something like that in my room (you just KNOW it's going to crawl in your mouth at night or something, the divine humor of the universe demands it) so I went to catch it with the first thing I grabbed, a plastic tomato container. It had tiny, tiny air holes in the bottom, I figured there would be no way it could get out. So after spending 15 minutes chasing it all over the damned place (they're fast!) I finally catch it and close the container. The roach promptly does three spinning laps around the inside of the container and comes flying out of a hole approximately three times smaller in diameter than its body.

That's when I dropped the container and ran out of the room screaming like a little girl.

When I finally caught it again, in a peanut butter jar, I sealed up the jar, duct-taped it shut, put it in another jar in a bag inside of a trash bag and threw it down the garbage shoot.

[Salamander Rising]

Blaaaagh! After seeing the tick pictures on the Reptile Report and now reading this thread I'm actually kinda queasy. I don't usually have an issue with crawlies, but when it comes to parasites I'm more than prone to the "GROSS!" reaction. Glad you got the refund and investigated!

Ticks send me straight onto the ceiling.

My friend in VA lives in Tick Central and when she tells me about coming home from a walk and picking 'hundreds of seed ticks' off herself, I go take a scalding shower.

Hate ticks, fleas, lice, mites, etc etc etc.

{{{shudder}}}