Can mite eggs lay dormant (weird infestation account)?

[artgecko]

Hi guys. Last night while cleaning tubs, I got a very unhappy surprise... One of the snakes I got in July apparently has mites. I put reptile chemistry spray on him, put dried treated PAM newspaper down in his tub, etc. But the situation is confusing to me, so I wanted your feedback on what I think might have happened.

The snake in question, my hypo male bci, and a female cinni BP were both purchased at the July repticon in Atlanta. They were both placed in quarantine in tubs with treated PAM paper towels and wiped down with reptile chemistry spray upon arriving.

I kept them on treated paper towels for over a month and saw no signs of mites. They stayed in quarantine for another month with the same setup. Their tubs included 2 RBI hides, water bowl, and at first, pieces of wood, but one of those pieces was removed after the first week due to lack of room in the BPs tub. They have been in the reptile room for about 1 month now with no signs of mites and the same setups they had. I recently upgraded the boa to a larger tub and put in the larger piece of wood that was formerly in the BPs tub (that was about 2 weeks ago).

Last night I noticed that the boa had spilled water in his tub, so when changing out his substrate and bowl, saw mites in the water dish.. Many mites (maybe 15 or so).

My question is this... Is it possible that the BP originally did have mites and the piece of wood removed from her tub about 1 week into treatment harbored mite eggs for this amount of time; then upon reintroducing the wood into the boa's tub, hatched and infected him?

This is the only theory I could come up with as to what happened... None of the other snakes' tubs have shown signs of mites (none in water bowl or crawling around that I can see), so I'm hoping that treating all of their paper towels will stop the spread of them at this point... I also sprayed the offending piece of wood, so hopefully this won't happen again.

I greatly appreciate any feedback you can give me on this scenario.. Just when I think I have the quarantine process down, something like this happens.

[bcr229]

Mite eggs can take 30 days to hatch out, especially if they are in a cool, dry environment. Did you treat the wood with the PAM at all?

Unfortunately I learned the hard way that when it comes to QT, you really have to stick to paper and plastic enclosure decorations, bowls, hides, etc. and it shouldn't be shorter than 90 days. Everything except the water bowls gets treated with PAM/permethrin.

If you don't want to get rid of the wood, bake it in your oven at 180*F for 20 minutes, heat will kill off the eggs where permethrin won't touch them.

[artgecko]

I did not treat the wood, just the paper towels in the QT tubs. Thanks for the baking suggestion! I have already sprayed it with PAM though, will baking it now cause the PAM to "gass out" into my oven or anything weird like that?

I will definitely not give wood or any other decor in QT tubs after this incident.

[bcr229]

I did not treat the wood, just the paper towels in the QT tubs. Thanks for the baking suggestion! I have already sprayed it with PAM though, will baking it now cause the PAM to "gass out" into my oven or anything weird like that?

I have no idea. I wouldn't want it in my oven after it's been sprayed though. Maybe put it in your garage for a week and then hit it again with PAM. Also, I don't know how cold it gets where you are, I'd be tempted to just leave the wood in the garage over the winter, the cold temps out there will kill the eggs also, and any mites that do hatch out aren't likely to find a snake to feed on before they starve.

[Darkbird]

I too would be interested to know how long the eggs can be viable for. Been having a recurring problem where mites seem to show up every so often, without any signs of them for a couple months at a time. And this is without the addition of any new animals into the collection.

[Rickys_Reptiles]

You really don't need to spray the wood. The paper is enough. The mites need to get off of the wood to feed, and when they do they'll need to get on the paper. So either they die when they reach the paper, or they die because they don't eat. either way - I suppose it doesn't matter since you've already sprayed the wood.

[bcr229]

I too would be interested to know how long the eggs can be viable for. Been having a recurring problem where mites seem to show up every so often, without any signs of them for a couple months at a time. And this is without the addition of any new animals into the collection.

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

This article explains in great detail why mites "keep coming back" a month or so after you think they're gone - it's because they never left!

The chemical/insecticide-based mite treatments, such as PAM, NIX/RID, Reptile Spray, No-Pest Strips, etc. do not affect mite eggs. Eggs can be killed using extreme heat or cold. So, a steam cleaner, baking in the oven, boiling, dishwasher, heat gun, deep freeze, etc. will do it.

[artgecko]

Thanks again for the feedback. I'll put the wood outside, with some pam-treated newspaper around it too, so that if mites do hatch, the newspaper will take care of them.

In future, I'll just treat with PAM and quarantine for 3 months to ensure that I kill two life stages of the mites.

It will get cold here, eventually, but it will probably be at least until the end of November before it freezes.

I'm assuming that in my case, the mites laid eggs on the wood soon after I bought the snakes and put them in quarantine, then they hatched soon after putting the wood into the tub with the boa. In future, I will definitely treat with PAM longer, avoid any decorations in the tubs during quarantine, and have quarantine last longer (3 months).

Tonight, I go home and treat the rest of the snakes (those with actual aspen in their cages instead of paper). Fun, fun. :/

[Rickys_Reptiles]

You're going overboard.

Leave the wood, it's fine. And as for the rest, just take a roll of paper towel and spray the sheets. Then just put 1 sheet per snake and in 2 weeks do it again. Simple.