Quote Originally Posted by dr del View Post
I'm sorry but this is wrong on a few levels.

Slathering your snake in mineral oil will make the top layer of his scales slough off individually while doing nothing for the mite eggs layed far from the snake and it's enclosure.

Female mites can travel farther than you think to lay their eggs so just treating in the cage and expecting that to be the end of it will lead to disappointment and mites.

Keeping a simplified cage during the treatment however is a good idea. You don't need to use a different enclosure though - just treat the one you have. Otherwise you are putting him back in an untreated enclosure that contained mites - which just seems silly.

Soaking can help ( a little bit of dish soap breaks the surface tension and helps drown any mites on the snake ) but it also carries risks of its own and I probably wouldn't bother if I'm honest. I also don't recommend just trying an off the shelf treatment and following the ( often wrong and dangerous ) advice on the internet.

Spend the $20 and buy provent-a-mite instead of cheaping out on Nix.

Breaking the cycle by letting the long lasting properties of the PAM kill the next gen before it can feed, breed and spread is a far better solution to the problem in the long term. Plus the can lasts for ages so will also be in your store cupboard if the situation ever happens again in the future.

wow! Thanks a million! So if I only have one snake and his tank is on top of a table, what places could the mites travel to/survive? I don't have any furniture near his tank, it's all wooden surfaces. Do you recommend completely cleaning out the old substrate and using new substrate?

I have a plastic tub to use as his temporary enclosure while I clean his current one. I do plan on purchasing PAM today, so hopefully I can take care of this problem ASAP.

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Quote Originally Posted by bcr229 View Post
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...it-with-AaronP

If you're seeing adults then you've had mites for a while. You will need to treat for two months to break the life cycle or you will have a re-infestation.
I actually just got Leonidas 5 days ago. Would it be possible that the mites came from his breeder?