I have mites on my snakes HELP!!

[cchardwick]

Here's an update, it doesn't look like my strategy is working very well. After three days I had one tub with a major infestation again. And I have the small fire pied that didn't look so well, so I wiped him down with water and put a wet paper towel over him, checked on him after a few hours and he is looking much better, was just super lethargic.

My new strategy for the tubs is to move each snake to a freshly cleaned tub every day or two, will probably not wipe down the snakes unless I see a mite, then will just spot wipe them. I'm also spraying the tubs with mite spray, wiping them down and keeping them damp and letting them air dry, i.e. more prolonged contact with the mite spray. Then after about five minutes I spray them down with water and dry and put new paper towels. This time it seemed like most of the mites were under the paper towels. Perhaps it was the eggs left in the trays that hatched out?

My hope is that with more frequent cleaning of the tubs I'll remove all of the adult mites before they can lay eggs and break the cycle.

[bcr229]

Which mite spray are you using?

[PitOnTheProwl]

Are you cleaning EVERYTHING every couple days?

[luckyman3010]

I also use the Provent a mite as well as natural chemistry reptile spray directly on my snakes. I am currently treating them today. With the PAM take out the water dish and snakes of course, then spray the cage and let it set for about a half hour 45 minutes. I have all mine on display in aquariums. So what I do is after removing my snakes and the water-dish. I spray everything then put a towl or blanket on top let it set. Then I take the towel off for about 5 minutes or so then I check to make sure the fumes are dissipated or barley noticeable then put the water dish and my snakes back in. Hope this helps.

[cchardwick]

Not really sure I have to use prevent a mite since I don't have any decorations, no substrate, nothing at all except a tub that I can wipe down completely with reptile spray. At first I was wiping down the entire rack, in between all of the tubs and all over. Now I'm just focusing on the tubs since I reduced the mite population significantly.

Tonight I went through the rack the second day in a row and saw only two snake with one mite each on them, one that had red spots and I wasn't sure so I wiped him down, and another one with five or six mites that were right underneath him on the paper towel, so I wiped him down too. I'm going to use reptile spray for the tubs and spot clean the snakes by wiping with reptile spray (only if I think I see a mite) and change out the Dixie cup water bowls and paper towels every day until I don't see a mite for at least a few days. At least it looks like the population is dwindling, just need to keep on top of it on a daily basis.

I kind of like seeing my snakes every day, seems to calm them down and I can catch them when they poo right away so they don't sit in it. Seems like at least two out of seventeen poo every day. For snakes in shed I've been putting a wet paper towel on them after I get them all cleaned up. And I'm wiping them down with a wet paper towel wetted with water so I can get the reptile spray off of them before they shed. I'm just glad I don't have thousands of snakes! You can bet I'll be quarantining all of my new snakes in a separate part of the house!

[bcr229]

Reptile Spray only works when wet. Once dry it's ineffective.

PAM works for up to 30 days after it dries, which is why it's effective. If you don't want to spray the tubs, at least spray the paper that you will be using for substrate and allow it to dry before putting it in the tubs. The mites will come into contact with the permethrin when they walk on the paper.

[cchardwick]

Reptile Spray only works when wet. Once dry it's ineffective.

PAM works for up to 30 days after it dries, which is why it's effective. If you don't want to spray the tubs, at least spray the paper that you will be using for substrate and allow it to dry before putting it in the tubs. The mites will come into contact with the permethrin when they walk on the paper.

PAM scares the heck out of me, I'm not sure I'm ready to use something that potent just yet. Not sure if I'm comfortable exposing my animals and myself to a strong chemical like that. If I can't get rid of the mites in a few weeks I may resort to PAM.

[bcr229]

PAM scares the heck out of me, I'm not sure I'm ready to use something that potent just yet. Not sure if I'm comfortable exposing my animals and myself to a strong chemical like that. If I can't get rid of the mites in a few weeks I may resort to PAM.

Permethrin is dangerous if ingested or applied directly to the critter. I understand your concern but when used as directed it's safe.

If you truly want to avoid chemicals then you can use heat to kill mites and eggs in the tubs, hides, and racks - 140*F for five seconds will do the trick. Either a heat gun like for stripping paint or a steam cleaner will work. Just don't get surfaces too hot or you can melt glue and plastic.

[JodanOrNoDan]

Use the PAM. I am sure you have better things to do than kill bugs. I take my tubs out to my screened in porch to spray them and let them dry. I have never had a problem with PAM and everyone I know that has more than a few snakes uses it.

[cchardwick]

Well I think I'm finally winning the war against the mites! I've sure learned a lot of things along the way, here are a few:

• I didn't end up using PAM but used the reptile spray instead. I found that you can't let the mites go for three days because they multiply like crazy! I've been cleaning all the tubs every day and I'm getting fewer and fewer each day, today I only saw one adult mite in my whole rack system.

• I read that the mites can crawl all over the room so I've been vacuuming the floor after every tub cleaning session. Seems to be helping.

• Since I've been cleaning tubs every day and changing water and paper towels the attitude of my snakes has totally changed. My little king snakes used to go crazy and pee on me every time I picked them up. Now they are totally mellow, don't even seem like the same snakes. I had one really mean ball python (bumble bee) that would snap at me every time I opened up the cage. He still gives me a mean look when I pick him up but he doesn't strike at me anymore. And I've only been handling my snakes for about 30 seconds every day just to move them to a clean tub, seems like it doesn't take much to tame them down, less than a minute each day. Maybe since I clean their tubs every day they are figuring out I have their best interests in mind.

• I'm finding that out of all of my 17 snakes there are several that go to the bathroom each and every day. I never noticed that when I used aspen bedding, I'm guessing it got mixed in with the bedding. That may have affected their appetite, seems like they eat more now. I'm sure it's better for the snakes to have clean tubs as soon as possible after they mess them up.

• For humidity I've been spraying down the paper towels on the bottom with water then putting a balled up and wetted paper towel in the front and in the back. That gives them an option of heat / no heat and more or less humidity depending on where they are in the tub. At first I put all the balled up paper towels in the front by the water dish, but they all seemed to migrate to the humidity and away from the heat. I'm sure some prefer both heat and humidity. Here in Colorado we have a very dry climate and the paper towels are nearly dried out after 24 hours, only the balled up ones have some humidity left in them.

• I still have a couple snakes that have red / tan spots all over them, I'm pretty sure those are battle scars from the mite infestation. I'll be sure to watch for that especially when I buy snakes. I know now that black spots on the snakes can be mites under the scales, but not all the time (for example my Coral Glow has spots).

• I've been thinking some more about using PAM. My main concern is that it is active for 30 days, if I put it on a paper towel and let it dry and then put it in the tub I suppose it's possible for that paper towel to get wet and for the PAM to come off and get on the snake. I think I may be more comfortable putting the PAM dried paper towels in between my tubs just under or over the tub. You would think they would stay dry there and the mites would probably still walk over them getting around the rack system. This may be a good long term strategy for controlling the mites, perhaps I could actually tape them in place to hold them there and change them out every 30 days or so.

• I also learned that you can't open the tubs and quickly check for mites. I tried that the first few days and found that I had a new major infestation underneath the paper towels, literally dozens of mites under there and not a single mite on top of the paper towel. That's when I decided to get really aggressive.

• It seems like mechanical control helps as much or more than chemical control, i.e. removing the paper towels and wiping down the inside of the tubs on a daily basis. If there are any microscopic baby mites in the tubs seems like simply changing out the paper towels removes any small immature mites that could be there.

• I found that reptile spray is excellent at immediately and completely eliminating the nasty snake poo odor. It totally eliminates the odor when wiping out a tub. They should market that stuff as snake smell eliminator as well as a mite spray LOL.

Overall it was a very educational experience. Not only did I learn a lot about the mites but I learned a lot about my snakes and their husbandry. I may actually continue to use paper towels and mite spray to clean out the tubs and clean them out quite frequently, at least check on all the tubs on a daily basis.