Hi! New to Ball Pythons!

[EL-Ziggy]

Congratulations on your new critter! That’s a gorgeous pied BP!!

[GuardianHunter]

Thank you everyone. We have had him about a week and he took his first meal of f/t rat like a CHAMP.

[Bogertophis]

Thank you everyone. We have had him about a week and he took his first meal of f/t rat like a CHAMP.

You're off to a great start.

[GuardianHunter]

Guess what. Snake mites. Y’all told me. Here we are.

[Malum Argenteum]

Guess what. Snake mites. Y’all told me. Here we are.

Are you certain they're snake mites? Could you post a close up photo of them, or a detailed description (color, where they're located, etc)?

[Bogertophis]

Guess what. Snake mites. Y’all told me. Here we are.

Let's make sure first...as already noted in previous post.

Here's a thread covering most of the options for eradicating snake mites- https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...=1#post2771656

Here's a more recent method mentioned in that post- not one I've ever had to try & it wouldn't be my first choice, but we all have our own ideas for what's best.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwCAuhSVRV4

The first thing I'd personally do is clean enclosure- throw out all decor & substrate that's made of wood or any porous materials (because that's where mites & their eggs hide)- use plastic hides only, a plastic or glass water bowl, & white paper towels on the "floor".

Then I'd do a daily closely supervised "soak" in tepid/cool water with a drop or 2 (only!) of Ivory or Dawn dish soap- for about 20-30 minutes. The bit of soap is to break the surface tension so mites drown, rather than swim & live. DO NOT hold snake's head under water- accept the fact that some mites will survive there, which is why you still need another method to eradicate all the mites. But doing this is HARMLESS & fairly effective at reducing their number & thus the danger as quickly as possible.

Bear in mind this is a true battle that can take time (a month or potentially more) & will be a physical set-back to your young snake because most likely they'll not want to eat while being treated (due to stress from handling etc), but mites can & do kill snakes, especially young or smaller ones, because mites multiply exponentially- so getting your snake free of ALL mites & their eggs is "job one". Follow all directions carefully because the treatments can also harm or kill a snake if done wrong. I was really hoping you'd avoid this... but it seems that snake mites are widely-shared these days.

[GuardianHunter]

Very sure these are mites. I can’t get a picture because he just ate for me, so I don’t want to disturb him. But they are small shiny tear dropped shaped bugs. A couple crawled on his back, and there was one underneath his scales.

I will start treatment in a couple days once he has digested and begin breaking down his cage.

did we determine the styrofoam background has to go?

[Bogertophis]

Very sure these are mites. I can’t get a picture because he just ate for me, so I don’t want to disturb him. But they are small shiny tear dropped shaped bugs. A couple crawled on his back, and there was one underneath his scales.

I will start treatment in a couple days once he has digested and begin breaking down his cage.

did we determine the styrofoam background has to go?

Personally, I'd wait only a day & a half for his digestion- then do the daily soak I described above- keeping him as calm as possible. Meanwhile, manually remove any mites you see anytime, & decide what your treatment option will be- read more on here- ask questions- & order the product if not locally available. Sooner is better.

The best way to handle this is to fix him up in a temporary "tub" with the bare necessities as described- make sure the temps are good, etc. This is to minimize the # of mites that get back ON him from where they're hiding or hatching in the "decor" he currently has.

Let's get more opinions on your styro-background- it "might" be possible to treat that but I'm not positive (there's an awful lot of crevices, right?); it's been [happily] a long time since I had to deal with any mites & I never used such backgrounds, nor any of the chemicals currently available. I'm not sure how well some products might work on that, & in any case, you'd likely need to leave it empty for a good 2 months (life cycle of snake mites is about a month, as I recall?) to be on the safe side? But yes, the safest & easiest option would be to dump the background- bear in mind that I have no idea how much $ you invested in that.