Humidity and mites.

[montymiow]

Currently going through my first snake mite episode, normally the humidity stays at 60% but we've had to substitute our coastal carpets water bowl (big dog bowl until we find something bigger but not too big) to a big tub which he can properly soak in which is now making the humidity 96%. Which option do I choose here, risk humidity being that high, or have him not be able to soak properly?

I always make a habit of checking the snakes every time they're out and always check the water bowls, trying to get my head around how we have them The only thing we've been in contact with is a second hand vivarium, we did make sure to wash ourself but I guess not carefully enough. The substrate has been changed to paper towels and treatment shall begin tomorrow. The royals are being treated too but they both have enough room to soak if they wish, just the carpet I'm in a bit of a pickle with.

[bcr229]

Snake mites require a high relative humidity - over 75% - to thrive. Below that threshold the larvae have issues with molting and many end up dying due to dehydration.
http://denardo.lab.asu.edu/publicati...snakemites.pdf

I wouldn't give water bowls big enough so the snakes can soak, I'd aim for humidity of 55-60% in the enclosure to kill off the mites faster. You can give your snakes a bath once a day in some moderately warm (not hot) water with a drop or two of dish soap to help drown the mites on them and give them relief.

Also if you use any of the on-snake mite treatments like Reptile Relief or Frontline, if the snake soaks in its water bowl you don't want it drinking the chemical.

[montymiow]

Snake mites require a high relative humidity - over 75% - to thrive. Below that threshold the larvae have issues with molting and many end up dying due to dehydration.
http://denardo.lab.asu.edu/publicati...snakemites.pdf

I wouldn't give water bowls big enough so the snakes can soak, I'd aim for humidity of 55-60% in the enclosure to kill off the mites faster. You can give your snakes a bath once a day in some moderately warm (not hot) water with a drop or two of dish soap to help drown the mites on them and give them relief.

Also if you use any of the on-snake mite treatments like Reptile Relief or Frontline, if the snake soaks in its water bowl you don't want it drinking the chemical.

Thanks, glad I asked now thinking I was helping and it's doing the complete opposite .

Our plan of action was remove every non essential item until it's over, remove snake and water bowl, use the spray for the vivarium (had to order it in for next day, having just found no where near me stocks any ) then replace snake and water bowl once soaked and cleaned. Now to try lower the humidity back down, would you suggest ordering the on snake treatments for relief? When he's not soaking he's constantly nose rubbing, which only just started when the mites came to light.

[bcr229]

Which spray are you using for the enclosure?

[montymiow]

The one I'm waiting on being delivered to store is white python no more mites. Here's the description of it.

Description
No More MitesTM is a new mite spray formulation from WhitePythonTM that kills any insect whilst remaining completely safe to snakes. It is a surface and space spray, meaning that you only need to spray your snake's terrarium rather than put your snake through stress of spraying directly onto it's body. This unique, highly concentrated formulation means fewer treatments are required to completely rid your terrarium of mites and at double the size of it's nearest competitor offers great value for money! It contains 0.25% Pyrethrins, an extract from Chrysanthemum flowers harvested from sustainable plantations in Kenya and Rwanda and bought back to Britain for manufacturing.

[bcr229]

It contains 0.25% Pyrethrins, an extract from Chrysanthemum flowers...

Those are both insecticides that you do not want your snake ingesting.

[montymiow]

Yeah, I was planning on letting that settle while the snakes are soaked and placed into their holding box, obviously taking the water bowl out. I'm completely open to other suggestions as it's the first time having this issue

[97HDSFTL]

I also had an issue with snake mites. I was able to get a handle on them and acted quickly to eradicate them from my snakes and the enclosure. At the time, the humidity levels in the room where high enough for the mites to thrive. Since discovery, I have been keeping the humidity levels way down, in the mid 40 to upper 30 percent. This has been going on for a couple of weeks now. To date, I have not seen or noticed any mites on my snakes nor in the water bowls they soak in. I have seen comments going in both directions regarding this method of control. It works or it does nothing. From my vantage point, it seems to be working fine. My question Sir is this. How long do you think I should keep dong this? I want to be sure that even if some of the adults may survive though I have not seen any, the eggs and larvae development will be disrupted to the point that they will just die off from lack of re-generation so to speak...

[bcr229]

A mite egg can take 30 days to hatch so any treatments you're using should continue for at least that long after you stop finding them.

[97HDSFTL]

I guess I am on the right track then. I check each one of my snakes daily to see if there are any mites on them. To date, each snake has been clear of any mites either in the adult stage or the protonymph stage. As these are the only two stages at which the mites will seek out and begin to feed on the snakes, I feel confident that keeping the humidity levels below the threshold needed for them to molt and go onto the life cycle, has stopped the problem. That does not mean I will rest on my laurels and relax my attention to these nasty creatures. I will continue to monitor each snake on a regular basis. I keep their enclosures and the snake room clean always so I do not understand how the mites got into the room to begin with? I have read that they can be in new substrate which I have used during the time period the mites were noticed. I do not know if this is correct or not but now before I replace the old bedding with the new, I microwave the new bedding for a few minutes to be sure to kill anything that could be possibly be residing within the product...