it's official - I think Carmen has mites =(

[cassandra]

We've had Carmen for five weeks. First had her on cypress mulch on top of repti carpet, but the humidity was too high, so scooped out the mulch and replaced it with aspen (from the same bag that Cleo has in her viv).

At about week 2, I found a rather large round black bug crawling on my hand while I was holding Carmen. Squish - blood. But saw NOTHING else, either on Carmen (she is nearly impossible to search for "small black dots" because she is covered in "small black dots" naturally =P) nor nothing we could see in her viv.

We've been vigilant (looking Carmen over carefully, checking her water bowl when we change it everyday) - nothing.

About week 3, I saw another bug, this time smaller, definitely mite-like, but again, saw NOTHING else. None around her eyes, none in the mental groove (that's what that is called, right?), none in the water, moving in the aspen - nothing.

Yesterday, I found another one, this one on her. Squish - blood. Again, nothing else could be seen.

Today, she was basking/hunting and I noticed some white specks on her. From the light and her location over the water bowl, I assumed they were water droplets from a swim I assume she had just had. Well, I just changed her water today and got her out for a few minutes and I found THREE mites on her. Again, nothing in the water bowl, nothing on any of the viv furniture nor any I can see on the aspen, none around her eyes, mouth or vent...

But she's got mites, right?

We've got Provent a mite and Repti Relief ready just in case and are planning on proceeding with cleaning her with the RR and the cage with PAM (with FULL procautions of using PAM)...but the white specks are eggs, yah?

After I put her back in her viv, I threw my clothes in the laundry and took a shower so I won't spread any to Cleo (Carmen is in our bedroom upstairs, Cleo is downstairs in the living room).

[MedusasOwl]

Poor Carmen! That's so weird that they came out of the blue like that, I hope the sanitizing and mite-vaporizing goes well!

[xdeus]

Bummer. I HATE parasites. Cleaning the cage with PAM and giving her a rub with RR is probably a good idea. You may have got the mites from the cypress or aspen, but I've heard that reptile mites are pretty specific to reptiles. Who knows, you may have got lucky and picked up a bag of cypress with reptile mites. Why don't you use paper towels for a while so you can spot the little buggers, and then maybe bake your aspen when you start using it again. Hopefully that will help, and good luck!

[Adam_Wysocki]

If your boa has snake mites, you should be able to run your hand down the length of her body and when you look at it (your hand), see a grey/white powder.

Mites like to hide in the crease of skin on the bottom of your snakes lower jaw and around the edge of your snakes eyes. Those are two great places to check when you get a new animal.

5 weeks is about right. If she had mite eggs on her, they take about 3 weeks to hatch, and then another 5- 7 days to get large enough to be visible to the human eye.

White dots doesn't sound like mites though and I've never seen a mite big enough to "squish"???

Either way, it sounds like you have something bug related going on and Provent a Mite is the best way to fix it!

Good luck!

-adam

[cassandra]

"in the crease of skin on the bottom of your snakes lower jaw"

That's the mental groove, right? I remember reading that somewhere...anywho, yeah, I check there, all around her head and eyes - nothing.

She's so naturally speckley, her belly especially, it's super hard to see anything. We run her through our hands everytime we get her out, over a white sheet and see nothing in our hands, except the bugs I mentioned. =P

Yesterday was the first day I saw the white specks on her.

My guess is the cypress mulch (sold from the reptile store in town whom we don't particularly like, so I'll give him blame and not LLL, hehe).

Thanks for the comments! We'll certainly let you know how it goes.

One more question: today is feeding day and she's definitely hungry ("mousey!?"). Is it okay to go ahead and feed her at her normal time (evening) after we clean her and disinfect the cage this afternoon or it is better to wait a day/few days?

[jglass38]

White dots sound like Aphids which seem to always be in Cypress Mulch. Whether pet store bought or generic from a garden store. I always had Aphids when I used to use Cypress. Either way, you might want to get rid of Cypress for now and keep her on newspaper for now. As Adam said, time to treat her and her enclosure to be safe.

[jglass38]

I didnt see that you said you got rid of the Cypress. Still could be some leftover bugs from that though.

[cassandra]

I think we'll put her on paper towels for while and then bake both girls substrate from now on. ("Get yer pipin' hot aspen here!")

We also decided we're gonna just throw out the 2 silk viv plants in case we aren't able to clean off any potential buggies/bug eggies that are on them.

[cassandra]

I didnt see that you said you got rid of the Cypress. Still could be some leftover bugs from that though.

We have it still yes. Prolly throw that out as well...although if it's baked, it would okay, wouldn't it?

Or just be safe and pitch it?

[jglass38]

Baking it should be fine. I dont know about baking Aspen, never tried that.