A "mite'y" welcome back

[Lunar_Psycho]

Well i cleaned my reptile tanks a few times with orange medic believing I might have mistaken something else for mites.
Unfortunately large amounts of small black or brown dots appeared in what seemed like minutes on the bottom of my snake's water bowl and I cannot explain these to be anything else other than mites. She also seems to be rubbing her head along her rocks and branches like she is itching terribly. I hwever cannot see any mites on her (day and night) even when I saw her skin as her scales moved apart while she ate a large rat. I hadnt seen her for so long and I cant remember if the head rubbing is normal for her (though the black specs cannot be explained). It sucks not knowing if there actually mites or im just paranoid :? (Id personally prefer the second answer )

Cheers, Jay

 

[BROWNS]

Nose rubbing and dead brown things after using TOD sure sounds like mites.The snakes get really itchy and will rub their nose and eyes too.Mites sure can make you paranoid.I hate the bloody things.I once came back from holiday to find my first trio of diamonds along with a pair of proserpine carpets completely infested with the little bludging blood suckers :evil: I soaked them all in water with a bit of dish liquid"had nothing else on hand" this helped a bit, but they were that bad they actually died.I was pretty devestaded by this.I traced down where the mite came from and it boils down to my not quarantining new snakes from a trusted breeder and was my first big lesson with mite since i started keeping herps.

Have had mite twice again and used pest strips effectively as well as o/medic which did the trick also.I put O/Medic in a spray bottle to spray the enclosures as well as snakes, but away from the mouth and eyes which i use a cotton bud for instead.After a minute rinse em off and dead mites all come off then repeat the process a week later and jobs done.I've got a lot of animals and enclosures and treating them all for mite is a pain in the A$$ using o/medic although it worked just fine.I have TOD on hand now which should be quicker and easier to use and no need to restrain the animal as with o/medic when getting under the chin and round the eyes.Haven't had a mite in over 3 years now and hope i won't need to use TOD to see if it's easier than other methods.

 

[python_guy44]

i recently got mites in my collection and this is how i got rid of them.

1.i removed my snakes and applied liquid parafin on the snake using an old towel (liquid parafin kills the mites) being very careful around the face. Then i placed the snakes in seperate tubs with paper towel on the bottom and placed them in a different room well away from the room which contained the enclosures.

2. Then i removed everything from the enclosure and disposed of the substrate.

3.Then i washed down everything with a solution of 1 part bleech to 10 parts water. Then i waited 10 minutes and washed the whole enclosure again with just water. I did the same process with the furnishings.

4.Add new substrate, put furnishings back in along with my snake.

I havent had them since probably because as soon as i had cleaned the tanks i moved house and put the furnishings etc. there so if there were any mites still alive there at my old house lol.

Hope this helps,
jeremy

 

[Artie]

Just wondering, how do people go with mites, which have outdoors enclosures (aviaries) for their snakes?
Has anyone ever had mites in them?

 

[Magpie]

I have not known anyone to get mites from wild snakes period. I have never seen a wild reptile with mites.
Yes, it could happen and maybe in the cities the wild populations have mites.
Snake mites are not native and occur mostly in captive reptiles.

I thought the saftey directions on TOD said deadly to fish, me bad

 

[africancichlidau]

LOL Maggie, no worries

 

[stockeh]

hey guys the best way i have found to get rid of mites is by using mites sounds funny i know but is 100% effective and wont harm the reps at all the mites that i am talking about are called hypoasis mites.

they actually feed on the reptile mites and their eggs but cause no harm to the animal at all as they only feed on soft celled organisims once they have eaten all of the mites and eggs they will expire after 7-10 days.

This is the only method i will use unless i am quaranteining a new animal, safe and effective i think that is the best way

Cheers
Matt