Posted by:
PHLdyPayne
at Thu Mar 9 13:58:08 2006 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by PHLdyPayne ]
Prevent a Mite works really well. I suggest soaking the cage completely in hot soapy water (mild dishsoap works for this stage) for about 20 minutes, wash the cage, especially in the cracks and joints. Rinse well. Throw away any substrate and cage furnature that is made out of wood, or bake at 200-300F in the oven for an hour or so to kill eggs. Bleach the cage and non porous cage accessores with a 10:1 ratio (water to bleach) This is pretty strong, so having a window open in the bathroom or whereever you decide to do the cleaning. Rinse everything very well several times with clean cold water. Let air dry.
The snake, soak in luke warm water (about 75F or a bit cooler, depending on the type of snake, but for ball pythons, that is good). Give the snake time to swim around and drink. Once he isn't drinking anymore, add some betadine to the water till it looks like weak tea. Soak for about 10 minutes. What this does, is disinfects any mite bites on your snake and drowns what mites are on the snake. Once done, take snake out and put him back in his cage or a holding container (make sure it isn't one he was in before, as mites could be in it and he will get reinfected right away)
Once the cage is dry and no longer has any bleach smell, set it up simply, papertowel or newsprint for substrate and a couple hides. Spray with Prevent a Mite, following directions on the can. Once this is dry place the snake and water dish into the cage with water. Repeat in about 2-4 weeks once or twice more, to ensure mites are all gone.
Do the same routine for all snakes in the same building at least once. Though mites tend to be species specific I have had mites move onto three species of snakes, ball pythons, rainbow boa and corn snakes,though the rainbow boa was the most infested. It could just be mites looking for the rainbow specifically and sampled other snakes along the way but why risk it? Better to do a big job once or twice than doing a whole lot of little jobs for a very long time LOL.
The above routine worked great for me, much better than doing the washing and disinfecting part once or twice a week. As mites only spend about one or two stages of their lifecycle on the snake feeding,it is hard to kill them all at once. Eggs and some other stages are very resistance to cold though most are not so resitant to high levels of heat..levels that would kill your snake. I am not sure freezing wood shavings will have much if any effect on any mites that may be hiding in it. The only way mites can get into aspen or other forms of snake bedding, would be from the petstore/reptile show they were bought in. As mites do migrate, they may use such beddings to lay eggs or hide, while waiting for their next stage of life or a host to come near. Best thing to do is buy bedding/substrates where snakes and other reptiles are not also sold. Walmart often carries cypress mulch, aspen shavings etc that can be used with snakes.
There is a very interesting article about the life cycle of reptile mites at the following link. Also is the method of cleaning and disinfecting reptiles and their cages. Prevent a mite does work. It is also a very good ideal to spray cages of any new snakes coming into the home/collection, as a precaution. This will kill all the adults or biting stages of the mites on the snake and prevent reinfestation.
www.anapsid.org/mites.html
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PHLdyPayne
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RE: MITES>>>How to treat???... - PHLdyPayne, Thu Mar 9 13:58:08 2006
