I've treated Steve (BP) the best I could with what I could find locally. I let him soak for a while in luke warm water, and I saw a few mites at the bottom of the container. I also saw quite a few in the bottom of his water dish. While he was soaking, I cleaned his tank. I filled it to the brim with hot water, some mild dish soap, and a tiny bit of bleach. After draining that, I refilled it with regular water about 6 times to rinse out any residue. Then I dried it part way, sprayed the inside with some 'Reptile Relief' (the only good mite spray I could find here), and wiped it dry. I let it set for a little while. I moved the snake into a dry rubbermaid container (that he has never been in before), let him dry, and then sprayed him with the 'reptile relief' (which really made him mad).

I put paper towels in the bottom of his tank, used cardboard as hidespots, and cleaned his water dish like I would any other dish (as it is a regular ceramic dish). his hidespots (saucers from clay pots, much like Pro Exotics uses) have soaked in a water/bleach mixture (which was somewhere between 10:1 and 20:1).

After making it clear that he doesn't want me to mess with him like this again (though I might), the little hissing demon went back into his sterile, dry, hopefully mite-free cage.


I'm going to order prevent-a-mite, and I think I should get that beta...dine? Can't remember right now what exactly it is, so I'll have to check the post again. Where can I find it?


So now I'm going to let him settle in and see if I can see any signs that there are still mites. If not, then I will try feeding him on sunday or monday, and go from there. I have the rest of the (unused) aspen bedding in my freezer, but I can understand how that probably wouldn't do much good, so I will probably have to look into finding a different source.



As for how he got mites, I don't see any way other than eggs in the bedding. I have had him almost a month and I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary until just this week, and I noticed the first little bug on him the other day (followed by lots of soaks in the water dish). I don't handle him yet, and I have handled any other snakes in the meantime. He is the only snake in my household and there hasn't been any other snakes living there for 7 years. I do keep lizards and a tortoise, but I have never seen any mites on them/in their enclosures. Are they susceptible to mites too? I have a leo, a beardie, a uro, and a russian tort.

Thanks for all of the info!

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