is to use extra virgin olive oil. It's messy, but works great, and is very safe. Use a rubbermade of appropriate size and place enough oil in it so that the snake can "get it all over its body...about 1 inch in a BIG tub for a 10 foot python is fine....3/8 inch in a shoe box for a baby burm, etc). Make sure there are air holes in the tub, and place the snake in it for a few hours (monitored). wipe of when finished, and place in cage. the oil gets under the scales, so it stays there for a few day to kill any new hatches. I treated a 10 foot burm while in college this way. The snake was brought to me, and just holding it made my hand bloody (from the volume of mites present). I was skeptical, but I soaked him overnight, and he was all cleaned up with no infectioins coming back. The owner did clean the cage while I had him in my care, so the snake bounced back pretty quick.

I do currently use a combination of oil, pest strips, proven-a-mite, and reptile relief, depending on the locatioin and situation. As long as you do your homework on the chemical, you should be fine. Just as the poster above said though...even following the directions perfectly, there can still be individual problems. Look for these and learn from them.

p.s. As far as building up a resistance, I would be more willing to bet that the pest strips were just old and needed replaced. If a resistance can be built up for the pest strip, then there is no reason it can't be built up for the provent-a-mite as well



Hope this helps ya.



Dewey Vasses

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