I had a mite problem in the past, maybe 2 years ago? I switched rooms where the snakes were kept for a while, got new enclosures, new everything, covered everything with provent a mite and bam. Gone. Probably about 3 months ago I moved 3/4 of my collection into my basement, and kept some of the smaller snakes I'm power feeding upstairs. Before the snakes were moved into the basement the area they were being moved to was cleaned, and sprayed down with the last of my provent a mite.

A month ago ago I noticed little bugs on the containers downstairs that looked a lot like mites. Not too many of em, but I could see them here and there on some lids. I fed all the snakes a good bit that day, changed water bowls, turned the light off and left them alone for a week. And when I came back a week later every lid was covered in mites. So I ordered a couple more cans of provent a mite and bought all the rubbermaid containers I could find of the size I use.

When the provent a mite arrived every snake was washed off with water and a rag as much as they'd allow it, their enclosures were washed out, some snakes got new containers as enclosures, substrate was changed (aspen bedding from petco), they all got new water bowls, and all of which was sprayed with provent a mite. The area where the snakes were being kept once again got cleaned and sprayed as well. Later on that night all the snakes ate, and I left them alone again.

I don't know if they're mites or not but they're back, and if they are, someone needs to invent provent a proventable mite because these seem to have the regular stuff beat. I don't get what provent a mite does, if a week later theres tons of mites crawling on everything that was sprayed with the stuff? And I don't remember exactly what the mites looked like last time my collection had them I just got rid of them as quick as I could. These things are clustered up in hundreds of thousands on a couple of the lids... Like in the picture below, that's the lid on a 10 gallon aquarium in that snake room that houses a mexican milk snake. At the top left hand corner of the lid, that light colored area is a cluster of these things.

All the while, none of the snakes upstairs have any sign of any bugs, and none of the snakes went off feed or started acting funny.
What to do.

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Mike
KingPin Reptiles
www.kingpinreptiles.com

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