My only experience (so far) with mites happened just a couple of weeks ago. When I got this female, I went over her with a fine tooth comb, she looked great! I put her in quarantine on paper towels after about 10 days I took her out and examined her again, she looked clean, her cage looked clean, so I put down some aspen and put her back into quarantine. Like 3 days later, I'm changing her water and theres a little dark spec on the side of her cage (I'm assuming it's just dirt) and I go to wipe it off and it squishes and theres a blood trail (OH no). I get out the magnifying glass and go over her head to tail, all together I only find 3 of them so I'm hoping I caught it early. I do the whole reptile relief/provent a mite thing on her and her tub and all the surrounding area. But then I get to thinking, I'm really good at washing my hands between snakes, but what if one (or more) hitched a ride maybe on my shirt or in my hair (ick) between snakes. What if I didn't do a good enough job, what if a few got through, what if they're in the bedding or the feeders, and what about the other people that have been handling my snakes have they been careful too? So I pulled out all my snakes, and treated each and every one of them and the whole house (what an all day, expensive pain in the ass). I didn't see any other mites, but feel better knowing that if there were some out there that I just didn't see or eggs, they are now gone from my collection. My new method of mite provention is to treat everything upon arrival, that includes snakes, bedding, and feeders. Of course every day I'm pulling out my snakes and examining them under a magnifying glass (call me paranoid). So far no sign of the little buggers.
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Tosha

8.10.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and currently un-named)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Dessert Tortoise (Pope)
7.9.5 Fish (1,2,3,4...)
0.0.1 Frog rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.2 Lizards rescued from pool skimmer

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• Mites, Alcatraz, and the Dark Ages - CJBianco, Sat Mar 5 10:56:39 2005
• RE: It would probably work BUT... - Exotics by Nature, Sat Mar 5 11:30:27 2005
• RE: It would probably work BUT... - CJBianco, Sat Mar 5 11:42:53 2005
• RE: Mites, Alcatraz, and the Dark Ages - toshamc, Sat Mar 5 11:33:30 2005
• RE: Mites, Alcatraz, and the Dark Ages - CJBianco, Sat Mar 5 11:48:54 2005
• RE: Mites, Alcatraz, and the Dark Ages - Andrew3, Sat Mar 5 12:38:13 2005
• RE: Mites, Alcatraz, and the Dark Ages - CJBianco, Sat Mar 5 12:49:30 2005
• RE: Mites, Alcatraz, and the Dark Ages - ginebig, Sat Mar 5 13:32:06 2005
• Keep it SIMPLE ! - John Q, Sat Mar 5 17:28:04 2005
• RE: Mites, Alcatraz, and the Dark Ages - reiding@nettally, Mon Mar 7 09:06:06 2005
• RE: Mites, Alcatraz, and the Dark Ages - coldthumb, Mon Mar 7 16:05:25 2005