Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Yes I'm dealing with the little buggers for the first time in 15 years, so was wandering what people are doing these days for treatments. I found several threads that sound interesting to me and wondered who might have experience with them.

Has anyone tried the predatory mite Hypoaspis ssp.? Supposedly preys on snake mites and eggs. Then dies off when the food source is gone. Needs to be bedded though I'm not sure if it needs bedding like bedabeast or if shavings will work. I'm waiting to hear from the supplier to find out.

The other thought was using diluted Frontline flea and tick. Has anyone tried this path? Can be sprayed on all furniture and the snake and the cage. Supposedly wont kill eggs but works well directly on snakes.

At the moment I'm using my old standby from way back of no pest strips and diluted bleach cleanings and soaking. But wondered if there were better reasonably priced solutions out there now.

Any thoughts or experiences?

Thanks

Ian

I have no expreience with any of the methods you were speaking about, but have used provent-a-mite. At the time the infected snake was in a wood cage (more difficult to remove mites from). I sprayed provent-a-mite on the aspen bedding and whiped down all the surfaces of the cage (you can even treat newspaper). I did this process again two weeks later (thats usually how long mite eggs take to hatch) although Im not sure that it is necessary. Knock on wood, I have not had to deal with them again. Still have a whole lot left in the can if I do though.
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- Jason F.

Just to be safe, I'm going to treat all the snakes in my collection, which at this point is about a dozen snakes. I have one 6'x2'x2' melamine cage, 7 20 gallon critter cottages, and one 40 gallon critter cottage. Would one can of proventamite be enough to treat that number of cages? Did you spray the snake as well?

Ian

The cage I treated was 6'x2'x2' and I would estimate that one can should be plenty to treat all that at least once if not more. Dont hold me to it since I am only guessing by the weight of the can since I have not gone through a whole can yet.

I did not spray the snake, just whiped down the cage and sprayed the substrate. You must allow the cage to vent out the vapors before returning the snake and its water to the enclosure. The directions are easy to follow and I believe you can view them online.

It may seem like a pain since you must air out the cages and remove the animals, but to me it is worth it as it works well.
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- Jason F.

I also use Proventa Mite and it works well. I also use a small piece of no pest strip that I have removed from the plastic shell and cut down into small squares. I then take the small pieces and put them in the tops of the tanks tape works well and I make sure that there is no way my snakes can come into contact with them. This is a great preventive. I would also clean and treat all your animals since mites will travel and if maybe you held one snake and then another you may have carried eggs on your hands and not known it. Treating all would ensure no returning pests. Good luck the little boogers are tough to get rid of.