Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i use prevent o mite in all my reptile cages. i notice for about a week after i use it all the crickets that i feed my monitor die within about 30 mins. if these crickets are poisioned and my monitor eats them is he too now poisioned????
matt
ballisticboas.com
Link

If you use a pesticide in their cages, they are being poisoned without eating crickets, with the crickets it will be more so. It is a poison. Now, whether it will have any outward effects is a completely different question. Within reason I doubt it, but then again I don't think habitually spraying cages down with pesticides is all that reasonable.

So, I wouldn't worry about what has been done, but I wouldn't continue to do it anymore.

I have never really seen mite problems with monitors anyway.

--Robert

i only used the prevent o mite because he is new. and if he had mites i wanted to kill them befor they spred to my collection. seeing as how he is a wc i thought it was a good idea. i will not treat again until i actually need to. thanks for the help
matt
ballisticboas.com
Link

reptile mites live on scaled animals like snakes. they are not a threat to scaleless geckos, monitors, and other lizards.

you have to be VERY careful when using a pesticide around your animals!
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

This is an interesting subject. I have never had mites on my montors. So I think your right about snake mites.

But, our local lizards, including geckos, commonly have a bright orange lizard mite. The bunch up in the folds around both front and back legs. But again, these native lizard mites have never colonized on our outdoor monitors either.

Are monitors mite proof? they do get ticks, that I know for sure. I have seen lots of ticks on wild monitors. But, only once many years ago, did I find a tick on one of our outdoor monitors. It could have transfered from a wild caught monitor(albigs) But that has been about it. Cheers

you are quarantining your monitor, right? if you quarantine it you shouldn't have to worry about any parasite getting to your established collection. thats just common sense.
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-Marshall
1.1.0 ball pythons
0.0.1 red ackie

Not sure what you mean. I never had a problem with parasites. So I must be doing something right.

I know this is going to sound funny, but the only problem I have had was when I first started. I would take new monitors to the vet and have them treated. I had more problems with those, then ones I did not have treated. So over the years, I seem to have lost all concern over both internal and external parasites.

The reason is, with decent husbandry, monitors can surely take care of themselves. As I often mention, in nature, they obtain new parasites with nearly every meal, over their whole life. And they also obtain new external parasites on a very consisitant basis.

I do not quarantine monitors, in the true sense. I also do not put newly acquired monitors, in with other monitors. Unless I bought them as a group. I also do not acquire sick monitors, if I can help it.

I wait until monitors are mentally stable before introducing to other monitors, which I believe is far more important then for reasons of pathogens or parasites. Cheers

Frank, Fish has over 20 boas, beautiful ones i might add, and other herps. he definitely doesnt want anything to spread from his water to his other herps. thats why i suggested quarantining his water first.
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-Marshall
1.1.0 ball pythons
0.0.1 red ackie

WOW
THANKS FOR THE COMPLAMENT MR PYTHON. HE IS SEPERATED FROM ALL THE BOAS. HE IS DOING GREAT AND EATING OK COULD BE BETTER BUT HE IS JUST GETTING SETTLED IN.
MATT FISHER
BALLISTICBOAS.COM
Link

>>This is an interesting subject. I have never had mites on my montors. So I think your right about snake mites.
>>
>> But, our local lizards, including geckos, commonly have a bright orange lizard mite. The bunch up in the folds around both front and back legs. But again, these native lizard mites have never colonized on our outdoor monitors either.
>>
>> Are monitors mite proof?

Makes you wonder. I live in NY and used to keep my iguana (yes, not a monitor, I know) outside in the heat of summer and one summer he got covered in the red mites. I got him checked and dosed once with ivomectin before he came inside.
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Sonya

I'm not mean. You're just a sissy.
Happy Bunny

Ive never seen parasitic mites on a monitor. Ive seen them on a few types of lizards kept in really bad petstores or from really bad dealers. Almost every mite Ive seen was on snakes, an agamid I bought once had them, I cleaned the animal up and returned it with advice to the store which didnt care at all.
If the individual is worried then they should be more worried about a monitor WC that transfers some disease not parasites possibly to a snake. Its very rare that that can happen, but you could get struck by lightning a few times beforehand.
Ticks on WC monitors can attach to snakes Im sure, not positive, havent noticed many.
Also depends where you get your info from,the individuals who write about alot of it or tell you to be so paranoid with these things have many many worse other problems that are the causes of their losses.
I notice every year the pattern, new keepers take a while to finally convince that they need to keep their monitor acertain way, then they are trying to nit-pick at that husbandry trying to find reasons to go back to what they were doing (the unsucessful way, because it was published in a book), one way is to point at the little bugs in dirt and call them mites (parasitic), just thought Id bring this up, that time is here on all the forums.

Still regarding provent-a-mite, but not directly monitor-related, I recently managed to get my hands on some here in the UK for my BP who I think had a couple of mites and on the bottle it says use it weekly as a preventative measure and ensure airing out the viv well afterwards - that using it as a preventative measure will stop reinfestation. I am just curious that probably it shouldn't actually be used in that way (despite the manufacturers wanting us to). Incidentally, I used it just the once after thoroughly cleaning viv, but never did repeat.

A ball python does not feed on crickets that are loose in the cage with the insectiside. So this is out of context. We are talking about monitors, where we commonly leave living food in the cage.

I would not and have not and will not treat an animal for what it doesn't "need" to be treated for. Needless treating or proventitive treatments were from a day long ago when decent husbandry did not exsist. Cheers

Sorry for the confusion - I wasn't talking BPs specifically, more Provent-a-Mite specifically. I don't believe in excess use of any of that stuff either, like antibiotics, these things can get over-used.

Remember the thread was started with a question about pestisides that killed the crickets in the cage that was consumed by a monitor.

What would you think if you placed live mice or rats in the cage and they died, then the BP consumed them?

The truth is, I never heard of provent o mite, or any other mite treatment hurting monitors, but then a lot of monitors die from "unknown causes" particularly by folks that try real hard and treat and prevent all this and that. Cheers

... point taken. I must admit I do have a tendency to pick up on something and drift a thread off topic occasionally. I'll try my best to watch out for that
~Sue

So, no problem, cheers