Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I found out this morning my snakes have mites, how could I take it off? I ask around and they told me to use DEMADEX, anyone familiar with it?

Our facility has been using Pro Product's Provent-A-Mite for many years with 100% success. Although we have been mite free for years, we treat all of our new, incoming animals with POM; it's the easiest product to use and the most effective in my opinion.

Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center

>>I found out this morning my snakes have mites, how could I take it off? I ask around and they told me to use DEMADEX, anyone familiar with it?
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

I am living in Asia I cant find the product over here. Can you guy suggest what should I do? or is there any alternative ways to treat the mites or how to get the product? thank you so much.

Hi
Well, without chemical assistance, it's tougher, but still possible. First, see if you can get De Flea Reptile Relief from Natural Chemistry. (It can be ordered from their website) I've been a huge skeptic of any mite killer on the pet shop market for years, but this stuff actually works, and is pretty safe for the animal- just follow diretions.
Assuming you can't get Reptile relief either, here's the plan:
First, place your snake (I'm assuming a Burm?) in a pan of lukewarm water with a lid- rubbermaid or similar works well. Be sure it can easily get it's head out of the water to breathe occasionally, and don't leave him unattended, but Burms are pretty comfortable in water, so he's safe. Mites will eventually drown, but it can take 30 minutes or more, and you'll want to check the snake's head (most likely kept out of the water most of this time) for mites that have migrated there. I tend to leave snakes in this bath for an hour or more, as long as they're not stressing to escape the pan.
While this is happening, you'll want to mix up a 15% bleach/water solution. Wash down the snake's enclosure, discard substrate, wash his hide, etc- anything in the enclosure. If the snake has a real wooden branch for a climbing tree, wrap it in foil and bake it in the oven for 15 minutes at about 350 degrees.
If you have a hatchling burm, still in a 30 gallon viv or smaller, you can just fill it with water and add a 1/2 cup or so of bleach- you can even soak his "toys" in the viv itself. Regardless of which method you use, allow the bleach solution to soak on the viv, etc, for about 30 minutes.
Then thoroughly rinse and dry the stuff and replace. Remove the snake from his bath, dry and inspect him, and replace in the viv. You should see dead mites/ticks in the bathwater.
Now the bad news...you'll have to do this at least two more times. I recommend every 10 days, until you don't see any mites in the bathwater (nor, of course, on the snake)

Fighting mites without "modern" help is tough- you'll have to work pretty hard to rid your snake of these little bastards. I have had excellent luck with the Reptile Relief, much to my surprise-get it if you can. I stopped paying any attention to otc mite killers many years ago, and this stuff changed my mind.
On the other hand, Ivermectin is lousy for reptiles- any vet that attempts to inject a reptile with the stuff is a borderline idiot or out of ideas...although bathing a reptile in a mild solution can work if done properly.

Best of luck!

James

ok il try to soak them in water and wash there enclosure with 15%bleach. BTW what should I do if I saw thw mites on the head? I mean after they migrated on the head?

Wash them off with a damp sponge or under running water- usually doesn't make the snake particularly happy, but there's not much else you can do. Sometimes Burms will do their Anaconda immitation and sit on the bottom of the water pan for an extended time... but you can't count on this, lol.

Good luck!

JJ

np

Hi,
Don't freak out too bad, most people will get mites sooner or later. Another thing you can try: just coat your snakes with some olive oil. Just put some in your hand and run it all over the snake, the head too. The mites can't breath and die very quickly. Meanwhile clean your cages etc like others have recommended and repeat as recommended.