Reptile & Amphibian Forums

okay, i have about a 5 month old normal male burm. He was caged in a 20 gal untill i finished his new cage. when i put him in, about a week later, i relized he has gotten mites. im still feeding him live untill i can get a freezer for frozen. could the live mice have brought the mites or could it be the bark substrate that i had purchased. I just ordered some prevent a mite and some reptile relief to cure the problem, but the main question is where in the hell did he get these all of a sudden? i just dont want them to occur again, and be harmfal to my wonderful burm. thanks in advance..any advice would be greatful.
Thanks,
Nick

I dont think that mammal mites can live on a cold-blood. I would look at your substrate.

ok, thats good to hear...damn substrate i guess. how should i go about cleaning the substrate?

any other people know about the mites from mice possibly? just to confirm?

thanks though!

This is another common myth in the reptile hobby (that snakes can get SNAKE mites from commercially available substrate)...most likely, the snake already had mites, the adults left the host to lay eggs (either in the substrate, or, more likely, away from the cage) only to come back and reinfest the snake. Substrates don't just carry snake mites....wood lice perhaps but even t hen that would be a stretch.

Get some Provent A Mite and start treating the cage, substrate, and the areas around the cage.

Rob Carmichael, Curator
THe Wildlife Discovery Center

>>ok, thats good to hear...damn substrate i guess. how should i go about cleaning the substrate?
>>
>>any other people know about the mites from mice possibly? just to confirm?
>>
>>thanks though!
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

ive gotten gnats and mites from substrate purchased at petco

Mites from Petco, or any pet store, could be one of any 1000 of species of mites; but the only mite that poses a risk to the reptile is a host specific "snake" mite. Any natural substrate can harbor pests but not all are parasitic in nature and many of these are heat treated. So, if a snake gets infested from snake mites it either came from mites that left the host inside a cage inside the pet store (that made its way to the bag 'o mulch), or, the snake already had mites prior to the substrate being introduced. It's not a bad idea to treat new mulch purchased at pet stores with Provent A Mite to prevent any problems. Not sure how much more clear I can get on this subject.

>>ive gotten gnats and mites from substrate purchased at petco
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

thanks for the info...provent a mite is on its way here.hopefully it will get rid of these damn mites! thanks guys!

There are several bugs that look like mites as well. If you buy a big bag of mulch from home depot or something often times they have little mite resembling bugs. They dont pose a threat to your snake. You could of you want (and I use to do this) is to just nuke your mulch in the microwave. It pretty much kills everything. If you use provent DO NOT spray it directly on the snake. Just the enclosure. And remove your substrate and place newspaper during the treatment. Often times if the snake did have mites putting them on substrate makes the problem much worse because its easier for them to breed. Check out the link on my site for mor info...
MITE treatments and their effectiveness @ Pythons.Net