Reptile & Amphibian Forums

the dish soap soak or olive oil to get rid of ticks or mites?

I have a wc girl that seemed to be cleared of ticks (i gave her a few reptile relief spray treatments too)and then i found some on her the other day. I dont know how i could have missed them or where they came from but i removed em.

Since the reptile relief works for crap (i took the newly removed ticks, put them in a ziploc bag, and sprayed them repeatedly with now effect) Are the above methods worth a try?

Can ticks become a bigger problem if they/can they reproduce?

Thx again guys.

EDIT: I've had them for months after the first treatment, with no signs of ticks until now....maybe the post makes more sense now

I saw 1 once on Franklin. I was told it was from the repti bark I was using.

So, I switched to aspen bedding & used mite off on him. Never had a problem since. (also cleaned the tank to death & used the mite off on everything in the for 2 weeks

Also helped that I kept him on white paper towels for a month to make sure no more were on him or in his tank.

I have a can of Prevent A Mite on order, for future snakes. I hear this stuff is the bomb!

I just switched over from a fine grated playground cypress back to a shreeded aspen. The reason being is the 2 years I used that cypress I bet I had mites at least 5 times on the aspen the 2 years prior to the cypress I think I had them once, so I think they were coming in on the cypress because it seemed as if the outbreaks only occured around the time that I di a complete bedding change. But what I use everytime to get rid of them is a bedding spray (Equate Brand) from Wal-Mart or you can get it at CVS its a head lice spray. Wash the animals thouroghly with an ani-bacterial hand soap under warm water until you dont see mites on your hands anymore, then change the bedding out to papertowels and remove the water spray the tub down before putting the papertowels in then place the snake in the tub and spray the animal. Repeat spraying 2-3 days and then wash the animal again clean out the tub and put the bedding and water back in and it seems to knock it out everytime. I know it sounds like alot and its time consuming but its ALWAYS worked for me and hopefully I wont have the problem again since switching to aspen. Hope it helps
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Damian Macioce
www.strongholdreptiles.com

on a few things:

no mites....just ticks

and im using newspaper for substrate in a rack system.

with soap..........dish soap and water..only one drop of dish soap.....not alot....you just need a little soap to stick to the mites and make them wet......they are dry and when placed under water (on the snake)....they form an air bubble around themselves and don't drown or get wet....the soap breaks the air barrier and makes them wet....too much soap may be drunk by the ball?......

.....proventamite isn't worth a crap either most of the time.....you would need to spray the entire room ........

........ticks you can feel on the snake...fell for little bumps........then get them off with small tweezers......you will find more in a few weeks.....

ticks to reproduce will have to grow fat and engorge with blood to make eggs ...you will see them when they start to engorge......

good luck
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I check new snakes with an eye loupe and use tweezers to remove any ticks. They hide under the snakes scales also around the snakes eyes. The eyes have a little pocket of skin/scales around them that you can carefully pull back with the tweezers and look inside. The little buggers hide inside there.

Good luck.

Alan

SWEEET

thanx guys really helpful

Hi ! Like I have posted several times I have not had a mite or any other external parasite in over 25 years or more . When I worked at the Houston Zoo as a teen we wiped down all incoming reptiles with Olive oil , You wipe them down liberally and let stand for 30min. Or so then wipe off the excess and do not wash them until there next shed , you can let them soak when they go into blue. Them put out bird mite protectors beside or on top of your reptile cage depending on weather in a rack or a single if a rack I use one for every three shelves . And wipe down all new reptiles just in case .Thanks David of DS Reptile Rescue , Removal & Rehabilitation

I forgot to tell you that the olive oil is a natural product and in no way will harm the snake unless you force a bunch in its nose LOL. It works by blocking there airway and will kill them and force some ticks to drop off before dieing and some you will have to pull off and as long as they don’t drop off into water they will all die .That’s why you let it stay on 30min. Or more before you wipe off the excess . Thanks David

thx man...in fact, i have heard of the olive oil method and have used it before (As precautionary so i really never got to see if it worked or not). After talking to my partner I realized we had not in fact used it on this particular wc as we did with all our others.

Thanks again.

...u know ur a reptile person when u find urself bathing them in olive oil...