Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey All,

I've been lurking on this form for a while now and just had a minor emergency pop up. We rescued a ball about a month and a half ago, its owner is one of my girlfriends patients and his girlfriend accidently let it out of its tank where it got stuck to a glue trap. When we got it, it was snappy (understandable) and a little scarred up from being ripped off the glue trap by animal control, but I gave it the once over and it was mite free. Within a week it had its first shed no problem and was eating right away. For the most part it has been fairly reclusive hiding out under a hide box so we really haven't disturbed it. Well today at feeding time, my girlfriend notices little black balls on the snake. So I take a look, pull the snke out, pull one of the things off and it pops in my fingers in a little blood spot. There didn;t seem to be to many, and the other balls were in the middle of eating so i didn;t want to disturb them but I need to get this problem under control asap. I've never had mites and I don;t want it to run away from me. Aside from changing everything from the aspen bedding on up (did it come from that?) does anyone have any suggestions on products to control the mites? And where Ican get them? I don;t have to many pet stores near by. Theres a petco and one private place and a few others within a decent driving distance. Any help would be extremely appriciated. Thanks.

~Mrez

Provent-A-Mite

Petco and Petsmart usually carry something called "Reptile Relief" by a company called DeFlea. It's always worked pretty well for me, but if the Reptile Relief doesn't do the trick, it will at least hold you over until you find a website selling Prevent-a-mite (which I don't think is sold Anywhere except reptile expos).

Personally, I usually use about ONE square inch cut from a "no-pest strip" (from Lowe's). It's always worked immediately for me and I've never had a problem. However, this product is extremely potent and a small number of people who use it have reported neurological problems in their snakes. So if you eventually have to use something stronger than DeFlea or Prevent-a-mite, read a couple snake articles online about proper usage of the no-pest strips before trying them yourself.

Good luck,
~kasey

NIX does the trick.

Mike

Thanks for the help folks,

I've just spent the last 3 hours putting all the snakes away, takeing out the cage furniture and spraying the tanks down with prevent a mite. After that, i sprayed down all the cage furniture. Fourtently, there seems to be only mites on the one snake and in its tank . I checked over everyone else pretty carefully and didn't see a single one at all. So I'm praying that I caught it early enough so that it doesn't become a bigger problem. Besides spraying the tanks and furniture down...is there anything else i should do, or is it now a wait and see game?

~Mrez

Prevent A Mite is the only thing proven to rid mites. Use as directed on the can. Can be toxic to All animals )even Fish_ if used imprpoperly! Be sure to treat all reptiles.... Mites will hitch hike on clothing (or you) and jump on for a ride to the next enclosure! Remove all animals from spraying area, Clean Everything well!!! spray as directed. Took me 9-11 days for signs to deminish )
Take care of it ASAP or you will have a mess on your hands... sounds like you have quite a few snakes ...takes 30 days for eggs to hatch so keep an eye out!
Prevent A Mite

hmmm ...link didn't work like I planned LoL
Here ya go...
Prevent A Mite

hmmm ...link didn't work like I planned LoL
Here ya go...
Prevent A Mite