Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok. I've been thinking that I have mite problems.....however, I don't want to treat unless I'm sure because 2 of my 3 corns are hatchlings and the other is like not even a year old.... so I don't want to expose them to chemicals unless I have to. My friend that knows more about snakes than I do has looked over all 3 of them and saw no mites. But I looked again tonight and I saw a little bug crawling around on one of them.... So my friend probably thinks that i'm nuts, but I just don't know what to do...... any help would be great. I don't see anything like burrowing under the snakes scales..just crawling around on him.... Thanks for your help.

-Drako

First, kill all bugs that you see -- no mercy.
Second, separate your snakes so you can isolate the problem if there is one. Third, handle your snakes with white gloves or on a white towel, etc. After a few minutes of handling look to see if there are any creepy-crawlers on your hands/gloves/towel. Keep checking every so many days to be sure.
To find mites on the snake's body, look for unusual dark spots or swelling around the eyes and vent. One or two mites is the beginning of a problem and you're lucky to have caught it early. Your scepticle friend is probably used to massive outbreaks with the little buggers all over the place. I have had cases were singular mites were seen and killed with none returning, but generally I'd assume that there are more than you can see and where there is one there are many.
When and if you decide to treat, be sure to turn the powder into a pasty liquid so that you have more control over where the stuff gets into and can prevent it from entering the resperatory system.
Good luck.

soak your animals in water(no higher than there bodies)for about 2 hours if u have mites this will drown the mites and u will know for sure if u have any. if u find mites do this with all your sankes because if 1 sanke has them they all have them.if u go to pro exotics web page they have a big mite prevention page i have used it and i havent had mites since december. hope this helps

Check the water dish. Any time I have found mites in my collections over the years, it has shown up in the water dish before I noticed them on any of my animals. It will look like pepper floating around on the bottom of the dish. Use a plain white dish for the best results. When soaking for treatement you will find them as well.

D80