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I'm concerned that my new snake might have mites. I noticed a little black speck crawling on her yesterday, but I flicked it off and didn't find any more. I checked her again today and found several little black specks tucked under her scales beneath her head. She now has white stuff around the corners of her eyes. Does this sound like mites? Or something else I should be concerned about?

I called the vet's office where I take my dog. They were booked for the next month. So tomorrow, I'm going to try to find another vet in the area. Does anyone happen to know of any good vets in San Antonio or Central Texas in general?

It sounds to me like you have mites

Forget the vets.
Invest in a can of Provent-A-Mite.
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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
www.kingpinreptiles.com
^ Updated 10/29

I agree.. There is really no reason to waste your money going to the vet for mites..

~ Mike

Save yourself the trouble. Go to Home Depot or Lowes
and buy yourself a NO Pest Strip for $6-$7. Remove the strip from the white plastic frame, and cut a 1/2" X 1/2" piece for a shoe box sized container, or a 1" X 1" sized piece for a sweater box sized container. Put the rest in a zip lock bag and store in your freezer until needed. Take the piece that you are going to use and put it in a small container with air holes punched in it.
Small restaurant ketchup containers, with a lid, work perfect for this. The whole idea is to prevent your snake from coming in contact with the yellow plastic strip. Place the strip in the animals enclosure and leave it there for at least a week, even though most of the mites will be gone within a few hours. You can find No Pet Strips in the pesticide dept. of most hardware stores. I'll attach a link to a photo of the product for you.
Let me know if you have any questions.
-Phil
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I'll Google your YouTube
If you Yahoo! Myspace!

Oops here's the link.
-Phil

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I'll Google your YouTube
If you Yahoo! Myspace!

Thank you for all the info. I'll try that. I'm concerned about the white stuff (mite feces?) that's covering her eyes around the edges. Will this go away naturally or do I need to have an more experienced snake person remove it? I read that anything that gets stuck to a snake's eye can cause an eye infection. This is my first snake so I'm inexperienced, but I want to provide her with the best possible care.

Cleaning and Treating your Enclosure

Go to your local pet store and look for Flee/Tick stray:
-One that is safe to use on animals
-Not the in home stuff for bedding and carpet.

Remove the snake from the enclosure:
-Place in a clean plastic shoe box/store container (with air holes of coarse)

Throw out all the bedding:
-Place in a Plastic bag
-Tie immediately
-Dispose of Immediately
-If you didn't use glovesont touch any other animal in your collection, until you wash your hands and forearms.

Spray the interior & exterior of the enclosure with the flee and tick spray:
-Spray everything esp. the corners
-Let it sit for approx. 20 minutes

Wash the enclosure:
-Use Hot water, as hot as you bare to rinse out the enclosure
-Get a sponge and some liquid soap and wash/wipe down the interior & exterior
-Rinse again
-Dry manually or let enclosure sit and dry.

Cage fixtures (bowls, plants, wood):
-Throw away any wooden fixtures
-Spray any Plastic fixture and let sit
-Spray water bowls and let sit
-Soak Plastic Fixtures and Water bowls in warm/hot detergent water.
-Wash fixtures thoroughly
-Let dry

Cleaning off your snake

-Using the same flee and tick spray and a good sized shoe box/storage container (with air holes)

-Fill the shoe box with 2/3 water

-DILUTE 2 Table spoons (tbs) of the Flee and Tick solution in the 2/3 water

-Place the snake in the diluted bath and cover it (MAKE SURE THERE ARE AIR HOLES)
(Mites can drown in plain water but the solution will greatly increase your chances of killing them for good!)

-Let the snake "swim" around for 10-15 minutes

-When you remove the snake check the scales under it's chin, using a small pair of tweezers you can remove the black mites... but they should be dead any way.

"Re-setting" your cage

-For now use Newspaper or paper towel, if for any reason you did not kill all the mites you run the risk of re-infecting your snake. The bedding provides cover for the mites and their eggs.

-Keep the snake on Newspaper of about a month, if you don't notice your animal "thrashing" around the cage or you don't locate any more mites, feel free to start using the bedding again.

~ZF

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Comprehend better than MOST... but i'm NOT claiming to be an expert...

Thank you for the detailed information! Before I read your message, I went to the local reptile store and they recommended yet another way to treat mites (kind of a combination between your method and another poster's method). So I've already begun that form of treatment, but if the mites come back, I'll follow your instructions. It sounds like a method that would work without hurting the snake. It's good to know of several different methods so that if one doesn't work, I can try a different one.

No prob, you're welcome!

~ZF
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Comprehend better than MOST... but i'm NOT claiming to be an expert...

I have used No pest in doses before and have had success, however when I used it with a hatchling speckled king, I lost it due to the no pest. The fact is you cant really make accurate judgements on what size piece of strip you should use with the size snake you have. The best- most effective and LEAST harmfull potentally product I have EVER used is Provent O Mite. The stuff is almost impossible to over dose if you follow the instructions on the can exactly. This stuff was made to use with herps- No Pest was not- it was made to kill things and insects and be hung in a closet like space. Provent O Mite was designed with the small container in mind so you have no worries. I was never sure if I was putting in too large or to small or not enough pieces of No Pest when I used it. Its not that No Pest is not effective, but with MUCH SAFER and just as effective or more so products on the market, why risk using No Pest?
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125 Orchid plants
20 other tropical plants and succulents
12 Bonsai Trees
28 Tarantulas & 1 Androctonus Scorpion
6 Planted Freshwater Tanks
1.1 Kankakee Bulls
1.0 Texas Red Bull
0.1 Kansas Yellow Bull
1.1 Costal Chocolate Cal Kings

Thanks for the warning. I got so many different suggestions (here and elsewhere) I sort of compromised between several methods. I used No Pest strips for a few days. Then I read that it could kill snakes so I decided not to use it again. Instead of putting the No Pest back in the vivarium the next week, I had the snake swim for an hour while I disinfected everything she comes in contact with. I'm also using paper towels instead of substrate for the time being. The No Pest strips didn't kill the mites, but the bath did. I'll look for Prevent a Mite and probably give her another bath in a few days.