Reptile & Amphibian Forums

As I posted this weekend, I spotted the beginning of a small outbreak of mites in my rack. I immediately began treating the animals and cages from multiple angles to get rid of them. I used the following products.

A small amout of bleach in a large spray bottle to clean the cages and kill eggs. I used DeFlea Reptile Relief mite spray that I sprayed on a rag and wiped the snake's body down with that. The instructions specifically said not to spray it on the snake's face or get it in the snake's eyes. Due to the fact that those are the two most popular places for mites to hide or lay eggs, I also bought ZooMed Mite-off in the blue bottle because it can be sprayed on the entire animal and in their water dish so that if they soak it will kill the mites. I put all snakes on paper towels and watched them very closely. Also, I sprayed Provent-A-Mite on a towel and wiped down the whole rack with it. I did this because Brian Barczyk said the mites were nocturnal and not host specific and would migrate from cage to cage at night. Brian also told me the Provent-A-Mite has a 30 day shelf life and the mites would die if they came into contact with the Provent-A-Mite for the next 30 days. I did all of this Sauturday night.

I cleaned the cages again on Sunday night because I was seeing a lot of dead mites on the substrate. Today, I noticed about 3/4 of the snakes had crapped or passed urates so I started to clean again. I found maybe a half dozen dead mites in the whole rack, no mites on my snakes that were visible, and the water dishes were clear of mites. I have had about 11 out of 17 snakes go into shed this week as that is one of the symptoms of a collection with a mite problem. I guess all the crapping and urate passing is because they are feeling better.

I am not naieve in thinking that I have eradicated the mites 100%. I know there can still be eggs, but I think I have put a dent in their activities in my collection. I have now began a mite prevention program that will consist of wiping down my rack with a towel sprayed with Provent-A-mite every three weeks as suggested to me Brian Gundy who also helped me with some great information as described in an earlier post. I hope this helps anyone else who might find these little pests get rid of them before they have an opportunity to negatively affect an animal's health or kill them.

I spent 2 hours cleaning 17 cages and cannot imagine what it would be like if I had 50-100 animals, and that is still a small collection, to clean and treat for mites.

Thank you to everyone that helped and hopefully this information will help others in the future.
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Happy Herping,
Jody Barnes
Royal Kreationz

My snakes aren't fat, they're big boned.

How does one get mites? I am a clean freak and make sure my tubs are clean constantly. I want to take all the necessary precautions. Thanks

Visiting pet stores that have or had have mite problems in the past, visiting another collection that has mites, letting the animals crawl around outside, acquiring a new animal that only has one or two and that animal infects the rest of your collection...

Or sometimes they might just seem to pop out of no where.

Like the poster said, the best treatment is prevention. Spraying the provent-a-mite regularly is a good method, as is (obviously) keeping everything in your tubs immaculate.

Keep things clean and sanitary and you probably won't get them, but don't freak out if you do, just treat the problem. They're a pain, but they're not the end of the world.

~jenny
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"Polysyllabism in no way insures that what you're saying is actually worth being heard." - Blake (an e-friend of mine)

"I have never made but one prayer to god, a very short one: "O lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And he granted it." - Voltaire

Mites are airborne in their initial stage of life. They can come from anywhere (i.e. bedding bought at pet store, feeders, other snakes, out of thin air, who knows where the hell else they might come from.) Don't freak out if you get them. As soon as I found them I began researching treatments online. I then treated them and have hopefully knocked them back in a hurry. One thing I can tell you is this. No matter how clean you keep your animals or what ever the case may be you will most likely get mites at some point or another. When you do, follow the instructions on the products you are going to use to treat them exactly. A lot of products can be harmful or fatal to your animals if you do not use them correctly and I have found that that is the worst part of treating them. I would say start treating with Provent-A-Mite now to reduce your chances of getting the, but use it carefully as it probably has the greatest chance of being toxic to your snakes if used incorrectly and is very toxic to the smaller animals.
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Happy Herping,
Jody Barnes
Royal Kreationz

My snakes aren't fat, they're big boned.

Proper Quarrantine! I have been maintaining a semi-large collection (around 100-200 animals depending on time of year, hatchings, etc) for close to 10 years, and I never even saw a mite until after I brought a new snake home from Daytona this year that had 2 crawling on it. Thank god I noticed them immediately and had not had the new animal in contact with my established collection.

I quarrantine everything, no matter who it comes from, for a minimum of 90 days. I will quarrantine the animal that I saw the mites on for at least 6 months before bringing her into the main room (even though I have not seen any mites since the initial 2 she came with... gotta love pro-venta-mite).

Mites don't just "pop up out of no where". If your collection is free of mites, and you never bring in new snakes, you will never get mites. Be smart... don't buy substrate from pet stores (I use paper), get your feeders from a clean source (frozen if possible), take a shower after visiting somewhere (another collection, herp show, pet shop) that might have mites before getting around your collection.

The last animal I brought into my collection was quarantined for 3 weeks until he pooped and I had a fecal done. He was put into the main collectioin about a month ago so I don't think the mites came from that. I also do not feel that mites had anything to do with bad husbandry or lack of quarantining. Quarantining animals until a fecal tests negatvie for anything has worked for me and is what I will continue to do. I have an idea where my mites came from, but I will keep that to myself.

I will tend to agree with what a credible source explained to me that he learned in a seminar done by Dave Barker. If mites are airborn, I don't think there is anything you can do to insure that you never get them. I do know this though, because of careful monitoring of my collection, I was able to catch them early and erradicate them quickly. I think there is something to be said for husbandry from that stand point also.

Like I have siad, I posted this to help other people who are not as perfect as you are. I think other users here have learned from my experience and that is what I was aiming for as that is what we should do here.
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Happy Herping,
Jody Barnes
Royal Kreationz

My snakes aren't fat, they're big boned.

I don't think one negative fecal is a good quarantine protocal. I have to have a minimum of 2-3 negative fecals before I introduce anything into my colony.

I with Marcial on time limits, and actually go a bit longer depending on the animal. I've had animals in quarantine for 2 years. That's just how I do things. Some of us have too much as stake.

Good luck.
Brandon Osborne
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www.brandonosbornereptiles.com

Speaking from the veterinary standpoint, Brandon certainly has a good point. One thing to remember about parasites is that they shed eggs intermittently, so one negative fecal sample is not necessarily indicative of their absence.

The other thing to know is, "negative" is the laypersom term for what your vet will call "NOS" or "no ova seen". Referring back to the intermittent shedding of parasite eggs: a result of NOS on a fecal reading does not necessarily mean that there are no parasites present.

In addition, some parasite eggs are rarely if ever seen on a fecal flotation. (One example being tapeworms.) These parasites rely on you spotting weight loss or lethargy (or the segments themselves) in order to diagnose.

Don't get me wrong.. 99% of internal parasites can be diagnosed with this test.. I'm just letting you know it's not foolproof, so still use caution with new animals! & in addition to the fecal float, you may want to request a direct saline smear, as this is the best way to see protozoan parasites that won't show up on a float.

Hope all this helps someone.

-Tami*

No need to get bent out of shape, buddy. I never said that I was perfect. But, people need to know that a 3 week quarrantine period is in no way sufficient to prevent mites or to be sure your new snakes is not carrying them. The egg / mite life cycle can last up to a year in the right conditions.

Just trying to help you out... If you did not have mites before this new addition and then you only qaurrantined it for 3 weeks and ended up with mites, that is likely where they came from. Again, they do not just pop up from nowhere. I do not believe they are even native to the US, so you can't get them from mulch (unless purchsed from a pet shop who's snakes have mites) or taking your snakes outside, etc.