Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A couple more questions. After taking a little closer look the what I believe to be male 8ft albino burm I have rescued has mites BADDDDDD I mean she soaked in water dish overnight and while cleaning it there was litteraly hundreds... I'm thinking they are just comeing to surface because I treated him with some nix as I do all my new animals.. This burm was in fairly bad shape when I got it so I mad sure to quarantine him far from my other snakes.. Other side of the house. He is a bit flighty but today he let me rub him down some and clean a small area of the mites near his tail.. There is literaly hundreds still on him and they just won't rub off I have treated him twice and the ones I pulled off of his tail area where all dead.. My question is will they just fall off all being dead a lot are realy deep.. And or when he sheds will they come off then... he is so beautiful but he is speckled like he was a paradox .. The mites just won't rub off and I don't want to pick at him he gave me a good sit down earlier.. Any help I appreciate.
Jbugg

My Burm had mites when I got him, but not as bad as yours sounds. This is what I did to treat them and they were gone pretty quickly.

1)Purchase either a can of Provent-A-Mite spray or Equate Lice Bedding Spray from Wal-Mart's pharmacy section. I'm not going to get into the differences here, but some prefer PAM to Equate, but Equate is cheaper. There's a thread on another page about these two chemicals.

2)Take everything out of the cage.

3)Follow the directions VERY carefully and spray the enclosure inside and out. You just need a light mist, don't saturate, and hold it the recommended distance away. Also spray all of the newspaper that will go into the cage. I would use newspaper until the mite problem is gone.

4)Clean the water dish with a 10% bleach solution. Make sure you rinse everything so that no bleach odor remains.

5)When you put everything back together, make sure that everything is dry and that no lingering odors are present that could indicate residual chemicals. Also, as a precaution, I would wait and put the water bowl in the next day to make sure a wet animal didn't reactivate any chemicals. Likewise, I wouldn't mist for a day or two.

Mites will crawl out of the cage, so I always spray about a 2ft area around the cage as well, whether it be my carpeted floor, a table stand, etc. The chemicals are safe when dry, but toxic when freshly wet. Do not spray them on the snake or let him into a wet cage.

In the meantime, you can continue with diluted Betadine soaks (weak tea) or soaking in water with a drop or two of soap added. Reptile Relief didn't work that great for me, and I've never tried Nix. When I needed to get rid of mites, I used newspaper as the substrate and even sprayed the newspaper at every change. I did this for about three weeks, and was able to completely get rid of the mites after the next shed.

Everyone has a slightly different way of treating mites, so you might find different opinions and methods here.

Yeah that's basically what I thought. I been doing the wipe out daily for the last 3 days with the bleach water I don't make it strong.. Cleaning the inside and outside of the cage and top then wipeing down with regular water afterwards.. Oh I dry him after soaking. I have used the provent a mite and it works about the same as the nix... His hide box which is a top to a clothes hamper I buy for $2 from walmart. Its white. He has been cruisin on top of it and around it and a lot of the mites are falling off dead and some are even spattering a lil he is squiashing them.. I been useing a beach towel for subtrate and daily pulling it out and into a strong detergent mix in abucket outside soakin for half a hour then into the washing machine while a new is replaced. Will all the mites eventually fall off? When he sheds will a lot come off with the shed? Since I have had him he drowned a lot and we have washed a lot of them off probably up to 500 alright its rediculous and there is a couple more hundred still on him like every other scale had one.. Now they are almost all dead but just are stuck on him and I don't want to hurt him anymore I'm sure he was suffering... Any more help info is awesome!!! Thanks in advance.
Jbugg

I myself use olive oil you can buy at Wal-Mart. I slick them up like you are putting on sun tan lotion. Let them sit in a tub or plastic container for atleast 1 hr. Then wash them down with baby soap. Wash everything in cage along with cage with a water bleach mix while snake is hang'n out in the tub. Make sure everything is dry and bleach smell free before you put everything back together. Do this procedure over in 2 days. That should fix your problem. By using a wash cloth when you wash the snake that should remove the mites from the scales. If not what ever is left will come out when the snake sheds. Hope this helps.

The mites will eventually come off the snake, but there's more to the life cycle. The mites spend very little time on the snake--just to feed. The travel through the cage looking for a place to lay eggs, then you have the larva and pupa stages. This is why treating the cage is so important. You want to provide a chemical barrier for the traveling mites that have left the snake. The other mites will die off with the nix treatments and with each shed.

Just be careful with the treatments. Everything you are using has an effect on the snake...nix is a chemical, PAM is a chemical, soap is drying, and oil coats the skin of the snake. My recommendation is to be knowledgeable about what you are using and try not to overload the snake, who is already stressed by previous poor husbandry and a new move.

Best stuff on the market that I've tried. Makes eradicating mites very simple and very effective.

Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center

>>A couple more questions. After taking a little closer look the what I believe to be male 8ft albino burm I have rescued has mites BADDDDDD I mean she soaked in water dish overnight and while cleaning it there was litteraly hundreds... I'm thinking they are just comeing to surface because I treated him with some nix as I do all my new animals.. This burm was in fairly bad shape when I got it so I mad sure to quarantine him far from my other snakes.. Other side of the house. He is a bit flighty but today he let me rub him down some and clean a small area of the mites near his tail.. There is literaly hundreds still on him and they just won't rub off I have treated him twice and the ones I pulled off of his tail area where all dead.. My question is will they just fall off all being dead a lot are realy deep.. And or when he sheds will they come off then... he is so beautiful but he is speckled like he was a paradox .. The mites just won't rub off and I don't want to pick at him he gave me a good sit down earlier.. Any help I appreciate.
>>Jbugg
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL