Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A friend of mine has a ball python that I'm looking after for a little bit. He told he it has mites and I told him I have some stuff that might help and to bring 'em by and whatever. I got a new tank for it (a 20g long that was on sale for $7 at petsmart). I put aspen bedding since that what I use for al my other snakes. I also put Provent-A-Mite in the tank (then added the water dish after it all dried). I put Reptile Relief on it, and my god, had so many dead/dieing mites all over my had. All the black specks, crazy. Anyways, I sprayed some on a q-tip and wiped the head with it, excluding the nose and heat pits. I wiped the eyes gently with it since the poor snake had a bunch there.
I was wondering since the snake has mite up it's nose and pits, what can I do to kill/get rid of 'em? Or should I just wait for the PAM to take effect and kill them?
Also it seems that I might be taking care of the snake for a while, I've never owned a ball before nor taken care of any, any advice? My friend's in the military so he can't exactly always care for it.
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1.0.0 Bearded Dragon (Rex- "normal" orange fire)
1.1.0 Spotted Python (Hotdog and Shoelace)
0.1.0 Emperor Scorpion
0.0.1 Vietnamese Centipede
0.1.0 Doggie-dog (Jubei)
0.1.0 Wolfdog (Midnight)

NIX used to treat head lice in humans ,mix a tablespoon of nix with 8 0zs of warm water and you can spray the snake,it will kill the mites on contact and the eggs.

BLACK KNIGHT II
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Harlin Wall - WALL TO WALL REPTILES!
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probably not a good idea to rub either PAM or BK-II in the eyes. Better to just soak the snake in luke warm water. Most are very happy to submerge completely which will drown the mites on their bodies..though some may be lucky to stay within air bubbles.

I don't think it is good to use both Reptile Relief and PAM at the same time, the chemicals may react badly with each other and cause a more toxic result.
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PHLdyPayne

Call Robyn at Pro Exotics. He will set you up with some Black Knight|| and give you instructions on how to use it.

a good soak will kill a vast number of mites on the animal itself. that is always a strong first step.

soaking WILL NOT address mites in the cage, eggs in the cage, surrounding areas, or even real deep in the scales.

but soaking can kill hundreds of mites within an hour.

for an adult ball, use room temp water, about the thickness of the snake itself, in a secure container, like a rubbermaid sweaterbox tub.

you will still need to treat the cage and environment with an insecticide, i recommend BK-II, available on the KS.com classifieds.

also, get rid of the aspen. if you expect to be successful in your treatment, you need a simple substrate like newspaper. aspen, cypress, sani chips etc are too dense and offer too many hide spots for mites and eggs.
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles