Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey all today i recieved a 2003 baby burm as a resce from a friend who didnt want it anymore. well i just noticed that the snake had mites all over it. i took it to the bathtub and ran some room temp water and let the tub get a little water on one end. i layed the snake in the water and there must hav been at leats 100 mites that came off the snake. my queston is what is the best way to get rid of te mites? will sevendust work. anoter friend of mine has rubbed sevendust on a few of his snakes to get rid of mites without any ill sideffects. he had reptile bark in the cage for substrate and he thinks that is where thay camefrom. is here a way to get all of the mites out of te bark? i know newspaper is alot better than bark but when my burms are young i like to have the cage look nice for display. then when they gt older i move them to the large room enclosure wit a lenolium floor. thanks in advance to all that reply. i is greatly appreciated. im sorry for the typos and for anything ha doesn make anysense but i notced the mites righ5t before i was gonna leave for work and im in a really big hurry. i moved the snake to a clean 10 gallon for now. thanks again
Anthony
-----
"Come and take a litte walk with me baby and tell me Who Do You Love"

I have always used Sevin dust. But if you or your friend are using bark or any other wood-based substrate then this won't be effective in the cage and this is just as important if not moreso, that erradicating them from the snake. The mites lay their eggs in the cracks of plywood or bark or any little nook or crannie that they can find. So if you want to use Sevin dust you will want to get rid of the bark (or bake it above 160) until the mites are gone. Then the snake can be coated with the dust, and a generous amount sprinkled on the cage floor and especially along the edges and corners. covered with newspaper, and a light sprinkling on the top of the paper. Wash the snake off every other day and re-apply the dust making sure to work it into his scales and even around his eyes, but don't get it in his mouth. Do this until you find no living mites or a minimum of about a week, then wash him and the cage and you should be done with mites. As an added precaution you should treat around the outside of the cage. Mites can travel surprisingly fast and can make it out of that cage, across the room and onto other snakes. So block off any possible escape with a thick continuous line of the dust around the cage. Leave this for several weeks just on the off chance that a living mite may be somewhere in a non-treated area of the cage.

I have heard a lot of good things about Pro-Products Provent-a-Mite, but have yet to use it. So I can't advise dirrectly on how to best apply it. But I'm sure others that have used it will post on this. Rob Carmichael is one, but he doesn't come here much anymore. Marcia from Giant feeders might know. (that's right Marcie, I'm trying to yank you back in here. We miss you!)

>>hey all today i recieved a 2003 baby burm as a resce from a friend who didnt want it anymore. well i just noticed that the snake had mites all over it. i took it to the bathtub and ran some room temp water and let the tub get a little water on one end. i layed the snake in the water and there must hav been at leats 100 mites that came off the snake. my queston is what is the best way to get rid of te mites? will sevendust work. anoter friend of mine has rubbed sevendust on a few of his snakes to get rid of mites without any ill sideffects. he had reptile bark in the cage for substrate and he thinks that is where thay camefrom. is here a way to get all of the mites out of te bark? i know newspaper is alot better than bark but when my burms are young i like to have the cage look nice for display. then when they gt older i move them to the large room enclosure wit a lenolium floor. thanks in advance to all that reply. i is greatly appreciated. im sorry for the typos and for anything ha doesn make anysense but i notced the mites righ5t before i was gonna leave for work and im in a really big hurry. i moved the snake to a clean 10 gallon for now. thanks again
>>Anthony
>>-----
>>"Come and take a litte walk with me baby and tell me Who Do You Love"
-----
If 50% of one's enemies are still breathing,... it just means you're doing a half-assed job.

--Could you please provide any citation for the safety and efficacy of Sevin dust as a miticide when used on any species of reptile?

--Are you recommending Sevin 5% or Sevin 10%?

--How did you arrive at a frequency of application of every two days to “coat” the snake in addition to dusting inside and outside its cage?

Thank you,
Joan

Hi Joan,

As to "safety" of sevin dust, I cite my own experience with it over the last 30 years.

I am reccomending .5%

As sevin dust is designed for use on vegetables and fruits for human consumption even up to just 24 or 48 hours prior to harvest, it is a relatively weak insecticide and it's "potency" wanes, or degrades, rather fast. So what has worked best for me over the years is to keep fresh sevin dust on the snake until the mites are gone. It has always worked well for me and I have always considered it to be very safe. I highly reccomend it.

>>--Could you please provide any citation for the safety and efficacy of Sevin dust as a miticide when used on any species of reptile?
>>
>>--Are you recommending Sevin 5% or Sevin 10%?
>>
>>--How did you arrive at a frequency of application of every two days to “coat” the snake in addition to dusting inside and outside its cage?
>>
>>Thank you,
>>Joan
-----
If 50% of one's enemies are still breathing,... it just means you're doing a half-assed job.

Thanks for the help i greatly appreciate it. Ill keep you updated on the mite problem.

Anthony
-----
"Come and take a litte walk with me baby and tell me Who Do You Love"

Sevin dust eh?....you are really showing your age Brian! I, too, used to use this product but as you mentioned, I have switched to pro products provent a mite. Having used EVERY known method for mite eradication, I have found this product to be the easiest and most effective method for not only eradicating mites but for routine control as well. What I like about the product is that once applied, it will stay effective for up to 30 days which is far better than having to coat a snake in sevin dust every few days...but, to each his own and if it works for you and you like the stuff, then that is what you should use.

Yeah, heh heh, I'm getting to be an old geezer, huh. But seriously, to answer some of your questions here, No, I don't have to use sevin dust. I have not had mites in my colonies for about 13 years. Once in the last year I got a couple of snakes in that had mites but I did a quikie emergency erradication with Black Knight (not neccesarily reccomending anyone use it) but only because I didn't even want a single mite to drop off in the general quarantine room. Other than that, my only mite experience in the last 13 years (still considerable) has involved helping friends with mites to erradicate theirs. And usually their whole operation is infested. So in these cases we go to wal mart and get the 10 pound bag of the stuff (only 6 bucks!) and sprinkle it everywhere around their cages and rooms and coat the snakes. The stuff always works. I have never used provent-a-mite, so I can't comment on how to use it or how well it works. That's why I mentioned you. I know you use it regularly. Not saying anything about that particular product, but I try to stay far away from any spray poisons. The black knight episode was an exception in the event of an emergency. But I washed the snakes down as soon as I felt I could and etc. I am just really paranoid about any overly potent poisons in liquid form. I know of breeders that use spray poisons regularly and they have otherwise perfectly healthy looking snakes suddenly die. Maybe there is no connection, but it makes ME wonder. I don't have perfectly healthy looking snakes keeling. And I'm sure that many others don't either. Just something to ponder. How could we ever know until lab tests were performed?

>>Sevin dust eh?....you are really showing your age Brian! I, too, used to use this product but as you mentioned, I have switched to pro products provent a mite. Having used EVERY known method for mite eradication, I have found this product to be the easiest and most effective method for not only eradicating mites but for routine control as well. What I like about the product is that once applied, it will stay effective for up to 30 days which is far better than having to coat a snake in sevin dust every few days...but, to each his own and if it works for you and you like the stuff, then that is what you should use.
-----
If 50% of one's enemies are still breathing,... it just means you're doing a half-assed job.

Like you, I don't have many mite problems (only one infestation in the last 10 years but it was a doozy). When any new snake comes into our facility, we do a prevatative treatment with provent a mite and we have never had a single bad reaction. If you follow the directions, it is safe but I hear what you are saying because I, too, don't like to expose my animals to any unneeded poison of any sort. I think pro products is a proven method specifically geared towards reptiles while the others aren't and because of that, we are taking a crap shoot in terms of proper dosage/application/etc. The bottom line is that people, when buying herps, should purchase them from reputable people, quarantine them from the established collection, and catch the problem early on.