Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was checking up on my boa yesterday and I noticed there were mites everywhere in her hide box. I have sprayed her with reptile relief. I then cleaned her entire cage with 4 ounces of bleach to 1 gallon of water. I then replaced her woodchip substrate with newspaper. She is not in the same room as my other snakes so the mites won't get to them. Is there anything else I can do to kill these things? Where do they come from?

Snake mites often come in on feeder rodents. They do not draw blood from any animals except snakes but they will burrow into the fur of mammals to hide. They also get on our hands and clothes when we handle snakes at pet stores. Many pet stores have snake mites. They are also very often seen at reptile shows. Many pet stores and show vendors deal in imported animals and constantly have mites. Mites can smell snakes from a long distance and will crawl to find them. Being in a seperate room will delay them getting to your other snakes for only a day or two. Reptile Relief and bleach will kill many of them but will not kill all of them and will not kill the eggs. The eggs will hatch in around 15 days (I think that is right). You need to use a product containing Permethrin to totally eradicate mites. Look for a product called Provent-a-mite online or at better pet stores. There is a large vendor in Colorado that advertises here on kingsnake and they have another Permethrin product that is excellent. Follow the instructions and two treatments with them will kill all the mites and all their eggs. I use Provent-a-mite sparingly in my snake room a couple times a year and on all new arrivals and I have not seen a mite in my snake room for over a decade. There are many other pet and bug control products that contain Permethrin. Permethrin is the only product that is effective and seems to be safe for use around snakes. Do not use products that contain other chemicals and make sure the spelling is exactly the same as Permethrin. There are pyrethrins with similar spelled names that are very dangerous. Get rid of all the mites quickly. They are carriers of reptile diseases.

Have recently seen a thread about using rid (a lice gtreatment) that went bad because rid may have changed their "inert" ingredients. IMO stick with the reptile stuff like Provent-a-mite. Yeah, more expensive but your animals are safe when used properly!!!
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

When I got my mangrove snake years ago, he was infested with mites. I basically kept him in a temporary 20 gal rubbermaid container with paper towels for the first few weeks. I would clean it out and sterilize it every day, and treat the snake with reptile relief and the whole inside of the enclosure with provent a mite. Be careful though, you need to let provent a mite dry completely before putting your snake back in. Anyway, after 5 days or so the mites were completely gone so I did one last treatment to make sure no eggs would survive and I haven't seen a single mite since. In my opinion those two products are very good and when used together they're very effective in stopping any mite invasion.

Also, since provent a mite kills for a long time after you spray it on something, I went around and sprayed the bases of all of my other snake enclosures and stands in my house for good measure. Just in case some of the mites tried to migrate.

Thanks. There's a reptile show coming up, so I'll pick some up there.
Even though I feed my snakes f/t is it still possible for them to carry mites?

Probably zero chance of mites with frozen rodents.