Reptile & Amphibian Forums

recently acquired a new snake. after a couple days i noticed the snake has mites. read plenty about them but wanted more recent professional opinions since i've been lucky enough to have never dealt with them before. whats the best way to rid her of them? how much quarantine is necessary to keep the from spreading to the rest of my animals? any long term health issues related to the parasites? any help would be great..thx for your time.

I would give the snake back and ask for a refund. Mites are UNACCEPTABLE as it is EASY to rid a collection of mites vs dealing with them for YEARS.

If that's not an option, read on...

Soaking the animal in water that's not too deep is generally a good idea to rid the animal of a good number of mites on their body, and hiding in their scales. Don't make the water too deep as you don't want the boa to have to continually swim in it. Water should be about the same temp as the boa - make sure it stays that way. Soaking for a good 30 minutes to an hour is a good idea. WHILE SOAKING THE BOA...

Completely clean the enclosure and everything in it. Dry it all off. Then, spray provent-a-mite or Black Knight II as instructed on the cage. Others swear by other products but I don't have any direct experience with them. One is a product that wal-mart sells under the... "equate" label, I believe. Also spray the substrate which should be paper towels if the snake isn't too big and paper towels are unrealistic. Paper towels makes identifying more mites easy.

Get the snake out of the soaking tub and dry it off well. You should see lots of little dead mites in the water. Once the snake is dry and the cage is dry (from spraying the mite spray and allowing it to air out), place the snake back in the cage.

Retreat per the instructions on the can of mite spray at least twice.

Don't spray the snake directly. Seriously. Don't do it. I don't care what anyone else says... don't do it.

If you have other animals, I would spray around their enclosure so that all entry points have a coating of the mite spray so if any mites try to get in, they can't.

Quarantine is a must! Also, don't handle the boa with mites, and then go handle your other boas. You'll probably have mites on you! I recommend a minimum of 3 months quarantine for a healthy animal. For an animal with mites, a year would be a good idea (hence the recommendation to send it back) maybe longer.

As for long-term effects... as long as the mites aren't carrying any diseases they picked up from other reptiles, there shouldn't be a long-term effect as long as you rid the boa of the mites.

jb
-----
What's written above is purely my opinion. In fact, MOST of what you read on the internet is someone's opinion. Don't take it too seriously

Jonathan Brady
DeviantConstrictors.com
Deviant Constrictors picturetrail

i really appreciate your time sir. dont wanna send her back to that dump, id rather her here with me where shes treated better...shes absolutely gorgeous, 08 lipstick sunglow with intense color. mites cant hide on her so they had to of known. i'll be soaking her when i get home from work. i had her in water but she never got comfortable so i removed her to keep the stress down. thanks for your help

Christopher Eunice

>>i really appreciate your time sir. dont wanna send her back to that dump, id rather her here with me where shes treated better...shes absolutely gorgeous, 08 lipstick sunglow with intense color. mites cant hide on her so they had to of known. i'll be soaking her when i get home from work. i had her in water but she never got comfortable so i removed her to keep the stress down. thanks for your help
>>
>>
>>Christopher Eunice

Christopher,
I can ABSOLUTELY respect your decision to keep her. Keep in mind that when people "get away" with crap like this, they'll just keep doing it. I won't try and convince you to send her back, but I would recommend a "customer service" phone call to the person you purchased her from. Let them know that this is completely unacceptable and/or whatever else you want to tell them.

Good luck with the mites. Don't forget to use the mite spray as well. PAM (Provent-A-Mite) is effective for several weeks so it works and keeps working. This is important (as is the re-treatment) because mites lay eggs and you don't want the second generation coming back to get her, and your other animals after you thought you drowned them all!

Toss up a pic or two of your new girl when you've got some time!

Have a good one!
jb
-----
What's written above is purely my opinion. In fact, MOST of what you read on the internet is someone's opinion. Don't take it too seriously

Jonathan Brady
DeviantConstrictors.com
Deviant Constrictors picturetrail

ya they need a phone call for sure. im almost tempted to throw there name on the forum also. but luckily for them i am way more layed back than that. ive tried to get some good pics of her but so far i havent been able to get a decent shot of her. at least any that do her justice.

Here are two ways too Treat For Mites

5% Sevin Dust

I clean the cage and everything in it with bleach water, and then I dry it out. I put my Boas in a Rubbermaid tub and sprinkle a lite dusting of Sevin dust 5% (NOT THE 10%!) on them. I let it set overnight, then I give my Boas a warm bath
to clean them off then I put them back in there cage. I also put a light dusting of Sevin dust 5% in the cage and leave it in for about 1 or 2 weeks. Then I clean the cage one more time with bleach water to get all the Sevin dust and DEAD MITES out. During this two week period I also change the water daily. This way the reptiles will have fresh, clean water to drink every day. I know some people say Sevin dust is not safe for your Boas, but I have had nothing but good luck with this. I have had boas since 1979, and have not had any bad experiences from this. Sevin dust even says you can use there product on your dogs and cats for fleas and tics. My veterinarian is the one who recommended Sevin dust to me. You can buy Sevin dust at any home and garden store. Lowe's and Home Depot also sell it.

Bedding Spray 0.50% Permetherin
I have used Equate Bedding Spray for mites and it works great you can buy this at Wal-Mart for $3 to $4 and it is used for lice treatment. One thing I like to do is it's always fun when buying lice spray at Wal-Mart is to lean towards the cashier and scratch your head. lol

The Equate Bedding Spray is the same stuff as Provent - A - Mite (PAM) but only a whole lot cheaper.

Don't under any circumstance spray this stuff directly on the boa. The fumes will cause severe neurological disorder and usually very painful death. Remove the water bowl and the boa and fog the cage with it without soaking the bedding. Just fog it up and close the cage up tight for an hour or two. After an hour or so you should be able to put the boa back in. I would wait a day or two before putting the water bowl back though mostly because I want the boa crawling around in the treated substrate and not soaking in the water bowl nursing it's bits from the mites. If you have a really humid cage where the glass or sides of the cage is wet, then you will need to dry the cage out before treating it. Especially if you have one of those little boa's that likes to lick up water droplets from the side of the cage. The Bedding Spray should kill any mite for up to 3 or 4 weeks. Make sure you give fresh water for your boa to drink every day when using this product.

The spray has 0.50% Permetherin in it and this is what kills the mites.DO NOT!!!! use the bedding spray with turtles, amphibians, insects, tarantulas or any arachnids as it will kill them.

I also put one of these Hot Shot No Pest strip hanging in my reptile room. The only bad thing about this is if you have feeder crickets or any type of feeder bug in your reptile room it will kill them to. I even put one of these in with any new boas I buy on the way home with them. Don't leave this in with any reptile to long as it could cause neurological problems or death.

Take care
Tom
-----
McCarthyBoas.com

thanks tom, i should have no problems getting them under control. appreciate your time...

One thing that works really good for killing the mites on them is Nature's Chemistry Reptile Relief. IF you do ever see one pop up even this diluted 50% kills them on contact. If ever mites do pop up this is the way we would go about it.....

Step 1
Bath in shallow warm water but deep enough they can soak every part of their body up to their eyes, while they are soaking completely clean their cage or tote with bleach water and/or chlorhexadine.

Step 2
After a bath dry off the animal and the tote/cage completely. This is when we use the reptile relief. After they have killed the ones they can themselves, spray them with the reptile relief and rub it over their body. We usually give them 6-12 hours without their water or bedding so that the reptile relief can do it's thing. Also during this time, after you get the cage/tote dry spray that with Provent a mite or Stop Lice, Rid, Equate lice spray etc. We spray the tote as well as the bedding that we are about to put in for them.

The reptile relief says to use in 3 day increments. 3 on then 3 off. We check daily at this time to see how bad the outbreak is. Treat as needed over the next few days. When you return their water after the 6-12 hours after treating them a lot of them will run to the water, not sure if this is from the mite bites or if they are trying to wash off the spray.

Step 3 Now after you have treated them and killed any mites that you have seen we usually give them another nice bath and re clean the totes. Entry points are a must like Tom and JB said. Vacuum daily as well while you are seeing the mites and be as anal as you can. After their bath we rub them down with Benson & Son's snake oil which seems to help heal the bites and cuts from the mites. One thing to be sure is not to put the snake oil on them when they have the reptile relief. The snake oil holds on the reptile relief and burns their scales to a slight degree. Thus the bath before applying the oil.

Hope this helps. We always run out the bedding/paper right after removing it. Get it out of your house and straight into the garbage outside. Be anal with mites, it can only help you.
-----

Man that sucks! Really bad to hear some breeders are selling high end snakes with that crap going with it in return never had mites before but I would imagine it to be such a head ache for you and the poor lovely snake you purchased. Hope everything goes well your getting great info from others I see. When everything goes well with you poor little guy post some pics 8)
Good Luck,
JAKE