Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Two months ago I bought back a pair of Striped BRB's from a long time customer. They were some of my 2010 babies and had only been gone from my care for a few months. The buyer needed to sell them and had them for a fair amount less than I originally sold them for. Since I regretted having sold them in the first place it seemed like a good deal.

Got them in and stupid me did not fully quarantine them, after all they were my babies.

UGH, couple days later I found mites in the water bowl. At least they were high up in a mostly empty rack with several rows of empty cages separating them from the other babies in the rack. I treated the tubs and adjacent areas with provent-a-mite and after a few days did not see any more mites - great. Continued treating as I know not seeing them now does not mean they won't come back. Provent-a-mite treats the area and any mite that crawls across a treated surface will die. Problem is eggs can already be laid and will hatch a few weeks later and new mites. I even treated the other tubs with babies in the same rack as a precautionary measure.

Just recently I found mites in the adjacent rack - double ugh. One must have crawled off in that direction and got away before I treated the original source. Original ground zero was about 5' up. New ground zero is around 2' up in a full rack. The snakes ate the same height do not have any mites. I believe the second ground zero is centered around a egg deposit made by an escaped mite?

Any way I only post this as education and warning for others.

I found several mites dying in the tubs after treatment.....

I had read they were tiny before engorging on blood and clearly there is a size difference between the few that had just started to feed and the monster that was about to explode. If I read correctly, those smallest ones in my pic are probably 2X (or more)the size of a unfed hatchling mite. Darn near impossible to find / catch one as they are translucent and you only see the snake blood meal in their belly.
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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 (02/01/2010):
42.61 BRB
27.40 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Yeah I have a full blown war goin with the little critters myself! I have always use Nix with great results.... But now I'm starting to believe that I brought home a Nix resistant strain of mites from a show.... Anyone else had this happen? The battle wages on!
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http://s1238.photobucket.com/albums/ff495/Tat2darin/

Great images Dave, back several years now I had my first and last battle with mites, but it was just a horrendous battle that left me exhausted!
Until I discovered Provent a Mite or more importantly 0.50 % Permthrin based products.

After that I won the war quickly !

I wish I had a high quality camera at that time.

I became really great at discovering Mite nits , I could find eggs
and often saw freshly hatched nits.

In my mind I described them as Jelly beans whitish clear-ish Jelly Beans,
but Jelly beans that undulate for lack of a better descriptive word.

I believe they are similar to tiny maggots, and soon start to
disperse and quickly transform.

I usually found them in upper corners of tub lids. I could spray
Nolvasan around some what sparingly and notice a foamy area

The nits always foamed when sprayed with Nolvasan.

Anyways very interesting images Dave, thx for sharing. That is
definitely educational for many people !

. . . Lar M
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Boas By Klevitz

I Support USark.org

The only thing I would add to your procedures is that you spray the outside of the cages as well. The inside of the cages are cleaned and sprayed less frequently, but the outside should be sprayed at least twice a week as new mites coming in will be killed while any mites missed by the interior treatment will be killed when they try to migrate. You not only can spray the outside of the cage more frequently, but you can also apply it a little heavier. Outside of the cage spraying is a critical step in mite control, and is actually more effective in breaking the mites life cycle within a reptile collection. Also be sure to spray the outside of the cages that you are not treating on the interior.

I also paint "kill zones" on the floor/wall so no mites can enter/leave without having to cross one.
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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 (02/01/2010):
42.61 BRB
27.40 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Totally agree with the others. Prevent A Mite or Equate Bedding Spray from Walmart ($4/can) will eventually kill all mite life stages including the eggs. Powerful stuff. An insect just in the area will eventually be killed and they do not have to contact the sprayed area directly. Key is to treat the cages every two weeks and usually all mites are gone in 2-3 cycles. That is until more are brought in. Bill
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...three years ago it was just another snake cult...
The Retic is King.
Anacondas-the other Dark Side.
Afrocks-the dark side of the Dark Side.

Some time ago I brought in a Savu python with mites.

I treated the inside of the cage, but every two weeks roughly I would see a mite or two.

Then I treated the outside of the cage after reading about the life cycle of mites, and that did it. I am convinced that treating the outside of the cage is even more effective than the inside to prevent recurrence.
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Mark

I've kept small numbers of herps for years, but have never been able to tell/show people what to look out for in a way that really, really shows what the little bastards look like.

That picture is phenomenal, and very much appreciated. It'll be used for educational purposes, believe you me.