Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I brought home my BP yesterday. I've been watching it in the pet shop for three weeks, looking in the water dish etc for mites and it's looked clean.

This morning I lifted the hide to take a picture and noticed a number of black bugs.

They are relatively large. I'm using newpaper as substrate and the bugs will completely fill the inside of an O.

Are they mites or something else????

If they are as large as an "O"
sounds like they might be ticks?
Only ticks that I have seen on bps were dark brown, not black.
Just guessing...

is it a capital O or and lower case o if its lower case its probally mite they can be a pain but relatively easy to get rid of with paitence. soak your snake in water just enough to cover thickest part of snake with a LITTLE dish soap just to break down surface tension to make sure the mites dont get inside air bubbles.... while saoking clean your tank with a dilluted bleach solution making sure to get all crevices and hidding spots... and throw away hides watch the snake while cleaning you can cover the sink or whatever just make sure he dont get away. make sure you clean away all bleach and dry wash about once a week for about a month this should take care of them if still seen repeat.