Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A week back a friend gave me red tail boa. When I got her she was infested with mites. I have given her numerous baths since then. Nearly thousands of mites came off in the bathtub. I also removes 9 mites from the eyes. She has very few now but I want her to be mite free. Does anyone have any info that could help me with my problem. Thanks Travis

np

I recently had a mite outbreak from a rescued ball python. My snake cages and bearded dragon cages were all infected with mites. Thank goodness it was contained in one room of our house though. Vicky at www.vandivers.com recommended a tried and proven method for getting rid of mites. You use a product available at any drug store - it's called Nix. It's what you use for hair lice.

You get a spray bottle - new one - and fill it with warm water. The Nix comes in 2 oz. bottles. Mix ratio is 2 oz. Nix to 1/2 a gallon (8 cups) of warm water. You will probably need to buy the double pack of Nix, that's what I had to buy to treat 3 snakes, 2 bearded dragons, 2 rats, and 6 enclosures.

You can bathe the snakes in the solution, just don't get it in their eyes. Make sure you get the mites out of their heat pits, noses, and eyes, because that's where they will run when the snake is put into water. After you have all the snakes clean, put them in a temp. enclosure, like rubbermade bins. Now this is where the hard work starts. After everything is removed from the cages and either sanitized in bleach water or thrown out, spray down everything! Don't miss a thing. Mites will lay their eggs in the smallest crevices and will hatch a week or two later and reinfest your snakes again. So it's really important to soak every nook and cranny. I even sprayed down the carpet in the room and the walls. It didn't hurt it one bit. In fact the Nix has a rather pleasant smell to it.

Make sure you get rid of everything you used to clean up with. Papertowels and old substrate should go out to the trash (outside) immediately. Any basking perches, water dishes, and hiding spots should be soaked in a 10% bleach solution for at least 30 minutes or baked in a 250 degree oven for an hour or longer.

I hope I've covered everything. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions. I just went through this entire process a month ago and so far no signs of any mites!

Veronica
Beautiful Dragons

Thank you so so much, I just received your message but i will do that asap and tell you how everything went. Again Thanks for all your help. I also have 2 beardies. My snake is in another room so the beardies a just fine.
Travis

we have a long paper on mites at our site, and vpi.com has an excellent piece on mites as well at their site.
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

Fog cage, mites gone. The end

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'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin
Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo