Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The question of mites came up below. If you haven't already read this article, you need to. It is written by Tracy Barker at VPI reptiles and will tell everything you ever wanted to know about mites. It is very good.

Click the link. It's quit long so sit down.

Wade
War on Mites

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Wade's Weptiles & Wodents

No offense to the Barkers but I refuse to spray anything on my snakes directly. I have seen animals react adversly to being sprayed with pyrethrins (probably not spelled right). I have no problem with spraying the cage down, and have had no problem ever ridding a new snake of mites with just spraying down the cage. Always works. (Although, I have to say, I have seen a collection of snakes that was riddled with mites and the darn things were immune to pest strips and provent-a-mite.)

I have also found that sprinkling the carpet with Sevon Dust works very well before vaccuming. If I do have a snake with mites, the whole carpet around the cage, gets sprinkled with the stuff. Prevents the little buggers from doing their walk-about around the house. (Nope, I'm not paranoid )

I would agree with you about spraying my snakes with poison. When I read the article about the Barkers spraying their snakes with Black Knight I was pretty skeptical. But I figured Tracy Barker was talking about $20,000 snakes in some cases and surely she wouldn't spray them if she wasn't pretty confident.

I have tried it myself since, once on my entire collection, and have had great results. I told a pet shop owner friend about it and he now sprays all new snakes before he brings them in the shop. It really does work and the snakes seem to be none the worse for it.
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Wade's Weptiles & Wodents