Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi; I need an effective treatment for mites ASAP, as we just discovered then on our Monkey Tail skinks! I've heard Listerine might work, but should it be used straight, or diluted, or is there something better?

I know its not a snake, but I also know many of you have alot of reptile experience, so I figured I'd ask here.

Thank you!

Freight

Works better than anything else I've ever used. Stops em dead in their tracks!
Bill

...wacks them quickly, easily, and pretty safely to if you use it right.

You don't even have to remove the bedding if you use aspen or sand, or whatever. Just let it dry all the way and air it out well.

Be sure to follow the instructions!. It's a great product and works better than anything I've used, but it's also powerful so make sure you follow what they say and you should be fine. I haven't had an outbreak in 2 years now...whew! But I've got some Provent-a-Mite in case (when!) it happens again.

-John

How often should you spray your tanks with Provent-a-mite if you don't have mites and just want to be 'safe'?

Unless your introducing new snakes into your collection, or feeding live rodents (unless you breed your own, you never know where they have been), I wouldn't recommend using any POISON around your snake, if you are sure they don't have mites. Especially, if you also keep insect consuming snakes/lizards/amphibs. There is a lot of literature out there, which IMO has got it really mixed up when it comes to chemicals.-Brett

I treated all of my snakes today (found mites on a "downstairs" snake). I carefully followed the directions. Tonight both of my young (4-6 months old) Thayeri's have obvious neurotoxicity- irratic movements. I hope they make it (I removed them from the treated containers and put them in clean rubbermaids) I hope the rest of the snakes don't do this too!

It is interesting that you mention the particular sankes you are having trouble with are thayeri. I have used ProVent-A-mite for about 4 years and have never had any problems when I followed the instructions and had great results. But I did have a customer that bought some thayeri at a show from an unknown source and got a few mites. He called several days after the show and ask what I would suggest he use. Well of course I suggested the provent-a-mite product, he called several days later to relate the same problwem you are having. Upon talking to him though he did over saturate the bedding and did not let it dry prior to reintroducing the hatchling. If you could give us some more details on your situation I would be very interested. One bright note is that his animals did okay after a coupleof weeks and a good soaking.

John Cherry
Cherryville farms
Cherryville Farms- Reptiles

I actually thought that I let it the substrate completely dry (I took out the aspen, cleaned the cage and put down paper towels prior to the treatment). The larger male seems fine today. The little female is pretty spastic still. I guess next time I will not re-introduce to the container for 4-5 hours. One thing I did do which I suppose could have created a problem was after soaking, wiping with mite-relief (which is supposed to be non-toxic) before putting the snakes back into their treated and aired cages.

All I've ever used is ivermectin. It's not very strong and takes a few repeats to finish off the mites. But, the weakness of the solution I used made me feel better about the health of my snakes. The trick with mites is understanding their breeding cycle. First of all, it takes heat and moisture for the eggs to hatch. I remove all the bedding, bleach the enclosures, soak the snakes, thouroughly dry everything, then treat the enclosure and the snakes. This will kill off the adult mites and cut down on egg laying sites. They can still lay their eggs anywhere else they want and the babies will find the snakes again fairly quick. I wait about 10 to 15 days and then repeat the process. This gives plenty of time for all the eggs to hatch but not enough time for the mites to reach breeding age (20 to 30 days).
This seems to do the trick but I always repeat one more time for good measure. One thing about ivermectin though is that it is highly toxic to turtles.
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Martin Whalin

"It is foolish to let singleness of purpose deprive one of the joy and delectation of the many wonderful sights and sounds incidental to the quest."
-Carl Kauffeld
My Email

A couple months ago I purchased a hatchling Florida king to give to a friend as a gift Well, lo and behold, the little bugger came complete with mites. I'll never purchase anything else from that pet store but that's another story. I used Reptile Relief as directed and immediately mites were undetectable. I continued using every three days for about 4 treatments just to be sure. They're all gone and the hatchling showed no ill effects at all. Just wanted to add a comment. Provent-a-Mite isn't available in my area without ordering and I didn't have any on hand. Had to use what I could find and it seemed to work well.

Anyone who has kept reptiles for any length of time has gotten a case of mites. They are the most visibly upsetting probelm you will have on a consistent basis. Usually once or twice a year we will get a small outbreak. This past year we had two, one was from a pair of animals I bought from an individual and the other came from a order of aspen that had them in it. Needless to say each time it is a major undertaking to throughly clean and treat our entire collection twice on for each occasion. Here are our suggestions for the treatment of them.

1. Clean all cages, furniture, tops etc with a good disinfectant ( we use rocale) clorine bleach will work fine also.
2. Treat each cage with some type of insecticide ( we use pro-vent-a-mite) and be sure to follow the instructions exactly.
3. Put new sub strata back in cages and place animals, hide box, full water dish back into cage.
4. Repeat in 14 days.

One note: in any infestation be sure and try to identify the source of the infection so as to not have a re-occurance. These mites stress out the animals big time and each time it is important to monitor all the other husbandry needs of your animals.

John Cherry
Cherryville Farms
Cherryville Farms - Reptiles

I bought a striped male adult Cal.King in Gainesville at PET MARKET from some guys selling frozen mice and was loaded with mights.i ordered a single can of Black Knight from PRO-EXOTICS and BAM!!!! Thems pesky critters were gone right away,do not use alcohol or mouth wash....this stuff is 25 dollars a can and will go along way and is well worth it,i have used pest strips but those can be harmful...get a can right away.....they sell single cans....mites suck and the people who sell you infested animals also suck big time