Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'll make this as short as possible.
I recently purchased an Albino Green Burmese.
Ten days after I received her, she had a case of mites.

Luckily I had quarantined her and the mites did not have a chance to spread to my other snakes.

However, Not knowing her disposition, I had used a new pair of new welding gloves to handle her until I found out she was quite docile.

I'm sure the glove must have contacted the mites and mite eggs.

I sprayed the gloves with an ivermectin solution but would like a more certain way to eradicate the possibility of mite infestation on the gloves.

If I freeze the gloves, would that kill the mite eggs?

I use the gloves occasionally, because I take in reptiles that are unwanted and some are not easily handled.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Bill

Hi Bill –

Well, I see no one who seems to have the facts has responded, so let me make a stab at answering based on not much specific to back it up.

My feeling is that since lots of “bugs” have the capacity to overwinter in frigid climates, then it might be unwise to assume that snake mite eggs will be killed by exposure to the temperatures in your freezer. A more logical supposition would be that exposure to high temperatures to which they are not accustomed in their typical life cycle would more likely desiccate/kill mite eggs. So you could stick those gloves in your oven at, say, 250 to 350 degrees for a couple of hours. My guess is that would destroy the mite eggs, but it might also drive every last bit of moisture out of your gloves and leave them practically unwearable. I don’t know. I do remember we used to seal hiking boots after smearing glop on the seams by leaving them in a low temp oven without any bad effects on the leather. Of course, it wasn’t at 350 degrees, either.

I’m glad to see someone as paranoid as I am about quarantine. I try to dedicate all the herp tools I need for at least three months to a particular quarantined animal or group (cage, feeding and cleaning tools, etc.). At the end of the quarantine, if the snake was mite free, I would assume the gloves are good to go, too. If you need to use the gloves elsewhere sooner, I would suggest you spray them with Provent-a-mite and seal them in a plastic bag; then two weeks later repeat the treatment. Then air them out really well. I would guess your ivermectin solution would work just as well. Of course, the short answer is that your gloves are probably just fine already after your one treatment. But then, it's always nice to have peace of mind.

-Joan