Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Using the search function this area seems to be the hangout of those that use Sevin dust. I have a few questions.

1. Is it safe to apply as a coat over all contents within a cage (minus the water).
2. After applied to the snake, do I wash it off or let it stay on.
3. The goal is the keep it out of the water, but if it is all over the cage and on the snake, if the snake goes in his water (even just moving through the water, not sitting in it entirely) will dust not then be in the water and potentially harmful??
or
4. Do you remove the water from the cage during treatment and let the snake drink somewhere else with clean water?

I bought the stuff and have a mite problem thats not leaving and I want all the information before I start using it.

in my experiane you have to use the low grade sevin dust if you do it. the 5% not the 7 or 10% stuff it kills stuff. like snakes 5 or less. its and oldie way of doing things. if i need it i use pest strips. the revenge stufff and cut it down. knock on wood!! i havent had to treat for mites in 3-4yrs. use your head, if you dont know ...ask.
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IF YOU HAVE IT SHOW IT. IF YOU OWN IT FLAUNT IT!!

I have the 5%. It's called Sevin Five (5% Dust). How about the whole water getting contaminated issue. Does the dust resting in the cage get moved onto the snake then into the water causing harm? Or is the amount (with water cleaned daily) not enough to do anything?

The Vapon in Pest Strips does a killer job of continuous protection without all the hassles of 7 dust.
Hard to beat the "old-school",if it works USE IT !

no pest strips do work. just dont over use them. there is some concerns with long term use. as in beening harmful. food for thought. just do frozen thawed food items and you chances of getting mites is greatly reduced.
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IF YOU HAVE IT SHOW IT. IF YOU OWN IT FLAUNT IT!!

Is it your beleif that mites live on feeder rodents? I was always under the impression snake mites lived on snakes mammal mites lived on mammals.

alot of times you get mites from the feeder items. i do believe this. i have done frozen for a solid 3-4 yrs and no mites. knock on wood. some might say it comes from upkeep and it may. i guess i have good hygeine practices. thats a plus. you can see mite on an albino for sure. just my thoughts.

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IF YOU HAVE IT SHOW IT. IF YOU OWN IT FLAUNT IT!!

ALL mites are species specific... or at least have very few species of animal they feed on. Reptile mites are reptile specific. Mammal mites.. mammal specific. To say you get reptile mites from infected feeder mammals is entirely unfounded and rather impossible unless those feeder animals were RECENTLY kept with a reptile that had mites. Only then might the mites hitch a ride so to speak on the mammal.. but... they would in no way shape or form be present on a mammal that had no exposure to any kind of reptile that had no mite problem. (exposure meaning being kept in the same room with a reptile that did have mites)
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Lucien

1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
2.1.1 Leopard geckos (2 Blizzards (Caine and Goliath), 1 Tangerine Albino (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short) and 1 dbl. het blizzard x tang albino (Malice))
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros)
13 rats
1 Gerbil
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
2 cats (Sahara and Hercules)

Ive used it for years and it works great.Just give your snake a soak then dry and pat on.Let it sit on your snake 10-20 minutes then wash off.I also dust around the top of the tank,under,and around.This kills the little suckers on there way back for a meal.I leave the water in there,I just change it daily.

First, nice albino! I've been holding one the last few days, he's pretty tame now (before he'd hiss louder than I thought possible for a snake, but he is a Burmese so I guesse its possible).

Second, you guys are funny. A long tangent spawned off some offhanded comment. I'm not using no pest strips, not until I have tried everything else in the world and just after kryptonite. What I have heard and what % of my salary I have spent is not worth the potential damage I have heard of.

Gargoyle, took you long enough to respond. Thank you. In one of your posts I saw using hte search function you said you could dust everything in the cage. Does that still stand? Any and all information is useful, so please share your expierence. Is it dangerous in the potential small amounts that might get in the water?

I dust the crap out of everything.I keep it that way for a week then I clean eveything up.Then a week later I do it again.I hate mites with a passion.When i dust the snake I take the waterbowl out.After that I put it back again.This stuff is safe and wont hurt your boa.Just make sure you give your boa a bath after you apply the sevin dust.I also leave sevin under the newpaper,In and on any hides,under the inclosure and around it.If it looks like your making a mess your doing it correctly.Email me if you have anymore questions. gargoyle420us@yahoo.com Working 3rds with a few doubles this week so it might take a couple of days to respond.Kill the bastages....Paul

Hehehe. There's the personality I know from the past threads I searched! There's the passion! As it stands his cage was fully cleaned and he took a bath in canola oil for 15 minutes. We cleaned him off with water and a towel. I put dust around the top of the cage, so any mites that want to walk in will die. Also I lined the bottom of the cage with dust, but now it is in normal state of substrate and all hides. Also, some dust has "accidently" trickled down onto the substrate, not that much though. I checked under his chin and all over his body today (all this treatment started Saturday) and he is still mite free. Hopefully it stays this way...

Forgot to mention its a Cal King, just noticed you frequented the boa forum so I posted it here. If it's any consellation I am trying to tame an amazon tree boa, and he's bitten me a good 6 times already. I will break him (his mean streak I mean), cause I love him to bits (not with my face though, he'd bite it).