Reptile & Amphibian Forums

my new snake is soaking alot, i noticed today several black things in the water, not knowing what they were i smushed it and saw blood! are these mites? will it transfer to the other snakes? hes not in the same room, not even near the other snakes and we always wash our hands after holding each different snake. is this mites? what can i do to get rid of it? our other snakes are on the top level of the apartment hes on the main so im hoping it will not transfer, he was fed twice in the same feeding bin as the other snakes, luckily i thought firt and washed it just to be safe. i will start to feed him in a different container, what can i buy and how much does it usually cost?

Sounds like mites to me. I like to use Provent-A-Mite. You just spray it in the cage(without the snake in there!) Let it dry and put the snake back in. It cured my ball python and I've never had a problem since. Black Knight seems to be another popular solution. I've never tried it so I don't know how well it works. You need to address the problem as soon as possible since the mites WILL spread to other snakes. I believe you can get both products for well under $10.

I have about 150 snakes. I noticed a couple (yeah, two) mites on two of my snakes. I have dealt with this before - back in the days of vapona. I almost began to cry.

I bought a can of Prevent a Mite for $18.00 at a snake show. Good stuff: but if you look at the ingredients you will see that the active ingredient is "Permethrin". This is the same stuff and the same concentration (0.05%) used in Lice spray and Tick spray. You can get it at CVS or Wal Mart for $5 or $6 per can.

Next, I took out every water dish and dumped every cage (I use racks) one at a time. As the tubs were out of the racks I used a veterinary grade cleaner to wipe down the melamine shelves. Next, I did the same to the tubs. Then I put new aspen chips in the tubs and sprayed the chips with the permethrin, shook it up, and sprayed some more. This took about 12 hours - but remember - I have 150 snakes. I did replace the water dishs as I put the snakes back in. Finally, I sprayed down the carpet in my snake room with the third can. After 3 cans in one small room, in one day I can tell you: You will not get high from this stuff!

OK, so it killed all of the mites. About 2 weeks later I saw these "clusters" of pin head sized things near the eyes of some of my snakes. They were whitish and very small. These were the larva/ nymphs (?) from the eggs that did not get killed by the spray. I treated the whole room again.

This was last week - and I have seen nothing alive (mites that is). If you take a flashlight and look at the glass on your cage you may see these nymphs. They are teeny tiny.

I hope I killed them all off on this treatment. Also, I have about 30 hatchling snakes. I treated them just like the adults: nothing died and everyone appears to be just as healthy.

This was as much for you with your mite problem as it was for the other guys in here who dread these little parasites.

Also, I wish I could find out who gave me the snake with mites: I finally have been "burned" for not using a quarantine system.

- Peter

ok i went and picked up a bottle of reptile relief says it uses different methods that the action taken in pyrethrin based pestisides? will this still work? it says kills mite on contact and to spray the snake and wipe the tank down, i think i should take the substrate out and replace with paper towel would this be good? would it of spread to the other snakes yet? ive noticed nothing on them and they are brighter in color so it is easier to spot, as i can see some onhim when i look closely, instead of spraying him i sprayed a paper towel and wiped him down hes in shed so im gonna wait a day after he sheds, then remove the substrate and do it again if i dont feed him in the same bin and he is nowhere near the other snakes, wil it still transfer? thank you for the help

I dont think you were supposed to wipe it on the snake. I may be wrong though im not familiar with reptile relief. What i always do to keep my snake nice and healthy and mite free is spray the tank with prevent-a-mite(follow directions) and rubbing the snake w/snake oil. Snake oil drowns any mites and is good for their scales and sheds. Maybe your reptile relief worked though, either way thats what works for me. GOOD LUCK

Hey Peter your exile is over eh ? Good to see you back on the boards.

Keith
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I've read that a 30-minutes soak in water will cure a snake of mites. In the wild, when they are infested, snakes will crawl into water with only their 2 nostril holes showing above water.

Mites are oxygen-breathing creatures, like most insects, and they drown. 30 minutes later the snake crawls away, mite-free.

Obviously, in an enclosure non-attached mites & eggs can still infect the snake, but if your water dish is deep enough and the snake can soak, mites should not be a long-term problem.

If so, use the advice above. (And buy the cheaper Lice treatment for humans, not the expensive "special" stuff for reptiles.)