Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've heard two different stories about mites. One is that mites with a brown coloration are actually wood mites and are not harmful at all to the snake and the other is that white colored mites are the dangerous ones. I've seen a brown mite or two on my snake and i was wondering if they are harmful for her. If you have any information please post.
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Mites are black to the human eye. What substrate are you keeping your snake on? It may just be wood lice of some kind, which will not hurt your snake.
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Chad Bachman

i'm keeping her on the Zoo Med reptile bark.
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Sounds like you may have mites. Put the snake on newspaper & throw out the old substrate. Once you get the problem solved you can switch back to whatever substrate you want.
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Chad Bachman

Since there are thousands of types of mites, you really can't tell just by their color, but...

...here are a few things for you to think about.--and they are the opposite of what you said you heard!

Snake mites are parasitic, so they suck the snakes blood. This makes them very dark to black in color (especially when their bodies are full of blood). I have been plagued by mites 3 times in the past 10 years or so. Every time this occured, it was about 2 months after purchasing snakes at a show--and everytime the mites appeared black in color.

I have seen white insects that are either mites, or just look like them, in grain, wood chips, the lawn, etc. and every time they were very pale in color--and not a parasitic form of mite.

I raise crickets. If I feed them light colored food, they are very pale. If I feed them dark colored food, they are very dark. Anything feeding on the blood of your snakes sould be very dark in color, since the snakes blood is very dark in color (especially when concentrated). Mosquitos, for instance, remove water from the blood they suck up, so they can suck up more of the nutrients they are after in one feeding.--I don't know if mites do this also, but it wouldn't suprise me.

Rodney

...that immature (nymph) stages of the snake mite appear light in color, and are quite a bit smaller than an engorged adult mite.

SJM