Something occured to me recently, now that I am going through my second mite outbreak in 6 months. I have used chemicals, pyretherins, quarantining and every other trick in the book before.
Unfortunately, these methods are either very expensive or leave you fighting mites again in four weeks when the eggs hatch and mature. This is simply because mites don't only lay eggs on your herps, but in every crevace and sealant gap in your terrariums.
Last week I tried something new, that costs little money and not much effort. I went to Wal-Mart and purchased some locking sterlite containers and bungy cords for extra security to temporarly house my animals (indoors of course) after treating them with mite-be-gone which dissolves the exoskeletons of mites on contact.
After doing this I took ALL of my cages and items inside my cages and left them outside and let a good ol' 26 degree arctic front hit em'. Eggs, larva , nymph , and adults are all froze to death. Freezing temperatures simply destroy cell membranes. By the time the fronts came through my animals were free of mites and were reunited with their homes, WITHOUT MITES. This to me is a very effective way of ridding mites if you don't mind the work.
Now I live in Texas so I don't know if you guys up North want to deal with the snow, but for those who only see freezing temps at night it is great. Hopes this helps people as much as it helped me.
Best of Luck, Brian W.
