Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Are there any other ways (besides new snakes) that mites can enter your collection? ie. dirty cages, old water, prey items.

Also when housing snakes in a converted spare bedroom, is it good or bad to have carpet on the floor? The carpet holds the heat in the room, but does it also hold the mites?

Great article btw on the VPI website
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1.1 Jacksons (no names yet)
1.1 Argentine B/W Tegus (Draco and Drucilla)
0.1 Columbian B/W Tegu (Diablo)
2.0 Black Throat Monitors (Razor and Spike)
1.0 Desert Tortoise (Tubbs) from Tortoise Rescue
1.0 Boxer (Shadow)
0.1 Feline (CK)

Greetings...

Shipping boxes can be a source of mites, especially from the herp brokers down south...used cages and racks can harbor mites...

carpet can definitely protect mites...it's better to have a tile/vinyl flooring...easy to clean up and disinfect.

Scott J. Michaels DVM
Serpent City

Carpeting is made of synthetic fiber, I don't think mites can survive on carpeting any longer than they can on tile. If you have mites, it wont matter if you have carpet or tile, you will still have to spray down everything around the cage with Ivermectin or other mite treatment. Usually mites hang out in wood or on the snakes. Using wood based bedding or wood cages will make a mite infestation much harder to deal with, but neither is really a problem until you get mites. The best thing to do is treat every new snake as though it has mites and quarantine it for several months (at least 3) and if you buy a new tank or cage furniture, sterilize it with 10% bleach solution or something similar. Wood items can be treated by baking in the oven at 350 for an hour (keep an eye on it, especially if you have a gas stove)

a microenvironment that holds moisture and prevents dessication of mites that tile will not allow, and clearly carpet is harder to clean and disinfect, but thanks...SJM