Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i just started keeping balls and apperently some of the clean parisite free animals i purchased werent so free of parisites. any how i beleive i have mites. snakes are laying in water bowls and there are tiny black dots in the bowl, and i saw some crawling around today. so i do i get rid of them. there in a rack system with aspen bedding. thanks in advance to all who reply chris

Take them all out of the rack and spray down said rack with Provent-A-Mite (PAM) and surrounding area. Take each animal out and apply Reptile Relief (RR) follow directions on bottle. Throw out all substrate clean and disinfect each tub and accessories thouroughly (if your tubs have handles or crevices this is most likely where eggs will be laid - wash them good). Apply PAM to tubs (use newpaper or papertowels as substrate until infestation is gone). When dry it's safe to put snakes back in. Apply RR to snakes again in 2 weeks and PAM the tubs at every cleaning for at least a month. RR will dehydrate snakes a bit, make sure they have a lot of clean water.

Hope this helps.
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Tosha

"Stupid is forever, ignorance can be fixed." Don Wood

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I agree with using Provent-a-Mite and Reptile Relief. Here's what I'd suggest:

1) Remove and throw away all substrate from tubs. If you have any wooden or cardboard hide boxes, those should go as well.
2) Spray inside of tubs with Provent-a-Mite in a well ventilated area, away from your snakes. Allow tubs to thoroughly air out and dry before returning animals to them.
3) Place newspaper in bottom of tub.
4) Soak infested snakes in luke warm water for approximately
45-60 minutes so mites currently on snake will drown.
6) Spray Reptile Relief onto a cloth rag and wipe onto snake.
7) Place cleaned waterbowl into tub with fresh water.

Re-apply the Reptile Relief in approximately 2 weeks. Replace newspaper every 2 - 3 days (or sooner if required).

If you have a serious infestation that will not die out using topical treatments, your Vet has a medicine he can inject into the snake that will poison the mites, without harming your snake. Due to expense, try topical, first.