Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have seen a few specks in water bowls for a month or two. I didn't know what they were, but I checked all of my snakes and never saw anything. I didn't always see them in the water, just occasionally.

I had my bairdi out changing her water and one crawled onto my hand while holding her. I have been checking all of them very closly and this is the first one I have seen.

I just ordered Prevent-A-Mite, so hopefully I can get rid of them quickly.

The one question I have is, How did I get them? I didn't add anything to my collection before I noticed them. I use aspen(bought at PetSmart), but other than that, I really don't come into contact with any other reptiles or reptile supplies. Can mites just come into my house from outside? I just don't know how I got them.

If anybody has any suggestions or ideas, I would love to hear them. Hopefully having a small collection won't make it too hard to get rid of them. I did a search already and got some good advice.

Thanks
Jeremy
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0.1 Amel Motley Corn (Cosmo '03)
0.1 Baird's Ratsnake (Sugaree '04)
1.0 White Oaks Grey Rat (Tennesse Jed '04)
0.1 IJ Carpet Python (Cassidy '04)
1.0 Western Hognose (Samson '05)
1.1 Shepherd mix (Dylan 6yrs, Porter 1.5yr)

Yep sounds like the classical signs of mites. I like to keep my snakes as clean as possible. I had liked aspen because it allowed me to spot clean when needed and do a thourough cleaning once a week. I too had a couple of snakes come down with mites. I had just bought some aspen from a local pet store (not too clean either), and had cleaned out those two snakes cages and replaced the aspen with the new store bought. Within a few days I I spotted some spots floating in the water and upon closer inspection, found that both of these snakes had mites. I checked in the bag of aspen and found it indeed had mites crawling around in it.

Anyways, that day I switched over to newspaper and have used it since. I requires a little more cleaning, but I dont have to worry about mites from not so clean sources!!!

And one other thing, I used puppy shampoo to get rid of the mites. Has the same ingredients as provent a mite! Wash the effected snakes and cages with it and it will kill mites and eggs. I used it twice on the two snakes just to be sure to kill all the mites, and it did an awesome job!! With no ill effects to my snakes at all!

The shampoo is sergeants skip-flea and tick shampoo with oatmeal. Bought at Wal-Mart for $3 and it will undoubtedly last a very long time!!! LOL

Brian
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RATS
2.0 Corn snakes "Warpath" & "Thunderbird" (KY locale)
1.0 Black rat snake "Havok" (KY locale)
1.1 Black rat snakes "Reaper and Mystique" (MO locale)
1.0 Albino Black rat snake "Malakai" (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Everglades rat snake "Deadpool" (Dwight Good stock)
0.1 Greenish rat snake "Rogue" (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Great plains rat snake "Reign Fire" (TX locale)
1.0 Grey rat snake "Punisher" (White oak phase)(Dwight Good stock)

Good luck and Happy Herping
Brian

aspen doesn't give you reptile mites.should not even have paper mites unless it is stored in wrong conditions for long time period?..........if bag would actually have reptile mites they would have had to have gotten in there by crawling from a reptile into the bag....bag wold have to be really close to reptiles..*(even though my friend Chad found that a mite can walk 40 feet a day-internet info I guess)....

........the whole world is covered in mites.......as we are........there are lots (hundreds? thousands? millions? ) of mite species.......some good some bad

don't panic.......clean cage ince in awhile and give them a big enough water bowl to soak in and keep an eye out for a "bloom" of them.(high amount)......they can be controlled and sometimes eliminated.......
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.............yes .......thanx........but could you repeat that again....in English this time?...................

>>aspen doesn't give you reptile mites.should not even have paper mites unless it is stored in wrong conditions for long time period?..........if bag would actually have reptile mites they would have had to have gotten in there by crawling from a reptile into the bag....bag wold have to be really close to reptiles..*(even though my friend Chad found that a mite can walk 40 feet a day-internet info I guess)....
>>
>>........the whole world is covered in mites.......as we are........there are lots (hundreds? thousands? millions? ) of mite species.......some good some bad
>>
>>don't panic.......clean cage ince in awhile and give them a big enough water bowl to soak in and keep an eye out for a "bloom" of them.(high amount)......they can be controlled and sometimes eliminated.......
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>>.............yes .......thanx........but could you repeat that again....in English this time?...................

I beg to differ about bedding not containing mites. Although that had been the first time it had happened, the mites came from the aspen bedding. The aspen had been stored on a shelf right next to the reptiles. The pet store was one of those that you know right off hand when you walk in, that it is a nasty place. The reptiles were all kept in horrid conditions, and were all in really bad shape. They had a huge iguana that had severe mouth rot that was so bad, its head was deformed! There were several rough green snakes contained in a 10 gallon tank and a 100 watt light bulb. I pointed out 2 dead greens in the tank to one of the girls working there. So I dont doubt one bit that the aspen had become infested with mites from this petstore, as I would bet my next paycheck that nearly all the reptiles were mite infested. Its never a good thing to find mites in bedding bought from the store. I guess the reason I didnt have a larger outbreak, is that I used to keep my aspen in a large plastic tote with a snap on lid.
Needless to say, I took the aspen back to the petstore, showed them what I had found and got a refund. I have never been back since then! Especially when the owner told me he didnt really care about the reptiles, and that he could make more money from selling his Eukanuba dog food!!
But all things usually come full circle, as this petstore went out of business!!
Brian

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RATS
2.0 Corn snakes "Warpath" & "Thunderbird" (KY locale)
1.0 Black rat snake "Havok" (KY locale)
1.1 Black rat snakes "Reaper and Mystique" (MO locale)
1.0 Albino Black rat snake "Malakai" (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Everglades rat snake "Deadpool" (Dwight Good stock)
0.1 Greenish rat snake "Rogue" (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Great plains rat snake "Reign Fire" (TX locale)
1.0 Grey rat snake "Punisher" (White oak phase)(Dwight Good stock)

Good luck and Happy Herping
Brian

?.(copied).........if bag would actually have reptile mites they would have had to have gotten in there by crawling from a reptile into the bag....bag wold have to be really close to the reptiles.....

????????what part of that is non readable?
...
..
like I said before....aspen will not carry nor give your snakes mites.....

reptiles do

African snakes do not carry mites from Africa.........they catch them at dealer/wholesalers shops....

guess they should clean a cage once in awhile......

........

.................
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.............yes .......thanx........but could you repeat that again....in English this time?...................

In no way was I trying to start anykind of forum flame war, nor was I trying to be a smart @ss. I was merely trying to give jtclark some helpful information by relaying to him my circumstances and remedy. I only wanted to let him know that it is possible to pick up mites from a petstore, expo, etc. etc. etc. through bedding due to crappy husbandry.

Maybe I misunderstood your response, but I took it as saying that you didnt really believe bedding could contain mites. Well I have experienced it and it can happen.

But Ill tell you this much, since I have switched over to newspaper, I have not had another case of mites.

I have owned snakes for close to 30 years and have had mites on 2 occasions.

Once from a honduran milk that came from the petstore with mites, and the other from the bedding fiasco.
Brian Baker
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RATS
2.0 Corn snakes "Warpath" & "Thunderbird" (KY locale)
1.0 Black rat snake "Havok" (KY locale)
1.1 Black rat snakes "Reaper and Mystique" (MO locale)
1.0 Albino Black rat snake "Malakai" (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Everglades rat snake "Deadpool" (Dwight Good stock)
0.1 Greenish rat snake "Rogue" (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Great plains rat snake "Reign Fire" (TX locale)
1.0 Grey rat snake "Punisher" (White oak phase)(Dwight Good stock)

Good luck and Happy Herping
Brian

how did you apply this puppy shampoo to your snake?

It's possible you have wood lice instead of mites. Wood lice are harmless to snakes and merely an annoyance to keepers, the lice eating the aspen used for bedding. Take a look at the specks you see floating in the water dish. Are they elongated and light-colored? If so, they may be wood lice and you can get rid of them by keeping your snakes on paper towels for a few weeks. To avoid re-infestation, just bake new aspen in the oven before using it in their cages.

On the other hand, if they look and act like mites, treat them as mites.

-Kat
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"You keep WHAT in your freezer?"
"Mice. And rats. If that bothers you, I can call them 'cows' instead."

Thats a good point I didnt think about Kat. But if the snake has them on it and they are stuck between the scales, and you have to use your fingernail to remove them, then you have mites.
Brian

>>It's possible you have wood lice instead of mites. Wood lice are harmless to snakes and merely an annoyance to keepers, the lice eating the aspen used for bedding. Take a look at the specks you see floating in the water dish. Are they elongated and light-colored? If so, they may be wood lice and you can get rid of them by keeping your snakes on paper towels for a few weeks. To avoid re-infestation, just bake new aspen in the oven before using it in their cages.
>>
>>On the other hand, if they look and act like mites, treat them as mites.
>>
>>-Kat
>>-----
>>"You keep WHAT in your freezer?"
>>"Mice. And rats. If that bothers you, I can call them 'cows' instead."
-----

RATS
2.0 Corn snakes "Warpath" & "Thunderbird" (KY locale)
1.0 Black rat snake "Havok" (KY locale)
1.1 Black rat snakes "Reaper and Mystique" (MO locale)
1.0 Albino Black rat snake "Malakai" (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Everglades rat snake "Deadpool" (Dwight Good stock)
0.1 Greenish rat snake "Rogue" (Dwight Good stock)
1.0 Great plains rat snake "Reign Fire" (TX locale)
1.0 Grey rat snake "Punisher" (White oak phase)(Dwight Good stock)

Good luck and Happy Herping
Brian

The bugs that I saw are small, brown, and round. I haven't seen any between the scales like Brian had mentioned, but I don't think that they fit the description of lice. I appriciate the idea though.

I cleaned all of the cages and water bowls very thouroghly yesterday with Visaron(sp?) or whatever the stuff is called from Pro Exotics. I let the cages soak for awhile before wiping them down. I threw out the aspen just in case and I will keep them on paper towels until I can get the treatment finished with Provent-A-Mite. I haven't seen any mites on the paper towels, so hopefully I didn't have a bad case.

I appreciate everyones help.

Jeremy
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0.1 Amel Motley Corn (Cosmo '03)
0.1 Baird's Ratsnake (Sugaree '04)
1.0 White Oaks Grey Rat (Tennesse Jed '04)
0.1 IJ Carpet Python (Cassidy '04)
1.0 Western Hognose (Samson '05)
1.1 Shepherd mix (Dylan 6yrs, Porter 1.5yr)