Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Have just got my fist Ball Python (18 months old). He seems healthy and is settling in nicely. When I looked at him in the shop the other day he had mites on him. The shop said they would bathe him and get rid of them. I did inspect him when in the shop and could not see any but have got him home and there a couple still crawling around on him. Any suggestions for getting rid of these permanently.

Also after a few minutes of getting him home and into his new vivarium he yawned. Is this normal??? Also how long would you give it before feeding him - I was thinking perhaps a week.

Hope the photo comes through OK. Its not up to much as I have never used the camera before.

Thanks
Ben Sambrook

Well, to get rid of the mites, the cheapest and probably safest and most effective way woudl be to go to your local drugstore and purchase 2 bottles of "Nix" it's a human lice removal product ($12x2). Open the box and toss everything but the bottle. With the first bottle, use 12 oz. or so of tap water and mix in the entire bottle of Nix into a spray bottle with an atomizer. Use this solution to COMPLETELY coat and spray the snakes environment. Don't miss a spot, you may have to repeat once or twice. With the other bottle, fill the tub about 4-7 inches full with luke-warm water and dump in the bottle. Soak you BP for up to 20 mins. or so. That should remove all the mites from him. Good luck.

I've just been through mite hell and it started very similar to your experience. I inspected the ball, no mites, let it slide through my hands several times, no mites on my hands. Then a week later they showed up. I cleaned them up once and thought I had it taken care of and then they showed up again. Eggs!!! The medication, a mite killer for dogs and cats,worked great at killing mites but did nothing to their eggs.
Here's a few tips that helped:
Quarantine the snake and its cage. Once the cage, sterilite/rubbermaid box is clean, wipe vaseline around the top edge, vent holes, etc. This prevents them from crawling out and spreading.
Nix or the house brand of Nix works AWESOME and it does destroy the eggs. Make sure your snake is well hydrated because if they drink the water/nix that they are soaking in, it may kill them. I found that a mix of 2 ounces of nix to a quart of water sprayed in their housing with paper towels as the substrate worked fine. That was strong enough. I also sprayed the same strength mix onto a sponge and wiped down each snake as I returned it to its sterilite box.
Water bowls were left out for a day or two.
Good Luck

I had hoped to leave it a week or so before handling my Ball Python to let him settle in. Will it do any harm to leave it for a few days or should I try and get rid of the mites straight away? I have not got any other reptiles so there is no fear of it spreading.

honestly when i bought my ball from the pet store, she had mites i called the store immadetly and told them either they were going to fix it or they were going to give me the spray to do so myself- i went back and they gave me a 3 day treatment and naga hasnt had a problem since so if u call back and b$#@ then most likely they can give you what you need o get rid of them. if that dosent work call the bbb. hope that helps

Here's what I do:

Sawyer's Tick Spray (~$5, camping supplies)is the exact same thing as Provent-A-Mite(~$20, online). They have the same active ingredient.

Take the snake and water bowl out of the cage. Put her in a shoebox or tote or something. Fog up the cage (NOT the snake/water bowl), and cover it. Let sit for an hour or two, then let it air out really well. Mix up the substrate, fog `er up again, let sit, then air out - same amount of time. Make sure it's really well aired-out, then put the snake back in. The little bit of Sawyer's left on the substrate will take take of any eggs or mites on the snake. She might get a wee bit dehydrated, but it's nothing to worry about (Sawyer's/P-A-M is better than Black Knight, since BK has been shown to cause all kinda of nasties with reptiles - even though it's only active for about 3 hrs instead of err . . . a week for PAM?).

Yup. Or you could do the old PITA mineral oil treatment. Oi.

-Irish