Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok... I'm inbetween evacuating the mites from half my collection, while keeping the "clean" ones and cured ones from getting them. Right now it's taking up two rooms, because in my snake room the mites are in probably 4 or 5 spots in the room, so it's hard to find areas to put clean enclosures.

Ran into a dilema, sort of, I am unable to get any kind of spray that would kill mites. Several people told me to get lice bedding spray, which can be found at drug stores... In my area the only thing they have to kill lice is shampoo. So to get rid of the mites, a snake is placed into a rubbermaid container with paper towels that are moistened with baby oil, so far this is working. The snake stays in there for 1-2 days, gets washed off with water, and then placed into a new, mite-free enclosure.

But... what happens when every snake is cured of mites? I know there are mites outside of the snake enclosures, I've seen them crawling around on lids and such. Will they die if they can't feed off the snakes? Or will they just come back once I reintroduce the snakes to the snake room?

Anyone who has used Provent-A-Mite, does that work?

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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
Helmz777@aol.com
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
Updated 10/28 NEW PICS AND NEW SECTION!

i use flea and tick powder you can find in the dog section at a pet store. i stick it on the bottom of the cages when i use some type of wood bedding. most likely if 1 cage has mite they all do. sand bedding also prevents mites ive heard. i used mite off wen my snakes got them it seemed to work well. clean out the cage with soap and water and some bleach to kill all the eggs in there and clean all the tunnles ect.

B/4 i got turned on to the internet i used buy a few mite infested petshop snakes, and i used something on them that i used a lot in the early 70's to rid wc's of ticks and mites, and that's good ol' no-pest strips it does a great job on pesky arthropods and of course you'll want to do follow up treatments once or twice a week.
Also various cat/dog- flea/tick powders work fine.
And there's 7-DUST which i prefer not to use but have had good results from it in the past.
It's also a good idea to treat live wc's b/4 feeding them to your snakes.

I've never seen a WC snake from my area have mites or ticks... Only CB snakes lol. What are the chances.
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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
Helmz777@aol.com
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
Updated 10/28 NEW PICS AND NEW SECTION!

I emailed you info before Mike. If you want I can email a pic of a can of the lice spray I mentioned. It is in the pharmacy section in Wal Mart. usually it is right next to RID and is cheaper and has the right active ingredient. Let me know if you got my first email and if you need a pic of the can.

Later Jason

Ah yes, I forgot about Wal Mart I knew I should've went there today.

I got your email, it was pretty much the exact same information another friend of mine was giving me. I can't remember if I emailed you back, I meant to, but that week my computer wasn't doing so well.

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Mike
KingPin Reptiles Inc.
Helmz777@aol.com
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake
Updated 10/28 NEW PICS AND NEW SECTION!

Beats me what the chances are but they come from somewhere.

Seven Dust is what I use. Get it at Wal-Mart. Use it once, then 10 days later after the eggs hatch. Nips it in the bid real quick. Just make sure that you take out the water dish when you use Seven Dust.

It's why they make Seven Dust.

Kerby...

I have used

- No Pest Strips - these things are fatally toxic to many ratsnakes - kings and boids seem OK - but why take the risk when they don't even work that well

- Sevin Dust - relatively non-toxic and easy to use. Works pretty well if you are really fastidious about cleaning EVERYTHING all at once and then are willing to do that again in a week or two. But it is messy as all heck!

- Flea/Lice sprays/soaps - these can work, but some are toxic to reptiles. You also have the problem of spending hours cleaning cages and often having to repeat it. And if you miss some, you have to start again.

- Black Knight - I loved this stuff for a number of years. To be honest, I only used it once when I sent a snake out on breeding loan and it came back and infested all my snakes. I sprayed all my snakes and cages with Black Knight once, and the problem was gone forever. There is some evidence that this stuff can cause problems with snakes sometimes. I had none, but some people have.

- Provent-a-mite - I haven't ever used this stuff, but from what I hear (from very experienced people) it is the best and only treatment for mites worth using (since Black Knight was shown to be questionably safe). You can just spray the cage thoroughly and the snake room and put the snakes back in their cages and the problem is gone. You don't have to worry about getting into every nook and cranny as the spray gets in there.
Sure beats all those dusts/soaps and unlike No-Pest Strips, it works every time.

I don't have mites in my collection, but if somehow I got them again, I would get some Provent-a-mite and not screw around with any of the old ineffective methods.
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Chris Harrison
Central Texas

And it works real well. It's very dry and you put the animal in a rubbermaid with an inch or so on the bottom. when it's dark the mites come off the snake looking for spots to lay eggs and when they hit the Fullers clay they dry up and die. He also uses it as a substrate and scatters pine needles and the like to give it a natural appearance. He's been doing it for years and it just makes scooping up poop easier too in the enclosures he uses it in.

I've used it on a few wc kings that I'd gotten that had mites and it worked great no fumes or anything. I would use it again as a quarantine measure for a few days in the future if I get any more new WC Eastern kings.

I've used various things over the years too, and I recommend Provent a Mite (PAM) too. My collection has been infected from the outside several times over the last five yrs or so. But right now I don't have any mites or other bugs because of PAM. I don't expect to ever have the problem again either because when I get a new animal now I treat the holding tank first, just in case. If you do it right, read directions, there's no problems. The key is that your cage is absolutely "dry" when you put the herps back in. Then you don't have to do anything else.

Mites and ticks live on the snakes and feed off of them. Mites that cannot get to a host within about two weeks die. So keep the mites off the snakes and they will all die in less than a month. PAM is efficient. All you have to do is spray in the air above your substrate for 1 or 2 seconds. I use a thin layer of shredded aspen. Then I wait much longer than recommended to make sure the cage is very dry before putting snakes and objects back in cage. Make sure you do not inhale fumes. Do not spray in house. Let sit for several hours after spraying. Put animals back in cage and repeat in ten to fourteen days. It's quite easy and much safer for your snakes than other methods, imo. It is the most tested product on the market.

This summer I got a CB snake that had mites. I put it in a treated cage in a holding room and never saw the mites again. I had a few small black flies trying to breed in my snake cages too. A well timed mid-summer treatment of all my cages took care of that problem. I also treat my cages before putting into my Brumation Room and put snakes into fresh, clean, treated cages in the spring when I take them out. This insures that there are no bugs in the cages starting the season, that may have wandered in during the winter months. I also monitor my collection every month of the year, since I have had mites twice in my entire collection, just in case anything ever pops up again, so I can nip it in the bud. I have a microscope and look at their water in a deli cup. I have seen flies, baby spiders, and even dust mites from time to time. Even if my collection gets infected, it wouldn't be for long, and it wouldn't be widespread.

I believe every herper should have a plan for keeping their collections parasite free and should do some kind of regular checks on their animals to make sure they are healthy. Good luck....TC.

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At first I thought you were talking about PAM, the nonstick cooking oil LOL.

I bought Sergeants skip flea and tick dog shampoo from Wal-mart, along with some Raid ant and roach spray. The shampoo has the same active ingredient as Provent a mite. Alot cheaper and goes alot further.

I have a rack system with sterilite containers, so this made things much easier to do.

First thing I did was shampood all of my snakes. I did the mite free snakes first, just to make sure there was no accidental transferance of mites to clean snakes. This was accomplished by putting a sterilite container in the bath tub and putting a few inches of water in it. I then used it to shampoo the snakes, one at a time of course, and replacing the water with each snake. After each snake was cleaned, I used the shampoo to clean that snakes container and hide and then placed them on newspaper and in a different room. I just stacked all the snakes in one room in their own containers from the rack system. Once I had all the snakes and tubs cleaned, I proceeded to spray down the entire rack with Raid. Since I have hardwood floors, I vacuumed really good, and then sprayed the entire floor down, as well as the base boards and cracks.

I then let the room air out for an entire week and went over it and the rack with a fine tooth comb. I didnt find any more mites in the room, on the rack or on any more of the snakes. I did repeat the shampoo on the snakes that had mites just to be sure. This may have been overkill, but I just didnt want to have a bad infestation. Since then I have not had another mite. And about once a month I use the shampoo to clean all the snakes hides and boxes.

It worked for me, and maybe this will help you out. Good luck on the battle front!!
Brian
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RATS
1.0 Corn snake "Warpath"(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