Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was just cleaning up my snake enclosures and I noticed a few tiny tiny bugs in the substrate and on one of the hides.

My wife and I have been studying both of my snakes and we don't see any evidence of the bugs on the snakes. We've never seen them soaking and there are no bugs in the water.

We're going to clean the enclosures thoroughly but should we assume we're dealing with mites even though we haven't found a single one on the animals? Should we treat the animals? Or just start with the cage and see what happens.

The bugs seem a little larger and less round than I expected mites to look but I have no experience with them.

They were found in the cages of 2 sub-yearling cb boas.

Any advice is appreciated...

hi i had a snake mie problem recently as well, i posted a thread on nov 14 in this forum, and received alot of good advice. if you do actually have mites, they may not be easy to see below the scales. they can be difficult, but not impossible to remove. if you switch to a paper substrate and cook the hides daily you should be able to get rid of them.
again see the responses to my post below
all mites have a very simular body plan and are easily identified. see the links to the pics below. these are confirmed adult snake mites.
i also had a friend of mine take pictures of the mites, and she hosted them on an online photo site
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v229/Herptiles.net/Ophionyssusnatricis4x-dorsal.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v229/Herptiles.net/Ophionyssusnatricis014x-ventral.jpg

i hope you dont have them, but if you do, you came to the right place for help.
pps i used vegetable oil directly on the visible mites, and a dilute betadine dip to kill the mites and disinfect the wounds on my snakes. for an animal at risk, like my 2 youngest, i did a complete wipe down with vegetable oil, then made sure the next shed was 100% sucsessful, and removed the sheds immediatly, as there may have been young mites present on the shed skin, and changed the cage at the same time.
i was mite free within 2 weeks

Whenever I question the health of any of my reptiles I place them in a "hospital cage". It's a simple and stark cage that meets the basic husbandry requirements of temp, humidity and security, but allows for better monitoring. Newsprint or paper towel substrate only. If not bugs seen in two weeks, then you're looking at a false alarm.

Also look up pics of the snake mite on google to further verify your findings.

IK

depends on the color and location i belive. my boxie used to get alot of little white bugs only in bedding that was very moist, like under his water dish. i was told they are just wood mites that dont affect animals. i get them in there ocasionally but they dont do anything but i usually boil the bedding every now and then just because i dont like them, lol.

i had mites on some of my wild caught fence lizards, they were red and black buggies that would be attached to the soft part of their neck behind their "ears", id never see them anywere in the elcosure except directly on the lizards. i treated them with store bought mite stuff and pulled them off with tweezers. they stayed gone after that but i threw out the bedding and sterelized the tank anyway and put in new bedding that i boiled and everything was fine.

hopefulyl they are just wood mites! but id ask people with more experience, just giving you my personal info.