Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a 3.5 foot columbian boa with mites. I don't know where they came from, but he has them. I had him in a 55 gallon tank with bed a beast as bedding and I guess that's where they came from. I have since gotten rid of the bed a beast and have been treating my snake with de flea repti relief mite/tick killer that kills mites on contact. I have also ordered some provent o mite to use on the aquarium. I have removed my snake from the cage and am keeping him in a rubber maid container with paper towels as a substrate. I have been following the the directions of the repti relief with a slight moderation. I soaked my snake the day before I started treatment because he was shedding. After he shed, I waited until the next morning to begin treatment. I put the spray on him and let it sit for 20 minutes. Then I rub him down with the spray on him which removes alot of the mites. Then, I wait ten more minutes and rinse him off. Then I soak him for an hour, clean his rubber maid enclosure and put him back in. The repti relief instructions say that you only use the spray in three day intervals. My question is what do I do on the three days that I'm not using the spray?
One idea I got was from my local pet store. I went down there to return a ball python that I had purchased from him and started talking about my boa. Just so happens that he was treating his pet burmese for mites as well. He said that he uses the spray lightly. He said that he rubs his snake down in vegetable oil because it suffocates the mites. He even demonstrated for me on his burm. Is this a safe method? Also, if I am not doing something right or am missing something please let me know. I know that my snake is getting better. At first he would soak for days and wouldn't eat. Right before I posted this message, I successfully fed him a defrosted rat. Please help. All advice is appreciated.

sounds good, keep doing it, they should clear up quickly. For the substrate, I recommend very basic. Newspapers, paper towels, or indoor/outdoor carpet works very well. The carpet, make sure its soft as the snakes will get very uncomfortable on astroturf. I speak from experience.
Hope this helps

Yes it sounds like you are doing a good job. I know what its like to have an unexpected infestation. If you have more than one snake in the same rack or room then expect the others to have little devils incubating in the shadows. Treat every cage. Definately make sure to remove the animal before spraying the PreventOmite. I have had decent success with it.

A suggestion to save you money since PreventOmite is so expensive ($20 a can right?) Go to walmart or some store that carries camping supplies and buy a can of Misquito repellent by the brand REPEL. Not just any can. It must be the kind with PERMETHRIN as its active ingredient. The can will say PERMANONE in big letters on the front. This is the insect repellent used on your cloths and not your skin. PERMETHRIN is the same active ingredient as in PreventOmite. If money doesnt grow from your backyard tree either then $20 worth of Permanone will go a whole lot further for you because its the same stuff.

I cant take credit for this find but I see no reason to not pass it on. Good luck.

hi there. i have 7 snakes. one is a small soloman boa. i would like to get a bigger boa. anyway i had a small mite problem on my jungle carpet python when i first got him.

what i did was tore apart his entire cage. i had reptile bark in there and also a piece of cork bark. all that got trashed. then sprayed his cage well with prevent o mite. let it air out really well. in the mean time i did soak my python with veggie oil and it worked very very well in killing the mites on the snake. the oil will get under the scales where the mites are. soaking in h2o will not drown them all. so i can tell you the oil did work for me. i soaked him in it the whole time i was cleaning his tank out. like 1/2 hour to hour. then rinsed him very well and saw the mites wash off him. i just put him in a glass tank (you could use what ever. just so he doesn't get away) with oil on bottom. as he moved around he got all the oil all over him.

now i use very basic newpaper for most if not all my 7 snakes. i read to many people getting mites from packaged substrates like that. plus newpaper is way cheaper. my smaller baby corns i just use paper towels. hope you get rid of those mites. if you have a big problem you will probably have to treat more then once. good luck.

Correct: H2O by itself is not very effective when soaking. As an alternative to oil you can also soak the snake in soapy water. A little dish soap will suffocate the mites too.