Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was cleaning my iguanas enclosure today and noticed some small red bugs crawling on her back. The bugs are too small to get a picture of but I am pretty sure these are mites. How do I treat them on my iguana? Her enclosure is in the same room as my snake and tortoise enclosures. Do I need to treat them for mites also? I only see bugs on the iguana right now. Any advice would be appreciated!

First off, i'm sorry to hear of your problem and secondly, be prepared for a long hard fight. You're going to want to clean ALL your reptile cages, the room, everything! A spray called "Prevent-o-mite" is a very good tool you'll need in you're upcoming battle. To give you a full understanding of what you'll be up against is too much to write on here, but here is a link that will help you along the way. It's very informative and has many methods of treating your mite infestation. Good luck!

www.rodentpro.com/qpage_articles_02.asp
Link

I had to battle snake mites on my Burmese python when I first got brought him into my house as a rescue of sorts. I followed the advice given by the owner of ProProducts who makes Provent-a-Mite and had immediate success. The mite infestation was eradicated from the snake within a week with no contamination of other animals or re-infestation. Now, it may have been easier because his cage and everything coming in was treated immediately and I didn't have any other pre-existing mite infestation in the house.

I soaked the snake in a Rubbermaid container of warm water with a drop or two of dish soap. The water needed to be deep enough to cover his body and he had a chance to drink fresh water first. The soap is to break the surface tension of the water so that the mites cannot make a bubble of air and they drown. Using Betadine is to treat mite bites on the animal, I believe.

I removed everything from his cage (he had an aquarium at the time) and soaked it in bleach solution of about 10%. Then the tank and stand were sprayed with PAM according to directions and allowed to dry. I used newspaper for a substrate and sprayed both sides with PAM. The snake was not returned until everything was dry. I used PAM sprayed paper as a substrate for about a month to catch any newly hatched buggers.

I sprayed a two foot perimeter around his cage in the house for any mites that decided to walk, and then sprayed PAM on a paper towel and to wipe a one inch border around the tops of my other enclosures just in case any mites thought of traveling.

Using fly strips makes me a bit nervous, but that's just me. PAM cannot be used around hognose snakes because of their sensitivities.

Good luck!

Is the PAM spray okay to use with Iguanas? I ended up just coating her in mineral oil and so far it seems to have worked. I tried soaking in the water and dish soap but she wasn't having any part of that. Suprisingly she was okay with the mineral oil. I took her cage apart and soaked everything in a bleach and water solution. It has been about three days and I still don't see mites. I tried a couple of the reptile sprays for mites and they only seemed to work for a day or so and then I would find mites crawling on her again. I went ahead and treated my snake racks with the PAM. I have checked my snakes several times and haven't seen any mites but they are in the same room as her. I can't figgure out where she could have gotten mites. Thanks for your help!