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So in fifteen years of reptiles I've never once had an issue with mites. Two rescued snakes later (4' burm baby and 8' *pregnant* red tail), my isolation room is up to it's eyeballs in them.

Literally, eyeballs. Not having had any actual experience with them, I'm more than slightly disturbed by the state of the burm's eyes. After a bit of digging I've seen that they like to cause a "bit of a rim" around the eyes, but this seems like more than a "bit". It's like the scales have been completely separated from the eye.

So I have two questions:

1. How bad does that sound?

2. What are the long term healing options? It's going into a shed; will this damage heal with future sheds?

OK, thanks folks.

The first move would be to spray the outside or exteriors of all the cages in your collection with a permethrin spray such as PAM, Equate, etc. This will keep the mites from spreading through your collection. See the entire thread started by MsPony on Dec. 5th for more details on how to deal with the mites that are currently on this snake. Once the mites are eliminated and after a shed or two, this one should recover without incident.

Kelly

Oh, I think I'm good as far as spreading so far. Both new snakes are still quarantined across the house, and I'm down to just treating strays at this point. After tommorow I'll give them another treatment with the mite spray; I've just been bathing them and treating the tanks right now. I was mostly concerned about the damage to the burm's eyes.

Sounds good, but just be aware that snake mites have no problem moving from room to room within a home in search of a host. This could easily occur within the space of a week or two once they leave the cage of origin, and that would be virtually a given in this case. As far as the eye issue, once the mites are killed, the eye will recover with no problems, and will be much improved after the first shed. It will also help to keep the humidity extra high just before the actual shedding so that the spectacle scales over the eyes and the attached intraocular skin come off cleanly.

Kelly

Any opinions on NIX? Used it 2x over 10 years ago. Once on a BP and then a nigritus. Mixed per instructions on KS forum. Just removed the water dish, lightly spritzed the whole cage, including snake, decor. Never saw the little sob's again. Both animals still with me.

Mike

I just used the standard "reptile relief" my local shop carried. Worked very well, killed everything I got it on, and worked fine in the tank. Two treatments and one shed later, I havn't seen any mites at all.

After each shed check again,they seem to start back even though you think you got them. It is the ones in the eye rim that you decovered and other places like the vent that eggs will hatch because your always trying to protect the eyes. You can use a probing tool to go under/around the eye socketbut but could be dangerous but so are mites. Really let them shed many times its just at that point of sheding more show up. As far as traveling if you have carpet have it steem/hotwater cleaned. In fact carpet should not be used in a snake room but still may get in other carpeted rooms. You can have a bloom of mites "years later" if the environment hits a certin point of heat/humidity and their back. I'm old school and we used the Shell Brand pest strips and they worked. I've seen mites reappear in aqu.placed outside unsed for years and years. I remember one of the first reptile dealers in the 70s "The Shed" Porris and Barraduche (ssp?sorry joe)never stacked a tank over a tank. In other words in a big warehouse everything was on a single shelf. It malingered through many rooms but it was a horazonal nonrack system, the mites didnt travle up or down to other cages below/above which will happen.. There were bathing suite topped clad girls mopping the floors/cleaning cages on a good day their. Ive heard mites can live in a test tube for seven years or more with nothing. One last thing that might have changed because of danger to "some species" was Ivermection. Mites are truley bad news and can spread nasty stuff and really piss off people that get them from something you sell them. Black Flag* if you can get it was recomended by the Barkers at one point. Question? where the hell do they oridganate from. V.M. 40 yrs in reptiles.