Reptile & Amphibian Forums

As everyone who has ever had mites knows they can be a pain to deal with. While doing some research on a huge mite problem I had on a couple of my Burmese I found out about predatory mites (hypoaspis miles). They eat the eggs of mites and the young. They have specially developed mouth parts that are more like jaws and are not capable of feeding off of your snakes. After the hypoaspis were introduced into my Burmese tank the mites were gone in a few days (3 in my case) they cost about 50$ but with no risk of hurting your animals and given they are a natural predator to the mites they are completely safe. Way worth the money IMO. Once the snake mites are gone the hypoaspis die without a food source. They are super efficient and very fast. Thought I'd let everyone know. You can find them online pretty easily they are used by organic growers to control pests on plants as well. Just search hypoaspis miles. Hope this helps. I know it worked for me when every other remedy failed.

It's good to hear some feedback on this method. Let us know if it was a permenent solution, or if you see the snake mites reappear. I've only heard of a few people try this method, and have heard mixed reviews. I wonder if the predatory mites die off before the eggs of snake mites all hatch; thus potential for reinfection. I'd imagine that with some good environmental control, the predatory mites would be excellent.

Unfortuntately, for fellow Canadians following this thread, the CFIA bans the importation of most invertebrates. Your shipment might not be allowed into the country

Ian

I had great success and aside from introducing the predatory mites in two separate treatments about 4 days apart I did nothing and it has been several months with no reoccurrence