[Health-General] Help Mites

[decimator]

First of all this is my first post here so hello all. My question today is: I got a new snake about 5 months ago and unfortunately it brought home mites as well. I have since treated it and the original snake no longer has mites. However it did manage to spread the mites to my albino RTB and I am having a heck of a time managing them on him. So far I have treated with vet recommended ivermectin through the entire month long tx. When that had little effect I decided to try the standard Nix tx. I have done one treatment of that and today two weeks later I went to clean the cage and low and behold he STILL has mites. So I went ahead and cleaned the cage and Nix again as if I was starting from scratch. (He has been on paper towels since I got him, and I removed water bowl for 24 hours after treatment.) Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Just a side note but he also shed with this bowl movement.

[Ace of Snakes]

Re: Help Mites

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Do not worry too much. This is easy to take care of in my opinion. I had mites and no longer have any period.

Ok, so to start with, You need to treat every cage since they will just move from one snake to the next. Go to Welcome to Pro-Products! and buy a few cans of Provent a mite. This stuff works great and I always have a few cans sitting around.

The first thing I did was to take all snakes and put them in plastic tubs filled with water and baby shampoo. I let my snakes soak for about 4 hours. The baby shampoo will help get out the air bubbles under the scales. This will drown most of them but not all and not their eggs.

While they are soaking, clean the cage with a bleach soloution and wash with water. Put your substrate back in and spray with provent a mite. I even spary logs, trees etc. Just make sure the water dish is not in the cage. Let the vapors leave and the P.A.M. dry and put in your fresh water and snakes back in.

BAM......that all. Repeat process in 2 weeks another 2 times and you should be good. Remember to treat all cages.

As part of my routine, I spray with Provent a mite about every 2-3 months now and have not seen a mite since.

Good luck and welcome to the forum again.

[dapozer]

Re: Help Mites

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Do not worry too much. This is easy to take care of in my opinion. I had mites and no longer have any period.

Ok, so to start with, You need to treat every cage since they will just move from one snake to the next. Go to Welcome to Pro-Products! and buy a few cans of Provent a mite. This stuff works great and I always have a few cans sitting around.

The first thing I did was to take all snakes and put them in plastic tubs filled with water and baby shampoo. I let my snakes soak for about 4 hours. The baby shampoo will help get out the air bubbles under the scales. This will drown most of them but not all and not their eggs.

While they are soaking, clean the cage with a bleach soloution and wash with water. Put your substrate back in and spray with provent a mite. I even spary logs, trees etc. Just make sure the water dish is not in the cage. Let the vapors leave and the P.A.M. dry and put in your fresh water and snakes back in.

BAM......that all. Repeat process in 2 weeks another 2 times and you should be good. Remember to treat all cages.

As part of my routine, I spray with Provent a mite about every 2-3 months now and have not seen a mite since.

Good luck and welcome to the forum again.

Thats pretty much how i would do it, I do spray PAM in all cages when i do substrate change or 1x month. I spray the bottom of cage, put new substrate in and then spray substrate then wait 1/2 hour and go to go.

[decimator]

Re: Help Mites

Thanks, guys. I have heard of prevent a mite but never tried it. I guess that would be my next step.
Thanks again

[MLynch]

Re: Help Mites

Excellent advice! And I agree with the use of P.A.M.

My RTB had mites when I brought him home some months back, and there are a few things I would like to add that worked well for me.

I didn't use baby shampoo, but I let my boa soak in warm water (80 degrees) for 2-3 hours twice a day.

I also removed all substrate, shedding rocks, and vines, washed the cage (and all contents) with a 5% bleach solution and left only the hide and water bowl on a substrate of paper towels treated with PAM. I changed the paper towels daily. Why paper towels? One - it gives no place for the mites to go - they will get down into the mulch. Two - you can see the mites on the white surface, and this can give you a good indication on how quickly they are dying (dead ones won't move) and how many are in the cage (roughly).

I also sprayed down my boa after each soaking with JurassiMite (another brand version is Reptile Relief). This helps kill adult mites and larva on the snake (just don't spray on your boa's head). This alone will not effectively remove a mite infestation since it doesn't effect the eggs, but when used with Provent A Mite it makes for an awesome team.

Following this regime I was able to get rid of a decent sized infestation in about a week.

Once the infestation was gone I put the mulch, rocks, and vines back in the cage.

I still Use PAM on my snakes' mulch when ever I do my routine deep cleaning as a preventative measure.

Good luck.