Mites!!!! OMG we have mites!!!

[GyGbeetle]

So one of our baby boas was soaking in his water dish because he's about to shed. The thing is, he's been soaking for like 3 days, which is odd. And then I saw it; black stuff in the water. So we soaked him in the bathtub and it was like a horror story! He definitely has mites. He shares a tank with a sibling and another baby close in age. They all share a room with other pythons and boas. But no one else has mites. It's not a bad case; I'm praying we caught it in time.

I have some questions though:

1) how did he get mites and no one else in the room has them?

2) upon inspection we see no mites on him, but they drop off and drown when he gets soaked. Why can't we see them?

3) our trusted pet store says to use preventamide (sp). To use it in the tank, let it dry in the tank, put white towels or paper towels down, and keep the water out for 24 hours before putting it back in. While the tank is being treated, wash them in warm water with a little bit of Dawn, and soak all wood accessories. Sage advice? Any bad experiences with this pesticide?

4) how long will it last? We have 10 snakes in a carpeted room. Will the mites live in the carpet? Do we need to treat the carpet with something?

5) can mites live on cats? We have cats. Is it like fleas where it can cross species to survive? Do I have to treat the cats?

[REM955]

He shares a tank with a sibling and another baby close in age.
I imagine that someone is going to harp on this, but now you have at least 3 animals instead of one that you need to be concerned for mites. I cannot give any example for keeping multiple snakes together, but typical you do not for other reasons.

Inspection:
Use a wet paper towel to check. Have them crawl through or rub on them. This is something mentioned here and elsewhere.

PAM/ Provent-A-Mite:
Be very careful with this. Maybe a couple months back, someone with a hognose didn't air out or rinse out (never used it yet) enough and was affected by the chemical. Many a worried post. Otherwise, it seems to be the go to here and my vet likes the stuff.

I'm sorry I cannot offer any real insight or anything from personal experience.

[GyGbeetle]

I imagine that someone is going to harp on this, but now you have at least 3 animals instead of one that you need to be concerned for mites. I cannot give any example for keeping multiple snakes together, but typical you do not for other reasons.

I've done so much research on housing boas together, and there are some for and some against, most are reputable herpetologists. In about a year everyone will be split, or at least housed in an enclosure that is ample sized for more than 1 big boa. Our retics are all housed separately. They don't like each other even though they were purchased in the same enclosure from the pet store. But that's a whole other post!

So yes, we have 3 that have mites. But we're going to treat everyone as if they were all infected. I have no clue where the mites came from, other than the last trade show we went to in early December, where a vendor was confirmed to have mites. We didn't buy anything, but we did cuddle some snakes and a tegu.

[Andy_G]

1. Assume everything has them. A fully mature mite can travel 30 feet/hr.

2. Live mites hide deep between the scales and are in the substrate and in nooks and crannies within the cage or on cage furniture. For every 1 you see there's 10 or 15 that you don't. You can't spot the eggs and they stick to things.

3. I prefer the nix method. The search function of this forum is your friend and will give you a lot of information on different methods.

4. Mites can live in the carpet. Getting rid of mites properly will require multiple treatments no matter thr method.

5. They won't bother your cats. Snake mites are just that.

Unfortunately refuting your research, and I say this with respect but also quite bluntly, I see no reason or benefit to cohabitate neonates of this species together, only risk and complication, such as transmissable health problems like ectoparasites for example. You most likely picked up some "hitch hikers" from the show. :(

[pet_snake_78]

With only three snakes you will have it comparatively easy to most. PAM works just fine and is approved for use on reptiles but I did have a problem with a very, very small hatchlings twitching until I removed then for 24 hours away from PAM. I would let the PAM dry out for 24 hours. That's probably longer than required, but after having an situation where the snakes were twitching and one could not right itself, I'd rather not take any chances. All of the available products can harm or kill your snakes if used improperly. I would recommend doubling to quadrupling whatever you expect that actual drying time to take. Do not apply PAM directly to the snake. People have successfully used many methods but NIX and PAM are the most popular methods I've seen discussed and both have worked for many people. There is also a product you can get at petco called Reptile Relief that is safe to use directly on the snake, but that product alone will not likely clear out the mites and they will keep coming back unless you treat the substrate with one of the aforementioned powerful chemicals.

[REM955]

I thought that you treat the substrate preemptively, not in the event of an outbreak.
Paper towels for use during the outbreak was what I thought you were supposed to do.

[GyGbeetle]

Right now it's only 3 snakes. But without knowing why only 1 tank was affected, I'm not taking any chances. We've soaked almost all the snakes, and no one else had mites fall off of them in the water, so I'm hopeful. But still very scared.

Since these guys are young (born in May), should I only use the PAM in the tanks and not a topical? The mites appear to be babies (very small, not readily engorged), so I think maybe we caught it in time? So perhaps only 1 line of treatment will be successful? I don't know. I'll ask the pet store people what their thoughts are. And will definitely treat all the tanks.

As for the paper towels, we have white towels where you can easily see mites. We have quite a bit of these. Is it just the issue with seeing the mites die that you're supposed to use paper towels?

[Andy_G]

That, and the disposability.

[riddick07]

I like Nix I've had to only treat once so far for mites and since then I've treated all new additions for mites and had no problems since. I also treat everything myself, clothes, car, carpet, shoes, and anything else I bought for mites after shows or a pet store.

Only the three have visual mites since that's where they started. Younger mites are not visible to the eye and mites travel very far in a short amount of time. If you have snakes in other rooms treat those too, plus mites can hitchhike on you or the cats. Mites can live awhile without eating so if you aren't treating the ground and around the cages even your clothes and anywhere you might have taken them they can come back months later to bother you again. Takes months to confirm if you are actually mite free once again.

Paper towels make it easier to check for them and treat. You can't treat all aspen or chips or dirt but you can soak a paper towel easily enough with the mite treatment. No where for mites to hide from the treatment in the cage. If you have big snakes it will be more difficult to treat since the mites can really get under the scales to hide.

Interesting article I found awhile ago on mites and their lifecycle.
The Life History of Snake Mites | Vida Preciosa International, Inc. (http://vpi.com/publications/the_life_history_of_snake_mites)

[SWDK]

That's a good article. Thanks for sharing it.

[GyGbeetle]

The store was very helpful and we have a clear path. We were told to use JurassiMite instead of Nix because of their age. As long as we can keep the mites out of the tanks, we've removed their source of food and hatchlings will only last up to a month without a food source, so treating all the tanks as if it's infected seems to be the way to go. We have one snake in quarantine that can't be treated until the vet gives us the green light, so I hope these mites don't travel too far.

Thanks for all the advice and the great article. I really appreciate this forum, and glad I came across it. Hope everyone has a great rest of their day

[SWDK]

Hope the treatment works for you. I've never used Jurassic Mite before so I can't speak to the effectiveness of it. I know that the Nix treatment works wonders and is safe. I use it on all my snakes from hatchlings to adults with no issues.

[GyGbeetle]

Hope the treatment works for you. I've never used Jurassic Mite before so I can't speak to the effectiveness of it. I know that the Nix treatment works wonders and is safe. I use it on all my snakes from hatchlings to adults with no issues.

How soon after you begin treatment do you start to see results? We did all the tanks last night with the PAM stuff, gave everyone a bubble bath in Dawn, put the JurassiMite stuff on them, and put them on top of paper towels once the tanks had aired out for a little over 4 hours. That was late yesterday. Looked into the known infected tanks, and I'm not really seeing copious amounts of dead black things, like I would've expected. So we applied a second treatment of JurassiMite to th snakes we know are infected, and I'm still not seeing a whole lot of black things popping off their bodies and fleeing into their doom of a PAM barrier.

Now I've had a flea infestation once while I was a cat rescuer. I put that flea spray on the cat with fleas, and it was literally like rats fleaing from a sinking ship. I would've expected to see the same thing with snake mites. Is this a bad assumption to have?

[SWDK]

How soon after you begin treatment do you start to see results? We did all the tanks last night with the PAM stuff, gave everyone a bubble bath in Dawn, put the JurassiMite stuff on them, and put them on top of paper towels once the tanks had aired out for a little over 4 hours. That was late yesterday. Looked into the known infected tanks, and I'm not really seeing copious amounts of dead black things, like I would've expected. So we applied a second treatment of JurassiMite to th snakes we know are infected, and I'm still not seeing a whole lot of black things popping off their bodies and fleeing into their doom of a PAM barrier.

Now I've had a flea infestation once while I was a cat rescuer. I put that flea spray on the cat with fleas, and it was literally like rats fleaing from a sinking ship. I would've expected to see the same thing with snake mites. Is this a bad assumption to have?

With the Nix I saw a lot dead mites the next day. I would estimate there was about 40-50 dead ones. I continues to decreasing numbers of dead mites over a 2 week period.

I spray the enclosure and snakes with the Nix. I repeat the Nix applications every 3-4 days. I'll be doing that for a 3 month period just to be extra sure I've killed them off.

My retic is the only snake in my collection that's had mites since 2012. I was fortunate my recent mite issue didn't spread beyond the retic.

[GyGbeetle]

We didn't apply any treatment to the paper towels before putting down paper towels, but we treated the entire enclosure with PAM and sprayed them with the JurassiMite. I think I'm just going to go with Nix and purchase some tomorrow. Because there was not a lot of black things on the paper towels today. We have them soaking and did another inspection and I think the mites are getting better at hiding because we aren't seeing a lot of mites under the scales as we did yesterday or the day before.

I think I need to take some herp courses and some reptile vet med courses. I feel so ignorant with all of this. It's so stressful!!!! We checked another 2 boas that we thought had mites yesterday and we don't see anything on them either. I don't know. I do know that I'll be treating these enclosures every 3 months from now on, when all these mites are dead, because I do NOT want to go through this again. All I need is for my human kids to get lice to top off the last 30 days

[GyGbeetle]

PS, I've been following your retic post too, and it's got some great info in that as well. It makes me feel so much better knowing there are lots of knowledgeable folks here to go to.

[riddick07]

Only adults are visible to the eye and you probably killed most of those already on the snake with soaking and spraying the cages. If you caught it early you won't see that many black spots on the ground anymore. You will be mostly killing younger mites that you can't actually see after most of the adults are dead. You keep treating to kill the young that have hatched out or any random adults you missed.

Be careful with just how much chemicals you are using and how often. While safe alone or in small quantities mixing or going crazy with treatments can harm your animals. If the snakes are very young I wouldn't do every 3 or 4 days even with Nix and especially not with PAM. I've heard why too many mistakes happen with PAM that I would not use it myself. Also, if you have hognose do not use PAM or Nix with them they do not react well to these treatments most of the time. I think garters don't either but I'm not sure if I remember that one right.

Nix needs to be mixed correctly be sure to read up on its use if you switch over to that treatment. I use Nix on all my new arrivals:)
http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/general-discussion/17014-nix-treatment-snake-mites.html

[GyGbeetle]

Only adults are visible to the eye and you probably killed most of those already on the snake with soaking and spraying the cages. If you caught it early you won't see that many black spots on the ground anymore. You will be mostly killing younger mites that you can't actually see after most of the adults are dead. You keep treating to kill the young that have hatched out or any random adults you missed.

This is really good to know. I'm crossing my fingers that is what we're seeing here.

We were told to treat with PAM every 2 weeks for up to 6 weeks (4 treatments total). No more than that even for the older animals for fear of toxic exposure. The stuff we spray on the babies is an all natural substance, with the active ingredients being clove and cinnamon. If we switch to Nix (I'm not convinced this natural stuff is working) I saw an older post on here that said 3-4 days at a 1 part per 68 parts distilled water dilution. We may just go to once a week instead though, because I don't want to over expose them.

But what about treating the paper towels? Should those be treated too? If so, how do you treat them? Same as treating the snake?

And last, is Nix thand same thing that you get at a drug store, or is it something that you need to get at a pet specialty store?

[Andy_G]

As far as Nix treatment, yes it's the same that you get at the drug store and I believe it comes in a 56 mL bottle. You use 1 of these bottles to 1 gallon of water, preferably distilled. You can spray the snakes, the cages, and the surrounding areas with nix. I would advise doing so twice a week for at least a month. With this kind of dilution, there are only a few species that would be over exposed (hognose snakes and garter snakes come to mind). I won't touch PAM myself because 1. it's more expensive, 2. Much higher change of adverse effects and 3. Nix has always worked for me.

[SWDK]

As far as Nix treatment, yes it's the same that you get at the drug store and I believe it comes in a 56 mL bottle. You use 1 of these bottles to 1 gallon of water, preferably distilled. You can spray the snakes, the cages, and the surrounding areas with nix. I would advise doing so twice a week for at least a month. With this kind of dilution, there are only a few species that would be over exposed (hognose snakes and garter snakes come to mind). I won't touch PAM myself because 1. it's more expensive, 2. Much higher change of adverse effects and 3. Nix has always worked for me.

So far the Nix is fine for both of my adult garters. I've treated them a few times over the past 2 months and they haven't shown any strange behavior. Just wanted to add my experience with my garters, but it may not be the norm.

[Andy_G]

So far the Nix is fine for both of my adult garters. I've treated them a few times over the past 2 months and they haven't shown any strange behavior. Just wanted to add my experience with my garters, but it may not be the norm.

Thanks for adding that, Dave. :)

[Aaron_S]

Too lazy to multi-quote.

1. Nix and PAM work all on their own quite well. Don't worry about using anything else. I spray the animals directly with the Nix solution and everything else. Remove water for a day.

2. Dish soap is pointless if you're using Nix or PAM. The snakes are being stressed with more soaks/baths then necessary.

3. If you're using jurassiMite and it has the active ingredients of clove and cinnamon stop using it. Sounds ridiculous. I have no idea, and I doubt anyone making or selling that product can produce a scientific study where clove and cinnamon gets rid of/kills snake mites.

4. You can alternatively use predator mites if this happens again if you're set on a natural method.

5. I would spray your carpet, the enclosures (inside and outside). Anything else in the room.

6. I am super paranoid of mites. If I attend a show I do not touch anything. When I leave I spray myself, my car, my friends, my daughter, any animal I may have picked up with Nix solution before going home. When home I spray my snake room and change immediately into new clothing and toss the other stuff into the wash.

[GyGbeetle]

Which Nix are we supposed to use for follow-up? There are 3 different types of Nix: cream, shampoo, conditioner. Which one am I supposed to use? And what is the break-down of distilled water to Nix treatment ratio?

It's been nearly 2 weeks since using PAM, and I really don't think it's necessary to use it for 2 more treatments, so we want to switch to Nix, since it's cheaper and you can use it both on the animal and enclosure. We haven't seen any mites pop back up, so I'm hoping to just use the Nix treatment on the enclosures and call it a day. Please advise to those that have used Nix so I don't put all the animals into toxic shock.

[valkea]

As far as Nix treatment, yes it's the same that you get at the drug store and I believe it comes in a 56 mL bottle. You use 1 of these bottles to 1 gallon of water, preferably distilled. You can spray the snakes, the cages, and the surrounding areas with nix. I would advise doing so twice a week for at least a month. With this kind of dilution, there are only a few species that would be over exposed (hognose snakes and garter snakes come to mind). I won't touch PAM myself because 1. it's more expensive, 2. Much higher change of adverse effects and 3. Nix has always worked for me.

Not to hijack but would you avoid using Nix near hognose? Or just avoid spraying the hogs themselves with nix and treat everything else as usual?

I've also recently found myself fighting a mite infestation in my quarantine room. Possibly my main room but so far no signs.

[Andy_G]

Not to hijack but would you avoid using Nix near hognose? Or just avoid spraying the hogs themselves with nix and treat everything else as usual?

I've also recently found myself fighting a mite infestation in my quarantine room. Possibly my main room but so far no signs.

I would make it slightly weaker, just by adding a couple cups of water over and above the gallon or by spraying it on paper towel and wiping the snake instead of spraying directly.

[valkea]

Okay perfect. Thank you!

[GyGbeetle]

Do you use the cream, shampoo, or conditioner? Which product, because Nix makes a whole line of stuff.

And you use the whole bottle? Because I thought it was just like 1-2 tablespoons for a gallon of distilled water?

[Andy_G]

The only Nix I have seen up here is the creme rinse. It comes in a 59mL bottle and you use the whole bottle to a gallon of water. 1-2 tablespoons will not do anything, it would be much too diluted to be effective. Hopefully that helps.

[SWDK]

Yep, you want to use the cream rinse for sure. I bought mine at rite aid pharmacy. I went with the generic rite aid brand which was 2 bottles of the cream for $19.99. I bought my first treatment of name brand Nix and it was $25.99 for 1 bottle of cream and a bottle of something else.

[GyGbeetle]

The only Nix I have seen up here is the creme rinse. It comes in a 59mL bottle and you use the whole bottle to a gallon of water. 1-2 tablespoons will not do anything, it would be much too diluted to be effective. Hopefully that helps.

Yep, you want to use the cream rinse for sure. I bought mine at rite aid pharmacy. I went with the generic rite aid brand which was 2 bottles of the cream for $19.99. I bought my first treatment of name brand Nix and it was $25.99 for 1 bottle of cream and a bottle of something else.


This helps tremendously! thank you both!!!! I did buy the cream rinse stuff. There was a kit and Nix shampoo for purchase, neither of which seemed correct. So I went to another store that had the cream rinse. Yay!

[GyGbeetle]

Very frustrated, because we STILL have mites! We finished our fifth Nix treatment of ALL of our tanks this past Sunday, and today, we found a SINGLE mature mite in the same tank we discovered mites in over a month ago. Just one. That's all we're finding, is a single mature mite every 2-3 weeks, in the same tank. All the tanks are being treated, none of the other tanks have had any mites, so where the heck is this single mite coming from?

We've soaked the snakes, nothing comes off ANY of them. We are now treating the tank we found the single mite in as I type this, but I'm getting frustrated. Shouldn't they be completely gone by now? I think maybe I should start the PAM tank method back up, with Nix treatment on the snakes, for another month. But that's soooooo much work, and I want to buy a new snake. Even in quarantine, I don't want to bring in another animal into this.

What gives? I'd understand it more if we found mites on one of the snakes, or found a bunch of mites. But it's literally a SINGLE mite, every 2-3 weeks. This is the third spotting in the last 5 weeks.

Please, someone help explain this to me, or what we're doing wrong.

[Scubadiver59]

Think "Apocolypse Now"...Napalm works wonders! :eek:

[Andy_G]

I'll reiterate how fast they can travel...a mite can travel the length of your house in a matter of hours...30 feet per hour, faster at warmer than average room temp or if not engorged. That's why I mentioned in the other thread you started about it notbeing the best idea to take in any more rescues in until the matter has been completely resolved. Once they little buggers have finished feeding, they go into hiding and there simply has to be somewhere you're missing as far as treatment goes. You're probably seeing mature females that have already laid eggs if it's only a single mite here and there. Saying all of that...you've only been treating for 2 full months, and 3 months is often a good idea when it comes to treatment so you're really not there yet. Keep at it, and try to identify what you're missing, it's impossible for us to figure that out since we aren't the ones doing the treatments.

[Kathryntheclean]

You want I should come over and help? I'm getting good at this- me and my tiny bottle of Ivermectin! You're getting the carpet everywhere you keep your snakeys, right?

[GyGbeetle]

I'll reiterate how fast they can travel...a mite can travel the length of your house in a matter of hours...30 feet per hour, faster at warmer than average room temp or if not engorged. That's why I mentioned in the other thread you started about it notbeing the best idea to take in any more rescues in until the matter has been completely resolved. Once they little buggers have finished feeding, they go into hiding and there simply has to be somewhere you're missing as far as treatment goes. You're probably seeing mature females that have already laid eggs if it's only a single mite here and there. Saying all of that...you've only been treating for 2 full months, and 3 months is often a good idea when it comes to treatment so you're really not there yet. Keep at it, and try to identify what you're missing, it's impossible for us to figure that out since we aren't the ones doing the treatments.

That's what's so confusing. It's staying in just this one tank. We have a room of tanks. I would think the other snakes would have mites, but it's staying just in this one tank.

Even the original tank we found mites in hasn't shown any since our first treatment back in January. So we're not killing the eggs. Where are they hiding? What the (so many bad words I want to say right now).

Neither of the 2 rescues have any mites either.

Gggggrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!

We're going to purchase PAM this weekend and continue with the Nix on everyone else. I'm so over this crud

[Kathryntheclean]

I don't know...my vet said (and I understand this is just one guy, but) the nix is a different kind of medication for mite removal and is not as strong as the ivermectin. However, that ivermectin is deadly if not used correctly on your snake. If all else fails, you might try some.

[GyGbeetle]

For the first tank where we have babies, we soaked them daily and then treated them with JurassiMite the first 2 weeks we discovered the mites. We treated everyone's tank with PAM, and 2 weeks later treated only this tank with JurassiMite, even after finding mites in the tank that's infected now. About 4 weeks later (egg hatching cycle) is when we found that single mite in the second tank, but the first has remained mite free.

So we are going to soak the boa in the currently affected tank daily and treat with JurassiMite, while treating that tank with PAM, and continue treating all other tanks and snakes with Nix for another month. PAM we only use every 2 weeks, but it's potent, and kills the eggs, so 3 PAM treatments spaced out every 2 weeks I PRAY will kill these dirty bastards. And continue weekly Nix for another 5 treatments on everyone else.

I don't know what we are missing. I've been spraying everything. Even the darned cats. We soaked the boa tonight while I sprayed the tank with Nix, and 1 more mite jumped off. But when the baby boas were infected, we found maybe 10 mites during our first soak, and a little less with each subsequent soak, until they were gone.

So frustrating. And so weird. I really hate these things. HATE THEM!

[GyGbeetle]

I don't know...my vet said (and I understand this is just one guy, but) the nix is a different kind of medication for mite removal and is not as strong as the ivermectin. However, that ivermectin is deadly if not used correctly on your snake. If all else fails, you might try some.

You're right. It is a more potent pesticide, and snake mites are rather resilient. I'm going to retry PAM for another month and see if it makes a difference. If in 2 weeks we aren't making progress, I'll call the vet and let them know what we've done. I hate to do that because the vet is over an hour away, but what else can ya do?

[Kathryntheclean]

Yeah, I have really fallen for this baby corn snake. He's nicer than my cats, he doesn't ruin the couch like my dogs, and he should live longer than my poor wonderful lizard who got big, beautiful, and then died quite unexpectdly after 3 years with her. I just never knew how awesome he'd be or I'd have had snakes years ago! You gotta do what you gotta do for them. And the ivermectin is good, dear! Those mites are laying in a layer of death at the bottom of his cage after a treatment. I just clean them up, let the snake rest, and spray again the next day. Pretty soon, no blood suckers will be on him! I was so glad for that vet visit!

[EL Ziggy]

@ Beetle- Did one of your snakes came with mites or did you pick them up at an expo?
@ Kathryn- I'm sorry your intro to snakes started with the dreaded mites. Did your snake arrive with them and if so have you contacted the breeder? It wouldn't be cool if (s)he sold you a snake and had any idea that it might have mites.
Mites are my worst nightmare as a snake keeper. I really hope you all totally eradicate those pests ASAP so you can get back to enjoying your snakes.

[GyGbeetle]

@ Beetle- Did one of your snakes came with mites or did you pick them up at an expo?
@ Kathryn- I'm sorry your intro to snakes started with the dreaded mites. Did your snake arrive with them and if so have you contacted the breeder? It wouldn't be cool if (s)he sold you a snake and had any idea that it might have mites.
Mites are my worst nightmare as a snake keeper. I really hope you all totally eradicate those pests ASAP so you can get back to enjoying your snakes.

I don't know :(. We check all of the snakes for mites on intake, and our last snake was November before the mite incident. Mites were found January (New Years present). But they were found in a tank of snakes we've had since June. The last show we went to, one of the vendors brought mites. I like touching the snakes at these shows, and had one climbing in my hair (probably a bad idea). That was in early December. So timewise, it seems more logical that we brought them home in December. And so far it only impacted 2 of our 10 tanks in the same room. And now only 1 tank has them. We treat all the tanks and animals, but only 1 tank has them. I don't get it. But we're going to treat everyone for another month and keep our fingers crossed.

There's a big show coming up. I want to go to it. But I'm worried we might bring home more hitchhikers

[akane]

I'm not sure the exact risk level of ivermectin in reptiles. I only took vet classes on mammals and treated my own where ivermectin for the most part is quite safe. With a few breed exceptions and the odd thing like cats that are sensitive to it. My bull snake was kept an extra month and treated with ivermectin because the person missed some mites on new snakes despite quarantine and they were in the same room. I could have saved $40 on shipping otherwise but oh well my snake physiology and health knowledge was even lower then so $40 to have an experienced person do it. It's less than the vet. They treated every snake with ivermectin just in case. Ivermectin still doesn't kill eggs though so you still have to repeat treatments on intervals with eggs hatching until you get them all. I would imagine after getting mites once you might be more willing to go for the big guns and risk it than treat for so long only to question if they are even gone yet.

Parasites do often persist on one animal or group of animals over others due to various factors making them more susceptible. The variables are so numerous though you often never find out why. Without fail though they usually spread again if you don't keep at it.

[Kathryntheclean]

We are a rescue family, El Ziggy, so every single pet we own has been from a shelter or a person selling them because they could not take proper care of them. Such is the case of our little corn baby, Alex. We bought him and his habitat and a months worth of food from a girl who kept him in very poor conditions. I thought with him being so young, he was going to be pretty well. But, when we first saw his cage, my daughter and I could see it was not taken care of. He was living in very dirty conditions! So, it's not really surprising that something was wrong with him. I just wish the young lady had said, "He might have mites". But, she didn't seem too knowledgeable on him. And he was very listless coming home. I'm glad we got him, because I don't think he'd have lived long in his other owners hands.

[GyGbeetle]

I'm not sure the exact risk level of ivermectin in reptiles. I only took vet classes on mammals and treated my own where ivermectin for the most part is quite safe. With a few breed exceptions and the odd thing like cats that are sensitive to it. My bull snake was kept an extra month and treated with ivermectin because the person missed some mites on new snakes despite quarantine and they were in the same room. I could have saved $40 on shipping otherwise but oh well my snake physiology and health knowledge was even lower then so $40 to have an experienced person do it. It's less than the vet. They treated every snake with ivermectin just in case. Ivermectin still doesn't kill eggs though so you still have to repeat treatments on intervals with eggs hatching until you get them all. I would imagine after getting mites once you might be more willing to go for the big guns and risk it than treat for so long only to question if they are even gone yet.

Parasites do often persist on one animal or group of animals over others due to various factors making them more susceptible. The variables are so numerous though you often never find out why. Without fail though they usually spread again if you don't keep at it.

So how much longer should I treat? How do I get rid of the eggs? I know the snakes aren't suffering because we're not letting the mites get out of control, so they aren't getting dehydrated or any of the other bad stuff mites can do, but I want them gone. What can I do???? Nix them indefinitely? Burn down all their tanks and buy new ones?

After talking with my husband last night, I think that they are hiding up underneath this girl's scales, laying their eggs, and then disappearing. I don't know how to kill those eggs, because that's what's happening. We are finding a mite when you would expect the eggs to have hatched and the mites to have matured. And we're not finding a lot of mites coming off of her when we soak her, so they must be doing something to survive.

SOOOOOO FRUSTRATED!!!!!!!! MAKE THEM GO AWAY!!!!!!