My corn may have mites

[Tasch]

Just found mites on a plant my corn climbs on. He's been soaking himself in his dish which is unusual for him. He shed yesterday, but was on the plant today. How do I get rid if his mites if he has them? Any advice?

Thanks!

[TRD]

First you need to find out if those are actual snake mites and not some little critter happily eating your plant but has no interest in the snake...

[Andy_G]

If he's soaking, good chance it's mites.

[TRD]

Yes, but also good chance he did that because he was in shed...

Should still check if in fact dealing with snake mites instead of jumping to chemical warfare right off the bat.

[Andy_G]

I don't disagree with this entirely but OP mentioned that this is abnormal for him. Unless you're keeping your snake extremely arid, hot, or they're stressed...they probably won't atypically soak unless there is a mite problem. Of course be sure before treating with chemicals, that's common sense and shouldn't need to be mentioned...but tiny bugs present and soaking when it's not typical for the individual to do so is almost a guarantee of mites.

[GyGbeetle]

How can you tell the difference between a plant critter and a snake mite? Soaking the snake in water to see how many black things jump off? what about treating with predatory mites if he's unsure what it is? That's chemical free and will kill anything that moves in there, right?

[BurmesePythons!]

Snake mites look like little black grains of pepper which hide in the scales on the snake and move when you . If your snake has mites I recommend looking for them in the heat pits of your snake between the scales. You have to move the scales forward though, or else you can't see them. Also, try taking your snake out of his/her cage and putting some olive oil on it. Don't put enough so that the snake is soaking, just a bit. This will kill the mites on the snake if there are any and you will be able to manually remove them. Even if you do this though, you're going to have to clean out the cage completely, preferably use some prevent a mite or something and use new substrate. Put any logs and hides in the oven at a high temp for a bit to kill any mites on that. If you find even one mite, theres probably 50 and they are laying eggs on your snake or on the substrate, so you have to do this ASAP. let me know if this works and if you have any other questions.

[TRD]

yes Andy, I agree on the common sense thing, though it should be worth mentioning.

Well if it's a snake mite, you'll most definitely find them all over the snake. Other critters have little business crawling over the snake. Predatory mites are definitely a trouble-free solution, though they have limitations as well (short expiration date on the product is one major one).

[akane]

Harmless mites come in all colors so you want to look on the snake. I had to ask the same thing of the bioactive group given my soil has white mites, black mites, grey mites, red mites.... I have very mite filled soil including predatory mites which some species can survive on organic material without the population fully destroying itself but the commonly purchased predatory mites will eat each other to nonexistence when they run out of other mites and mite size critters to eat. They eliminate themselves when done with their job. Excessive soil mites will crawl on reptiles and can annoy them but will not "stick" and will be evenly distributed across the tank or the area with soil and plants if it just has a single planting. They don't bite or attach in any way but just happen to run on the snake because they are running on everything where snake mites concentrate on the snake and almost act like ticks. They get between the scales and swell with blood as they feed. It might be harder to see with a fresh shed since the mites on the snake now might not have fed well yet. Most non-parasitic mites will not get the tick like shape and expansion because they do not take in large blood meals and swell. They regularly chomp on organic matter or soil critters and grow to a sometimes visible size but fairly evenly without a large abdomen. Non-parasitic mites often run their course as they rapidly destroy any food source and die out or eat each other so it's a temporary annoyance. Some may survive on high organic substrate like mosses, coir, or lots of soft wood and will need killed just because you've got bugs annoyingly running everywhere otherwise and not because they are actually damaging anything.

[Tsubaki]

Also, try taking your snake out of his/her cage and putting some olive oil on it. Don't put enough so that the snake is soaking, just a bit..

This is risky, especially if the snake is in shed. Overdoing oils on a snakes scales could leave it unable to shed, shared a video about if before but can't seem to find it right now. About a boa who had multiple layers of shed skin due to oil being used to treat mites. I just woulndt risk it, predatory mites are always a safe option.

[Andy_G]

Please don't use oil on your snake.