Mites....

[Snakegirl2017]

We have had Tesla since January 13...he had no sign of mites when we bought him or after...until two days ago. We found ONE little black bug on my daughters hand. Killed it. Still wasn’t certain it was a mite because after a very thorough inspection we didn’t see anything else that might raise a red flag. Well...today after he completed his first shed with us “YAY!”...we noticed teensy tiny moving specks on his shed as we were unrolling it to show off...so off the get mite spray I go. After two weeks these jokers are just now appearing...I have read the pinned article and feel confident we know how to get rid of them at this point but I am a little disturbed that they have been “invisible” up until this point. Did they come on him or something that we bought that same day...I guess we will never know...

Gave him a through look over after checking out his shed and still not a black dot anywhere...🤔

Needless to say the shed went outside in a bag to the garbage.☹️

[DJC Reptiles]

Its a good thing you don't have any other snakes. I recommend keeping everything completely sterile, use a small cardboard box as a hide and use paper towels as bedding. Try leaving him in some shallow water to drown some of them. There is a recent thread showing how to deal with mites, so I recommend checking that out.

[Snakegirl2017]

We bought mite spray and treated the entire habitat and Tesla as well. Until we know he is mite free he has a clear water dish and two plastic clear/white hides. We will retreat the habitat tomorrow. We took a paper towel sprayed with the mite spray and rubbed it down his neck/belly/tail but there was not ONE black dot of anything anywhere on the paper towel. We rinsed him gently with lukewarm water and put him back in his barren habitat. Poor guy...he is looking around like "what the heck...where's my stuff".

[DJC Reptiles]

What kind of mite spray do you use? I want to caution you people have had there animals die to certain types.

[Snakegirl2017]

We bought Natural Chemistry reptile spray.

[DJC Reptiles]

We bought Natural Chemistry reptile spray.

I haven't heard anything bad about that, I hope your able to get your snake mite-free soon.

[craigafrechette]

Good luck!! You have to make sure you are killing the actual mites as well as any egss.

It's possible you didn't see any mites because only eggs came home with you. So, make sure you are overly thorough. You don't want them just reappearing in a few weeks because you didn't get the eggs.

[Snakegirl2017]

We will keep treating for a while...just to catch any eggs that may be hatching soon...I have been trying to read up on exactly how long we have to worry about eggs (if we are not finding adults anywhere) and as usual the info in varied and confusing. Grrrr....

Ordering PAM today, but using Natural Chemistry in the mean time.