Oh My God Mites!

[Solid Snake]

damnit! i never thought it would happen to me but today my beautiful IJ carpet has mites!

i noticed it today when my IJ was in its water boal for 2 straight days. He just finished a shed and i was really curious so i went and fed him and he went into his hide. When i went to reach over to check his dish, small black things were in it. I thought he pooped but the water was too clean. I took one of those small black things and squished them and it kinda had brownish red stuff.

What do i do!!!????

[Bartman]

Im not 100 percent sure on that but theres omething you can buy called miteaway..try looking for that maybe..good luck!

[gonesnakee]

Run a search & look for Nix treatment for mites. You can assume that your whole room & all the animals in it are infested also. You have alot of cleaning in front of you. After this is over you will also seriously need to look at your quarantine steps & treatment of new animals to prevent getting them ever again. Mark I.

[Wildkingdom]

Nix is the best remedy I've found you can buy it over the counter at Walmart and most pharmacy's. It is a treatment for headlice so it kills the mite eggs 2. One bottle makes 4 liters of solution and if stored in a dark cool place will last up to a year.


Tim

[~Suntiger~]

I'd have to say Nix as well, the one time that a few of my babies had them it got rid of it like magic!

[lolaophidia]

If you're looking for an alternative to Nix, check out the VPI web site the war on mites. http://www.vpi.com/
After reading this site, I decided to go with Black Knight. Ordered it on-line and after the first treatment- no mites. Treated twice more just to be safe and still no mites. I now have a can that will hopefully last the rest of my reptile keeping career if I'm careful. It's more expensive that mixing up our own Nix solution, but I wanted something easy. The main thing to keep in mind is that you can't just treat the snake, you have to treat everything (cage, shelves, furniture in the room, carpet, you name it). Until you begin your chemical treatment you can soak the snake regularly to reduce irritation from the mite bites (and drown some of those little suckers!) and keep totally cleaning the cage daily to reduce the numbers in the cage.
Good luck!

[Bartman]

how big are mites..would you be able to tell right away? or just from sign the reptile is giving you?

[chas*e]

Get some Nix it works great ...and don't freak out ...mites are not that bad or dangerous to the health of your reptile...mostly a nuisance.

[BoidKeeper]

I've used both Nix and vapona. I'm 100% sold on nix. It's way too easy and much safer. Faster too. Take a 1L spray bottle squirt in about a loonie size amount of nix into the bottom of the bottle. Add warm water and shake.
Place the snake inside a rubbermaid and spray it down, face, vent every where. Let is swim in there for a while.
Truf every thing in the cage. Spray the cage and all around, under, on top, behind, everywhere. Put in some newspaper and plastic hide boxes. Place the snake back into the cage. Do not rinse off the nix. Keep the water bowl out for 24hrs too.
In 7 days repeate. If you have other snakes and cages just assum they are infested too and treat them all.
Good luck,
Trevor

[Solid Snake]

damn i have 3 other snakes

ok is this wat i do i get a water and put a loonie size full of nix and spray everything down?

stupid to ask but what about my snake? can i use nix on it, like wipe him down?

i have all my snakes in rubber maid and my Nile monitor wont co-operate... i need to buy a bigger one for him tommorrow.

i dont understand how i got them in the first place...

and yea i know how mites look like, i read a few care sheet. They look like black peppers

[BoidKeeper]

stupid to ask but what about my snake? can i use nix on it, like wipe him down?
The only stupid question is the unasked one. That's is exactly what you do. Spray the snake while it's inside an empty rubbermaid. No wiping or touching. Just make make sure you spray the vent area too.

i dont understand how i got them in the first place...

They are very easy to take home from pet shops. Also treat everything that comes into your collection as if it does have mites and you'll probably never get them again.
Cheers,
Trevor
i have all my snakes in rubber maid and my Nile monitor wont co-operate... i need to buy a bigger one for him tommorrow.

Snake mites are specific to snakes so as long as that's what you have don't worry about you monitor. Just spray in and around his cage to kill any eggs.

[gonesnakee]

Never use Nix in full strength, but diluted as mentioned above. Another main thing with Nix is that it will kill all your spiders, crickets etc. also so they must be removed from the area if you have any that is. Mark I.

[Lisa]

Personally I prefer provent a mite. works wonders, don't spray it on the snake, rather you spray it in the eclosure.

[Oliverian]

Is the nix solution all right to use in a room that has aquariums? I've never had a mite infection, but I want to know in case it happens in the future.
-TammyR

[Wildkingdom]

I'm assuming that your aquariums contain fish? I think it would be fine as long as you are not spryaing towards the tanks. I don't think the air born particles would do too much. I had two aquarium in my snake room and I got mites once and I didn't lose any fish etc...


Tim

[the_frog_man]

hey i have the same problem with my toads (i know there not the same) there's this thing thats metle call'd a bird guard wip the mites off your snake lizard ect. put it in a box and put the bird guard in the locked up cage overnight the bird guard will kill all the mites after demite them one time a month by misting olive oil all over them let it set for 10 minites and then get it all off

the frog kid owner of the biggest toads in toronto

[Zoe]

go to www.moreliaspilota.com ... step by step insturctions to get rid of mites with nix.

gl! mites suck!
Zoe

[JD@reptiles]

1. Clean cages really carefully

2. give the snake a bath in nix and water

3. put water dish in the dish washer (you can put 10 gallon tank or smaller in there too)

4. Bake branches in oven at 120F for 1 hour

5. spray whole cage set up once you set it up with nix-water solution.

6. and stay the he|| away from me :p

Good luck

Jordan

[Oliverian]

Yes, there are fish in the aquariums. Thanks, Zoe.
-TammyR

[maiden_canada]

THE PROPER WAY TO USE NIX IS ENCLOSED HERE:

dilute with one 50ml bottle to a gallon of water, spray the whole cage and all over the snake (yes including head, its just a soap so it won't hurt him, and they ahve protective eyecaps or whatever). spray the cage and him and the area around the cage once every 2 days for a week, then once every 5-7 days for the next month. after one spraying i doubt you'll see any more but just keep spraying, get it really good in the corners. don't soak him incase he drinks it cause it could be harmful. i did this exactly and ive never seen a mite since the first spraying

[Zoe]

Just thought I'd ad that you SHOULDNT!!!! spray the snake in the face - do it with your fingers. It's not the eyes that is the major concern (although eyecaps do absorb chemicals put on the eyes which isn't good), but the heat sensing pits. You don't want to be spraying nix into those. Spray the snake's body and do his head with your finger. Then rinse him well and let him soak in regular water for an hour or two - that will kill all mites.

Zoe