Crap. Are They Mites?

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

K i just got a wood cage(used to have a hedgehog in it) yesterday from my uncle. I bleached it out, put some new carpet in it, then i put all this clean stuff in it, set the temperature. I put her in this morning, and now(10:30pm) i go to pick her up and as soon as i pick her up thes little tiny bugs less than a millimeter in size start crawling around(about 5-10). I think they are mites, im dumping the carpet and everything in the cage, im gonna rebleach the cage thoroughly and then possibly put the blood back. Anyways i thought mite were under the scales of snakes not crawling around on them. So do you think these are mites? The hedgehog died in that cage and i got it so maybe they came from the hedgehog? Thanks.

Chris

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

Ok i just put her in a warm bath, she pooped, now i see like i think 10 more mites that have fallen off(5 already fell off) so i think she had big time mites. She hates the water. Anyways, ANY HELP ASAP IS APPRECIATED!!! THanks.

[foman]

Sounds like mites to me. the best thing to do is to browse the forms here, there are alot of threads about mites. Nix works well.

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

I see that they dont die in the water. They are still alive when i pick them up but i know they die with bleach so i put in some bleach. Anyways, i juts found out about them on her today, and i just got the cage yesterday some im gonna go through my basement and clean as much as i can.

[foman]

DON'T use bleach......that is crazy. Go to shoppers drug mart tommorrow and buy some nix, it's like 12 bucks a bottle(get the cream style and lather your hands and let the snake rub through your fingers for like a half hour,then rinse the snake under water.

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

ok i cant do that, the snake has a blood python attitude. The snake is not in the water. Should i just get the stuff you mix with the water? Then spray everything? Including the snake? Im gonna bleach out the enclosure again anyways. But yes i will get some nix tomorow. Alright thanks.

Chris

[Matt_K]

Mites are host specific, so i highly doubt they came from the hedgehog.. I would have to agree with you going and getting some nix as soon as possible.. There are a ton of threads on here about Nix, just click on search and type in Nix.. You should find some in no time.. if that doesnt work, try searching 'mites'

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

Thanks. I did. Well i strongly dout that the mites came from my blood since she has been in quarentine for about 36 days and in a whole other part of the house and i have been watching her closely and she has not shown any signs of mites till today then suddenly WAM all these mites. Anyways i will get some Nix tomorow.

[Tim_Cranwill]

I also doubt that the mites would have come for the hedgehog. Have you recently bought any new herps or bedding?

You have to dilute the Nix with water though. 1/64 worked for me. If you just rub the Nix on your hands and then rub the snake down, you'll probably kill the poor thing.

Like Matt said, there are a dozen great threads on the subject. You'll find all the answers you need there. Good luck. Mites suck!

[Matt_K]

Tim, i edited your post to say 'like Matt said'. LOL, the avatar prolly threw you off.. I think it's time to switch it :( haha

[Tim_Cranwill]

Well, maybe if you had a GI Joe or Transformers, heck, even a Smurfs avatar, mistakes like that wouldn't happen! :D

[asphyxia]

I think they are wood mites. Any new wood material in the enclosure?

What I would do is Get the NIX delute it with abiut 1/3 water put in a Spray bottle and spray woun the enclosure down

Good Luck
Brian

[tHeGiNo]

DON'T use bleach......that is crazy. Go to shoppers drug mart tommorrow and buy some nix, it's like 12 bucks a bottle(get the cream style and lather your hands and let the snake rub through your fingers for like a half hour,then rinse the snake under water.

Do not use undiluted nix. Put the whole bottle of nix into four liters of water, and spray down the snake on the enclosure. Make sure you remove the water bowl, so the snake doesn't soak and take off all of the solution. In addition, you risk her drinking the water after she sits in it. Also its not a good idea to use bleach on wood. Even diluted bleach - it stays in the pores of the wood for quite a while.

[Scales Zoo]

Originally posted by tHeGiNo
Do not use undiluted nix. Put the whole bottle of nix into four liters of water, and spray down the snake on the enclosure. Make sure you remove the water bowl, so the snake doesn't soak and take off all of the solution. In addition, you risk her drinking the water after she sits in it.

This is the method I use.

Since you won't be using the whole 4 litres (~1 gallon) of nix solution, you can store it in a cool dark place and it will last.

Stronger concentrations of nix can burn your snake, to be on the safe side we always mix 1 bottle of nix into 4 litres of water.

Also, spray down the whole enclosure with the nix mixture.

When we buy a snake, we put it in a rubbermade or aquarium with papertowel and nix everything. I then put papertowel over the snake, and spray that too. If there are mites on the snake, a close inspection of the papertowel after an hour will let you know.

I then repeat this process every week, for 3 weeks.

As regular maintenance and to make sure we never find mites sneaking back into our collection (people visiting the zoo could potentially bring them with them) - we spray everything, every 2 weeks. By doing this, we have not seen a mite on one of ours snakes for a very long time.

Ryan

[djc3674]

Go to shoppers drug mart tommorrow and buy some nix, it's like 12 bucks a bottle(get the cream style and lather your hands and let the snake rub through your fingers for like a half hour,then rinse the snake under water.

FOMAN..you really should do some research before giving people BAD advice. NIX is a pesticide used to kill head lice on humans. Rubbing this stuff (in its purest form) on a reptile would almost definately kill it. However, diluted correctly people swear by this stuff. I myself have not used it yet.

Perhaps, you can ask Invictus to post the URL that he has on using NIX. I read through it and it is very informative.

From the info that I have found on mites. They are an ectoparasite that feed mainly on snakes. Here is a pretty informative article on mites.

http://www.vpi.com/9VPITipsAndTechs/thewaragainstsnakemites/Mites-KnowTheEnemy.htm

[asphyxia]

Zoe's Website has what i believe to be some good info,
may as well check it out.

B

[Dark_Angel_25]

go to the pharmacy. buy the cream solution of NIX buy a 4L bottle of Distilled water. put all the cream into the water, shake to mix well. put some of that mixture into a spray bottle. store the rest in a cool dark place like under your sink or something.

remove everything from the tank, bake any wood stuff at 250 for 30 minutes. spray all 'furniture' for the tank, and the insides, outsides, and arounf the tank (within like 3 feet) withthe nix mixture. let it evaporate. your snake you can spray with the diluted mixture also. leave them in a rubbermaid or tupperware while the cage etc is treated. once the wood stuff is baked, spray that also. when all is dry, put paper towel in as substrate. replace everything except water dish. return the snake to enclosure. after 24 hours, you can replace the water dish in the tank (you don't want the snake to soak and then drink the water with nix in it that is why you wait 24 hours)
if there are any mites you will see them clearly on the paper towel. Repeat the whole preocess every week to 2 weeks. wait at least a month. If after a month, you have seen no mites, chances are you are safe and killed all the mites and the eggs. you can replace your tank as normal.
hope this helped. if you have other questions, you can MSN me or e-mail me at tracymayo22@hotmail.com

hope it works out for you!

[Matt_K]

Originally posted by Tim_Cranwill
Well, maybe if you had a GI Joe or Transformers, heck, even a Smurfs avatar, mistakes like that wouldn't happen! :D

LMFAO!!!!!

[HeatherK]

A very helpful article for Nix treatment is here (http://www.**************/TARAS/contents/nix.doc/)

NM.. Figured that wouldn't work ;)

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

Ok, I have some nix cream stuff. Is it always the same size? Well i have disposed of all the carpet and wood stuff in there. The plastic and ceramics have all been bleached out. Same with the cage and everything. The snake went in a rubbermaid(perfect size) with a water dish and carboard hide. Everything got bleached cause my dad wanted to do that. The enclosure was completely sprayed down with bleach too. Then watch everything, reapeat this process in a week, for three weeks? This is what i understand. Am i doing it right and does this sound good? Thanks.

Chris

Anyways, im going to mix the nix with some distilled water(1/4 of the nix to 1 litter, same as all the nix to four litters). I am going to take out the water dish, change the substrate to paper towel(from newspaper), and spray down the rubbermaid, snake, box, the new big cage that had the mites, everything around it, all decor, carpet around it, most of room around where the cage was sitting, leave all for 24h, go put the water dish back in the snakes cage,

[Grant vg]

just make sure anything that you cleaned with bleach is fully rinsed...especially water bowls.

i personally would nix the snake everyday for the first week if you want to be completely safe. just change the water daily.
Also, pay attention to vents and gaps leading into and out of the enclosure. you'll notice when using nix (depending on the severity of your situation) they will make a run for the vent holes but die before they get there :D

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

Alright, so what im going to do sounds good? Thanks.

Chris

[tHeGiNo]

It sounds good shy of the hide. Cardboard is not the best choice for humid environments, and tends to mold quickly.

[djc3674]

hmm??? not sure what kind of snake we are talking about here...but I use cardboard hides for my BCI's and I haven't had a problem with them getting moldy....not yet anyway. Usually they get soiled and I just throw them out before any onset of mold.

[HeatherK]

The mention of vent holes reminded me of a little trick you can use (this would be especially recommended if you have other snakes that can become infested). You can put some petroluem jelly AROUND the holes on the outside of the tank to keep the mites from exiting. When they try, they'll get stuck in the stuff and die. With only one snake I've never tried this personally, I sprayed around the tank with the Nix to catch escapees. It's harmless to carpeting, etc. They really are evil little things :P You'll probably also want to dispose any trash from the tank, out of the house.

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

When i went to spray last night(well 1am) i checked in the cardboard hide and it was crawling with them. There was a pile in each top corner and they were crawling around(about 30+/-) on the box on the inside. I saw about 10 on the snake(blood python). Anyways everything has been sprayed. You could almost say the whole room. Thanks for all your help!

Chris

[djc3674]

Throw away that cardboard hide.....as a matter of fact...BURN IT...lol..j/k....once there are no signs of mites...just get a new hide.

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

Yup, ive thrown the hide away, changed the substrate to paper towel and i cleaned out the container with my nix spray. I saw a WHOLE BUNCH of dead mites all over the newspaper. Anyways, when i was cleaning i looked really closely at a few of the mites. They have a bit of a shine on their back, greenish, blueish, and redish. I also saw a white V shape on their back. Also, i saw some little clumps(1mm x 1mm and less) of red balls(which i assum to be eggs). There were some in random parts of the rubbermaid and on the thermometer. I dont see any mites crawling on the snake anymore. There were two when i put her back in but i nixed them, lol. I plan on reapeating this cycle lightly every 3 days, for about 3 weeks, with one heavy cycle once(1) a week. Thanks for all your help.

Chris

[nolagurl]

I just got a hedgehog yesterday (drove 10 hours to pick it up!). Hedgehogs ARE prone to mites so that may be where your snake got them from.

I'm taking extra quarantine care to seperate my snakes and my hedgehog.

[Linds]

Originally posted by nolagurl
I just got a hedgehog yesterday (drove 10 hours to pick it up!). Hedgehogs ARE prone to mites so that may be where your snake got them from.


Hedgehogs can get mites, just like any animal, but they cannot get reptile mites. Reptile mites only affect reptiles, amphibians, and avians - not mammals. It really wouldn't matter to keep your hedgehogs in a seperate room from reptiles to avoid mites spreading, because it is an impossibility.

Originally posted by Scales Zoo
As regular maintenance and to make sure we never find mites sneaking back into our collection (people visiting the zoo could potentially bring them with them) - we spray everything, every 2 weeks. By doing this, we have not seen a mite on one of ours snakes for a very long time.


Although Nix is safe to use, it is still a pesticide. Doesn't it worry you to have your reptiles constantly exposed to it?