Mites

[scalawag]

I have a friend I just talked to who just got a "rescue" GTP and it has mites. WIll the NIX solution work for the GTP and is it the best treatment??? Right now he has him in a snake bag inside an aquarium in a warm room, about 75f. I've also heard about pest strips in a deli cup--no water. Is that effective as well? Thanks

[emroul]

I use Black Knight for mites, and it has worked great for me ( but you must follow through with the cleaning and disinfecting of the area, as well). I have heard Nix works, but I have never used it.

You can get Black Knight off of www.ProExotics.com . :)

Jennifer

[Vengeance]

I used nix on my ball python, the surounding area, everything in his cage, the cage itself and it worked great. Only had to do one treatmeant. I also only have the one snake so they couldn't live anywhere else.

[scalawag]

Do you spray the snake down and put him back in the sprayed down cage without water until the next day. Then I guess everything is evaporated and you can put water back in? Repeat once a week??

[M_surinamensis]

With arboreals you need to be particularly careful about what type of mite treatment you use... They will drink droplets off of their own bodies, the sides of the enclosure and any perches/decorations... If these contain even residual amounts of your spray on mite treatment it's not going to have a positive result for the snake.

Personally I'd reccomend frequent soaks to help clear off any adults which may be actively feeding on the snake at the time of the soaking. A bit of TLC and some extremely careful work with a soft tipped set of fine tweezers can clear the labial pits, the chin groove and the small groove around the eyes... After that treat the enclosure. In the case of a GTP (or ATB or ETB or some carpets or arboreal hots or...) it's best to remove whatever substrate you may have been using lately and replace it with paper towels until the problem is cleared up. The paper towels can be treated prior to dropping them in the enclosure, this ensures that you haven't left Provent-A-Mite or Black Knight all over the walls of the tank.

Any porous enclosure fixtures need to be removed and very thoroughly cleaned.

The other thing which is important to understand is the life cycle of a reptile mite... There are the adults, which feed on the animal. There are eggs which can't be seen but are generally in the enclosure, close to the feeding adults... And there is a life stage in between these two where the mites will simply walk... They hatch and they become mobile, usually leaving the enclosure and ending up someplace in your house. Some will find their way back to the snake as adults and begin to feed and lay more eggs, others will simply die off. Because of this, there is a possibility for additional outbreaks, even if you haven't seen an adult mite in a week or two. Be ready to repreat the entire treatment and keep a very close eye on the GTP and any other reptiles you've got for at least a month after the last sighting of an adult mite. The quicker you can respond, the smaller the chance of more eggs being layed.

[scalawag]

So the nix solution is better than the pest strip in a deli cup solution?

[Vengeance]

Well from what M_surinamensis mentioned it doesn't sound like Nix is the best solution for a GTP because of the fact they will drink from the droplets of water on their body leafs of any other part of the enclousre. That was the one mistake I made when I was cleaning my ball of mites, I read you were supposed to soak them in the nix but if they ingest some of it, it can be harmful. Thankfully I didn't put more then 1/2 inch of nix solution in the bowl I soaked him in so the chance of ingesting some was much lower then if he was swimming in it. It was suggested that it would be best to cover your hands in the solution and let your snake run through your hands. I sprayed down and soaked the entire cage, also I used paper towels for about 2 weeks to make sure that they were gone and I took out all water sources for 24 hours to make sure he didn't soak and remove the solution. But if what M_surinamensis is true they could pop up again mabye a month from now so I'll just have to keep activly watching. But for sure throw away the substrate he is currently on. I also threw out the other substrate I was storeing for later use just to make sure that the mites did not originate from the substrate. But nix worked great so far for me on my ball python, but again if ingestion is a concern they mabye nix isn't the best way to go.

Here is the post I got all my information about Nix

http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=23844&highlight=Mite+treatment

hope this helps

[scalawag]

Any opinion on using the pest strips in a deli cup approach. I've used that on my balls before but is it effective on arboreals?

[M_surinamensis]

Personally I'd reccomend frequent soaks to help clear off any adults which may be actively feeding on the snake at the time of the soaking. A bit of TLC and some extremely careful work with a soft tipped set of fine tweezers can clear the labial pits, the chin groove and the small groove around the eyes... After that treat the enclosure. In the case of a GTP (or ATB or ETB or some carpets or arboreal hots or...) it's best to remove whatever substrate you may have been using lately and replace it with paper towels until the problem is cleared up. The paper towels can be treated prior to dropping them in the enclosure, this ensures that you haven't left Provent-A-Mite or Black Knight all over the walls of the tank.

Any porous enclosure fixtures need to be removed and very thoroughly cleaned.

The other thing which is important to understand is the life cycle of a reptile mite... There are the adults, which feed on the animal. There are eggs which can't be seen but are generally in the enclosure, close to the feeding adults... And there is a life stage in between these two where the mites will simply walk... They hatch and they become mobile, usually leaving the enclosure and ending up someplace in your house. Some will find their way back to the snake as adults and begin to feed and lay more eggs, others will simply die off. Because of this, there is a possibility for additional outbreaks, even if you haven't seen an adult mite in a week or two. Be ready to repreat the entire treatment and keep a very close eye on the GTP and any other reptiles you've got for at least a month after the last sighting of an adult mite. The quicker you can respond, the smaller the chance of more eggs being layed.

[scalawag]

Ok, I just saw my friend again and advised him that NIX would be bad for arbourials. I advised for the soaking in water and to put him on paper towels.
Right now he had started the pest strip in a deli cup approach because the first time I talked to him that was the only solution I had heard of. I had used that the one and only time I had a mite problem and it worked. He's had the deli cup in for 2 days now---no water.
I've learned here that soaking is probably the way to go, my question now is 1: is there a problem having used the pest strip for 2 days. and 2: for my general knowledge, is the pest strip an advisable way to go for any snakes??? Thanks