Mite Advice!

[Artemis]

My husband, who is still pretending to hate the snake, but pays an awful lot of attention to it, came upstairs and informed me he saw a tiny spider-like bug thing running across our newly acquired balls head. I have had him since last thursday, and in all other ways he has been acclimating beautifully, very active and curious, spends a fair amount of time on both sides of the enclosure, etc.

I have been using just white paper towels as substrate, and havent noticed anything crawling around, or dead on the floor. Upon close inspection of the water dish, there were two little specks floating in it, which I guess could be mites. They were so teeny it was hard to tell, but they did appear to have little legs, and were reddish brown in color to me. Some things Ive read say they should look like little black poppy seeds, but I dunno. It also says that you will notice them in large numbers, but the 2 in the water dish plus the one hubby saw makes 3 potential mites.

Since my husband saw a teeny thing run across its head, im gonna assume i have mites. My question is, since he isnt totally infested, that I can tell, should I wait to treat him till after I try to feed him on Thursday, to avoid traumatizing him, or should I go ahead and treat him tommorrow, and wait an additional week to feed him. Im not sure when his last meal was, they couldnt get him to eat for me before I brought him home, but since the LPS know me, and I pitched a big fit, he is pretty much indefinitely guaranteed for me, so if he doesnt eat, they will take him back and replace him. They thought he would be better off here with me in terms of getting him to eat, than in the tank with his 4 siblings.

So, sorry to ramble, its my nature. And I like to give details, Treat tommorrow, or wait till thursday??


Thanks all!!

Artemis

[justinO]

if you SEE a mite, it means there's LOTS more you can't see!!!!!

NIX now, feed later!

Then nix again a week after feeding...... and you'll have to do the whole surounding area & all your other herps....

if you get another one there's a 99% chance it will have mites too.

[mykee]

They're like cockroaches, for every one you see, there are 100 hidden....on or in your snake. Do NOT WAIT until after you feed your snake. Chances are you purchased an import ball, which would explain the mites, and the no-eating before you got him (first sign not to have bought him BTW) Do a keyword search on Nix on this site, and you'll be swamped with posts on how to properly treat your snake for mites effectively and completely. Good luck.

[Artemis]

Yeah I dunno. they are supposed to be CB, and I do trust my supplier, but maybe they are getting screwed. Thanks for letting me know, should I still try to feed him on thursday as planned, or should I wait a week post nix to feed him?


Now he has been treated once, but I had to rinse him off and put him back in the his house (had to go back to work) and I can still see little black dots on his ventral side, so I think there are still some in there. Ill spray him again when I get home, just to be safe.

Artemis

[knads06]

THe NIX treatment worked great on mine as well and i was also told by my local reptile supplier that a 50/50 solution of Listerine and water will do the same thing for you. THe alcohol in the Listerine will kill everything on your snake and in its cage without harming the snake

[Andy_G]

I don't know about the listerine thing...stick with NIX and don't wait to treat the snake, treat it asap!! Wait a week or two for feeding him because chances are if he has mites he won't eat.

[Artemis]

Yeah- I nixed him and all his accoutrements earlier today. let them all sit for awhile, and rinsed them off and returned them all to the enclosure, which also got nixed, inside and out.

Ive read conflicting info on whether or not to rinse off the nix, but i didnt want to toxic him to death, so i rinsed off the bulk of it, and made an even weaker solution of it to mist the cage. Before I misted, I took him out and gave him a nice coat of olive oil, which i find to be excellent for the skin, and couldnt find anything that said it would be bad for him. I had read oil will also help get rid of the mites, and after spraying chemicals all over him, i thought it might be a good "after conditioner" for him.

Thanks for all your help, and to the people in chat earlier. Other than that he seems to be doing great, and now i just hope we can get past the feeding hurtle in a week or so!


Artemis