return of the mites.

[lostwithin]

Hey everyone, this is just an update on my battle against mites, months ago one of the snakes I had brought into my collection had mites, and they spread too everything as they are known too do. Well I used the nix treatment and thought I had them beat so I forgot about them and they popped up again a while back, again I treated them and forgot about it. I recently moved and while doing so I noticed a mite on my albino burm, im glad I did since I had just set up all the cages they were clean I removed all water bowls and soaked the cages snakes and all, then I misted the rest of the room, there are no signs of mites anywhere except with the albino burm so hopefully this time I have then beat.
Wish me luck.

Devon

[marisa]

You can't forget about them. I treat any snake I need too once when it gets here....then all over again a week later....If I see mites or not see mites, I still treat them twice. :)

Marisa

[lostwithin]

I have never had a problem before so I would only treat sometimes with new animals, but now I will be treating new arrivals VERY strictly

Devon

[BoidKeeper]

if you miss one egg it starts all over again. You have to treat them and then two weeks later treat everything all over again.
Seems like mites are going around NB, I'm going to lock my doors!
Cheers,
Trevor

[marisa]

Yeah it's just easier to nip the problems in the bud BEFORE they arise, rather than try to battle them later on.

I have started the habit of treating mostly anything for mites when it comes here, and then it lives in a seperate area of my house for a few months until everything looks good. then it moves into the reptile room. Mite treatment happens during that time, and normally starting on the first day here.

That's what I do so far. Everyone could do MORE to keep the rest of their stuff safe, but so far that has worked out well for me.

Marisa

[lostwithin]

I think I have them beat this time, I just set there cages up so they probably didn’t have time too move into other areas of the room but I treated the whole room any way. I do have a question though, I use towels as a substrate (bath towels) and I don’t know how too treat them, If I run them through the wash will that kill the mites?? Right now I have put them into a garbage bag and poured a few liters of nix solution over top of them and tied the bag (making sure no mites make it out of there) if I leave them in there all night then run them through the washer tomorrow will that leave them mite free??

Devon

[marisa]

Personally, I would use nothing but paper towel until you are SURE the mites are gone. This way you can 100% replace the paper towel often, and it's easier to see mites on the white.

I am not sure about washing or how often you would have to do it with normal bath/hand towels.

Marisa

[Jeff_Favelle]

I agree with Marisa 100%.

[HeatherK]

As Trevor mentioned, it's best with mites to go a little overboard with the treatment, meaning keep it up for a while with the nix even after you think the mites are gone.

I imagine with the towels, what you're doing is okay, seeing as not everything in the tank is thrown out regularly (just sprayed). Although paper towels are definately the way to go with mites. If I were you, I would keep those bath towels somewhere else for now. The nix may not have reached every part of them and I'd bet mites can hide easily within the fibres. It's much easier on you just to replace paper towels rather than death with real ones when you need to re-treat.

[Shad0w]

Ya know what I used for mites?
WORKED like a charm too.. there are predatory mites that feed on nothing but other mites...

I got the idea while attending a UofT Bio lab discussing the problem with one of my prof's

So i ordered the needed predatory mites from a lab.. and sure enough.. I never had a problem again... Once the snake mites were all gone.. the predatory mites just died off due to starvation...

I just hate stressing my animals out with chemicals and this was a beautiful non invasive way of taking care of the problem.

[Shad0w]

Actually.. here are some links to other people that did the same thing:

http://coloherp.org/cb-news/Vol-28/cbn-0101/SnakeMites.html

The predatory mites even eat snake mite eggs...
Hypoaspis mites are a good species to use...

http://www.geocities.com/thearkfiles/mites3.html

[lostwithin]

Wow, predatory mites I have never even thought of that before. That would be an amazing treatment.

Devon

[Shad0w]

:) Let us know how they work out for u if you try them... I know they worked wonders for me :)

[lostwithin]

Hi , I just finished the nix treatment, If this does not work I will be talking too a few profs at UNB too see how hard it would be too get some in.

Devon

[Shad0w]

U can also order them from a number of websites :)