Oh no, mites!

[Bastiana]

I'm the proud new owner of 2 small corns. I've just about devoured every piece of literature I can find. My question now, though, is about mites.

This morning, after discovering that my snake had shed (yay!), I inspected him a little closer just to make sure the shed was complete (from what I can see, it was) but then I saw this little brown/black thing on it, and I'm assuming it was a mite. This, of course, happens right before I have to go to work :/ So, cleaning will have to happen once I get back home, less than ideal, but such is my life sometimes :P

I know I have to thouroughly clean out the tank, change the substrate (which I think I will change to CareFresh for this situation) and clean the hides, fake plants and water dish. Should i just use scalding water? Can I add a little bleach or soap if I rinse thouroughly? Also, I read somewhere that soaking the snakes in warm water helps with the infestation. Is this true?

I've looked for threads here that would give me the answers I need, but couldn't locate any. If I missed an obvious one, just let me know and I'll be on my way.

I just want the little guys to have no more mites!

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Tim_Cranwill]

I doubt one tiny little bug would be mites. Of course, it's in your best interest to watch carefully for the next few days, but don't over react just yet. If you had a mite infestation, there would be DOZENS around the cage, not just one. It would look like a bunch of pepper walking around the cage and on the snakes.

Can you describe the bug for us?

In the meantime, I would house the snakes on white paper towels. That way you will easily be able to see if there are more bugs.

[gonesnakee]

Run a search on "Nix treatment for snake mites" & that will give you lots of info on the little suckers & how to erradicate them if they are indeed present. As Tim suggested white papertowels for substrate is perfect to see whats really up & I would suggest it & quarrantine for any new specimens so you can monitor more closely, Mark
P.S. If you do find any little bugs squish them. If they squish red (like blood) they could very well be mites as if they were they would have full bellies (ie: blood) they could very well just be wood mites (harmless) or some other non parasite type creature too if you are lucky.

[Bastiana]

Thanks for the suggestions, paper towel is going to be the way to go for now.

It looked like a poppy seed that was moving around. Tiny.

I had someone look in on them and he said that he couldn't see anything in the tank, but he'd take the snakes out to look at them more closely.

Thanks guys!

~Lex

[joebagadohnut]

here is a site for you about mites
http://www.anapsid.org/mites.html

Don't freak out, you don't have to worry. If you see mites on the paper towel, on the snake's head, or in the water dish, then simply do a good treatment of NIX on the snake and environement as well as bleach all the hides and tank.

Soaking the snakes in water won't kill all the mites, it might only kill a few. and as long as there are a few, they can make more and more eggs, so you have to kill them all.

Is your snake eating still? soaking in the water more than normal?

Just keep an open eye, and don't worry.
Jeremy.

[sapphire_moon]

I am an impatient skimmer so please forgive me if someone has already posted this.

Put the snake on newspaper or preferably white paper towels so you can see if there are any mites.

If so before you do the whole chemical treatment with nix and such...I want to tell you what I did.

When my ball python was INFESTED with mites, I changed his substrate to newspaper, and gave him an olive oil "bath" once a day.

I put it AROUND his nose/heat pits, and over his eyes, and made sure it coated his body.

In about one week the mites were gone.

[Bastiana]

Well...

I've been watching the situation with the mites (that is indeed what they were, the peppery buggers) and have thouroughly cleaned the cage, hides, water dish etc as well as the snakes.

So far, so good

Haven't seen any in a few days.

But, as I understand it, mite eggs are hard to kill. So, in the meantime, I just keep checking and if I see more mites, back to the cleaning board!

Thanks so much for your ideas/links/experiences. They really helped :)

~Lex