Moth Balls

[greenman1867]

I had read that moth balls will kill mites. And it was a good Idea to put a moth ball in my vacuum bag while I was cleaning up. Will they also kill the eggs? My thermometer/humidity gauge has places a mite could crawl that I could never each, and I can't exactly soak it in beach or another liquid mite killer. So I put it in a zip loc bag with a moth ball for the past few days. Will this be sufficient or do I need to cut my loses and just buy another one?
I know about the pest strips, but it seems they are sold out of everywhere I have looked so far.

Thanks

[HeatherRose]

If you can't soak the temp/humidity gauge, move it to a completely different section of the house for a few weeks. Mites can't live without a host, right?

I'd be wary of using moth balls, they're toxic and smell like the girls' washroom anyway. You couldn't be certain they'd kill eggs.

Why not just use something proven like Nix? It kills the eggs too..

[BOAS_N_PYTHONS]

GREENMAN:

To kill mites - NIX - is the only way that is super easy, its a lice shampoo for human hair but mixed with a gallon jug of distilled water (only) and you got a mixture for a war on mites like nothing else. There are other products but not always available to everyone and NIX is.

The moth ball idea is rather extreme and can cause problems. I use a modified version of this process. My whole collection of boids is on 1 level of the house and other than the office the snake rooms are all on vinyl flooring. But office and upstairs is carpet. I place 1 - 2 moth balls in the vacuum and do house cleaning in that fashion. Any bugs or mites that would get sucked up have no chance to survive. Yeah like Heather said it does smell a bit but it depends how long it takes to vacuum and the air usually clears in a few minutes. I would not use this near snakes though but a carpet area is a nice hiding spot and they can' t even try with this system, :D

Isolate the snake in a rubbermaid tub with a clean water dish and paper towel substrate for a few days and heavy treat its original cage and all decorations and so on. Spray everything heavy and let dry then reapply and let dry. Next day wash down with soapy water and rinse and let dry. If the thermometer/humidity gauge is a factor put in a bag that was sprayed as well and seal bag for a few days. If you do not see mites on your snake in the isolation then maybe its safe, but I would spray the snake with NIX took, but there can' t be a water dish in the new cage during this process. After 3 days if no signs of these pests then put everytrhing back in old cage.

This is the short version of this treatment but if you need to know more or see mites then email me.

Tony Pharosx

[greenman1867]

Ahh, I just needed to make sure the insides of the thermometer didn't have any nasties. So I put it in a zip loc bag with a moth ball for the past week. I guess I will let you know if it worked. The snakes are fine, I just wanted to avoid a repeat. :)

Heatherrose, good point though, it does smell like a wash room. I don't know about the girls, but the mens smells like that too.

[Linds]

Black Knight is great for getting in to nooks and crannies in cages, etc. Unlike Nix it doesn't need to make direct contact with everything in order to kill, and although it is an aerosol and the fumes will be present for a short while after each spray, it still doesn't kill by vapour like pest strips do. You won't want to use it in the same room as any invertebrates. I always open my windows in my room when I use it as well. I just spray the cage, close it and let the stuff do it's work, then allow it to air out for quite a while :)

[peterm15]

Heatherrose, good point though, it does smell like a wash room. I don't know about the girls, but the mens smells like that too.

holy.. if a guys washroom smelt like mothballs it would be heaven.. they usually smell alot worse than that...

[greenman1867]

LOL true true