Mites

[cristine]

I found mites on Hercules today. I feel like it is my fault somehow. What causes them? He is a Albino Burmese Pyton . What is the best way to get rid of the pain in the butts? :hammer:

[The Gawd]

Reptile Relief always works for me, clean the enclouser, and spray the enclouser and the snake, just let the snake run through your hand to make sure shes coverd compleatly, the repeat 2 weeks later, mites life cycle is 2 weeks, External source somhow, could have been you, could have been food, they could have just crawled there somehow....Super Pet Sells it.

AL

[cristine]

I gave him 2 baths with warm water. Quite alot of the buggers came off. Now I am going to use the medicine. A pet shop owner told me that sand is better for bedding than wood because some of the eggs from the bugs are in the bag when you bring it home. Any thoughts on the matter?

[gonesnakee]

No sand thats for sure, pet shop owner obviously doesn't know what he/she is talking about. Best bet is too strip the whole cage & throw out all the bedding & any other disposable items. Go with plain paper or paper towels for the next couple of months until you are 1000% positive your problems solved. Chances are your snake came with them when you bought it & it has finally become over run enough for you to notice. For every mite you see there are 100 that you don't. I would recomend the NIX treatment for snake mites. It not only kills the mites but their eggs. I would do this treatment weekly for 2-3 weeks at least to guarrantee they are wiped out. Treat any other snakes & their enclosures you have as well as they are all likely to be contaminated (pretty much a given). Run a search of this site & you will find info on the NIX treatment. Make sure to treat the whole cage & all its accessories as well. Probably should spray down the entire room the enclosure is in just to be safe. Adult mites can travel like 8 feet an hour so likely the whole area is contaminated with them & their eggs. While doing the treatment make sure the snakes water is changed daily as the residue from the Nix is not meant to be ingested. May choose not to even have water present at first but just offer it to the snake daily instead to prevent any ingestion of it. NIX BTW is available at any pharmacy & is actually a creme rinse for humans used to kill head lice & their eggs. For the snake mite treatment one bottle is mixed with a gallon of distilled water & then use it in a spray bottle. when spraying the snake make sure to soak it well & be sure to spray into its pits arond its face as thats mites favourite spot to hang out. The snake can drown them by soaking, but the ones in its pits always survive in the little air pockets in the pits & nose. In the future you may want to consider treating all new specimens as a preventative measure. Good Luck & make sure you get all the little suckers or you will going thru it all again in a few weeks time again. I don't know how many times I have heard people state "I think I have mites again" where it is more likely that they have always had them & just never got rid of them properly in the first place. If the snake is a new aquistion & your only one the source of the snake is almost guarranteed to also be the sourse of your mites. Mark
P.s. in reguarsd to little bugs in wood chips they are most likely wood mites & can do no harm to your snake. Snake mits will be attached to your snake (unless "full") & when squished thye smear red as they feed on your snakes blood.

[snakebeginner]

Both my baby burms have mites too. One snake has them worse then the other because I can see white crusty stuff around its eye. How can you get rid of those ones around its eyes? Can you spray your burms eyes with nix or would that be bad for the snake. also do how long should you soak your snake in nix for? I have owned over 53 snakes and never have encountered mites so im not to sure what exactly to do. Please answer back. Thanks

[gonesnakee]

You don't actually soak it, but soak it down. You can quickly submerge them in a solution (dip them) but soaking isn't recomended as they may drink it. Yes you can spray them directly in their face & eyes but avoid getting it in their mouths. Sometimes they will hold their mouth open & hiss as they can get very aggitated over being sprayed in their face, thus why some folks will do a dip treatment. The sound of the spray bottle gets them mad sometimes especially when you are holding them down & spraying them in their face LOL. If your Burms have them you can assume that all you other snakes do as well as they most likely do. I use the NIX treatment on all new aquisitions along with a quarrantine period to ensure that no mites ever enter my collection. It is not uncommon to NIX all my snakes after attending shows & sales as well just in case someone else brought you an unwanted present. Better safe than sorry when it comes to mites, especially if you have a large collection or own large Boids, especially aggressive ones. Mark

[gonesnakee]

Also around the eye & pit areas you can use mineral oil on a Qtip & gently swab the area removing all of the little parasites, the oil film makes it so they can't breathe & are dislodged. Mark