help mites!!

[MorbidMindset]

ok this is the first time since i have gotten my snake that we have noticed mites crawling on it. we know that mites are pretty common with a new snake and we were wondering what we can do about them since i dont get paid til next tuesday and we are broke! i prob. wont be able to go to the store til wed. but we are gonna take him to the vet on wed. anyway to check for parasites and get some mite medicine. is there a home remedy that we can use in the mean time to help dremora with the mites? any comments would be apprecated very much! thanks in advance!:hmm:

[gonesnakee]

First off find a new petstore for stuff that you actually have to buy from a petstore. Don't continue to support one that sells parasite infected pets. This is NOT a "common" thing, it is becoming more common because people keep supporting (buying from) these substandard stores that sell sick, infested creatures, OK thats the rant now the solution. Visit ANY pharmacy & ask for NIX. NIX is a creme type shampoo that is used in the treatment of snake mites, its "real" purpose is for use in humans treating head lice. I'll provide a link for its proper use. All is reuired is a 2 ounce bottle of NIX (thats the way it comes, its in a blue & white package & runs around $12 up here in Canada), a new spray bottle ($1 at any dollar type store, "Loonie" store in Canada) & water. Distilled water (again cheap) is the best as it gives the mixture a longer "shelf life", but I have used tap water more often than not. Not that I have mites here, but I do use NIX as part of a preventative quarantine for new aquisitions. Anyhow the link, Mark
http://www.albertareptilesociety.org/caresheets/nix.pdf the first time I went it said the file was damaged & would not come up, but I "refreshed" the page & it worked right away.

[gonesnakee]

Also I should mention that even though snake mites are host specific there are other types of mites that can & will infect other reptiles as well as snakes. Most mites are host specific, but there are lots of types of the lil parasites. Also I'll mention wood mites, these will come in shavings & are harmless to the snake. Snake or reptile mites appear as tiny lil ticks & are red or black in color & if you look closely they can be seen sucking/feeding on the animals. When you squish them they squish red as they have blood in them from feeding off your pet. When treating them its all about clean, clean, clean to make sure they as well as all their eggs are destroyed. Good Luck & welcome to part of the hobby we don't want to be invloved with, but have to deal with anyway, Mark

[MorbidMindset]

ok i was told to use oil. the vet has something for snake mites but said i could give dremora a thin coating of oil everytime we handle her. right now shes got her eyes capped and is ready to shed. we did get her oiled once today but was told not to handle her until its done shedding all the way and not to feed it til its done its shed. i dont have nix..i know its used for treating headlice in children but i do have some generic brand head lice stuff from walmart.will that work? kyle gets paid on tuesday late afternoon so wont be able to buy anything til at least wed. dremora only has a light case of mites its not infested ...yet. i cleaned the cage out and i have its branch in the tub submerged with a brick for the next 24 hours til i put it back in the tank. i keep newspaper in the tank and i threw out the moss i had in the hide and will replace it after we get rid of the mites. i have a mister bottle but i use it for water..if i use it for the lice stuff and clean the bottle out by rinsing it really well in hot hot water can i use the bottle for water again? or do i need ot buy another diff. bottle for the nix stuff?

number 2. the petshop did not tell me that mites are a common thing...the book we got on ball pythons said that mites are a pretty common thing..usually in wild caught but sometimes in captive bred if the breeders dont take precautions before they sell the snakes to the shop. the shop said all they get are captive bred. so far the advice that they have given to me works for dremora. i usually double and triple check what they say before i follow any advice..even from here cause i am wanting to make very sure i am not gonna hurt our new baby. i will read the care sheet but i will also ask the vet about it before i use the treatment. with dremora getting ready to shed i cannot treat it anyway til its done with the shed anyway cause we know not to handle dremora while shedding since she cant see us so we dont get bit and she dont get stressed. did i miss anything here in my reply?

[gonesnakee]

Do NOT use oil. A vet really told you this? Obviously not a Reptile Vet. Go on any major reptile/snake site or email any breeder & see what they have to say about using oil. I personally have been keeping/breeding snakes for going on 10 years & have literally kept 1,000s of snakes & the folks that recomend NIX on the caresheet (read the bottom part) have far more experience than I. The Walmart generic brand is likely the exact same thing. It should list the active ingredient. I don't have a bottle handy but it is peremethine (sp?) or something like that. It is the same active ingredient as in the reptile specific product called Provent A Mite. For every mite you see there are hundreds you don't see, the young ones are almost invisable to the naked eye. For every one you do see there is likely 100+ eggs that go with it as well. The snake came with mites & they were not noticable until they bred enough to be noticed. Eggs are not just going to be in the snakes tank but in the room around it, whereever the mites have travelled to. They usually don't stray too far from the host though (food) but an adult mite can travel like 8ft an hour or something. Sit & watch one for 5 minutes & see how far it goes. Scrap the oil completely & until a PROPER product is obtained/used go with short baths. NOT luke warm (luke warm is like over 100F we are like 98 F remember anything warm to the touch is too hot, slightly cool to the touch). Drown the lil suckers off & a bath right after the shed along with a full cage "gut" will eliminate most of them without the use of any product. Make sure to get a product to kill them all though or they will always be there whether you see them or not. As for the oil because it is a BP & has heat sensing pits (mites favourite hiding spots along with the nostrils) you can use mineral oil in & around the pits to suffocate the lil buggers as NIX doesn't always get those ones & snakes don't like being sprayed in the face much either. Thus why the vet likely came up with an oil solution whcih will only kill ones on the snake & its not nessicarily very good for the snake. Also Vapona strips can be used. An open Vapona in the room over night a couple times will kill them too, prolonged exposure to it is bad for the snake & you though. Vapona likely will not kill eggs though. DO NOT put it in the tank or anywhere in direct contact with the snake, the fumes from it do the killing. This will take care of the "wandering" ones if there were any, rather than spraying done the whole house around the cage. Mites are common in the wild & the snakes get them there now & again, but get rid of them as well its as easy as a shed & a swim. In captivity they cannot get away from them & become more & more infested. Any & all petstore stock should be inspected & treated accorddingly prior any sale of such stock. One infected snake will infect the whole store in less than a day. Anything that the orginal host had germ/disease wise can also be spread to other snakes via the mites too, they are blood sucking parasites afterall. The mites probably came to the store with some WC or farmed stock or came in from the wholesaler that had such stock there despite your snake being captive bred or from a shady breeder. Pretty good chance it was farmed anyway I'm thinking, not that it matters now. Farmed is when they catch gravid females in Africa & wait until they lay the eggs, they take them, incubate them & send the babies overseas in crates of like 1,000 per crate. 100s of 1000s leave Africa every year this way. Anyhow some more insight, Mark

[MorbidMindset]

well thanks for the advice i will do what it says but i have to wait til after the shed to do it. the pet shop used some kind of mite stuff on it today but said not to treat it again til after the shed and not to hold it again til after the shed. so i figure i will do the nix thing when done shedding and put it in a rubbermaid container i have while i clean out the tank and disinfect it. right now the tank is on an endtable next to a love seat and actually touches teh end of the love seat..so if they travel like you say..i am not sure how to disenfect the furniture so it dont get reinfected. other than that dremora seems healthy..she eats well and has very clear eyes and seems like its strong other than the mites i dont think it has any parasites or after 3 weeks it would show as a sick snake. or am i wrong?

oh btw..this is not morbid...this is morbids mom..i do most of the posting on here and pass the info along to my son..its his snake. he works so much he dont have time to do the forum thing too much but i am disabled and so i dont work and i am online alot. so most of the time you see morbid posting it is me..morbid or kyle is not as knowledgeable as i am becoming and you can tell from his posts most of the time. i try my best to keep him informed and even threatened him with keeping the snake myself if he didnt start seriously taking his part in caring for the snake. i LIKE snakes even as a child and always wanted one but never could afford one myself. i am not adverse to reading manuals and asking questions and sad to say kyle is. he hates reading and he hates forums. so only time will tell if i will let him keep the snake or keep it for myself...it all depends on weather i am the main caregiver or if he will take over and do his part or not. either way..dremora will be well taken care of. I will make sure of that. so if i sound noob..sorry but i am..but i am not adverse to learning so i am not noob anymore...lol.

[gonesnakee]

Other external parasites would be ticks which are very noticeable, same as the ticks that would get after us. Ticks are a sure sign of being WC captive bred snakes don't get them. Well unless they are in your house LOL If the product was Prevent A Mite it does the same as NIX as the ingredients the same. Another product I haven't used but have heard of others using so successful is called Reptile Relief. Right after its sheds will be the perfect time for cleaning & treatment yep. when the snake sheds its skin all the mites that are currently feeding on it come off with the skin, except maybe some in the nose & pit areas as I mentioned before. As for internal parasites the snake would likely start to look thin & dehydrated. Possibly regurge meals or have runny stools etc. These are not that likely the most common parasites are good ole mites, some folks THINK having mites is part of keeping snakes & always have them in their collections this is NOT right. Depending on what the furniture is it can be misted with the NIX spray, but it leaves behind a residue. Thats why I mentioned the Vapona blocks/strips. They work good for killing them too. Not something you want to have around all the time though, some keepers do keep Vapona 24/7/365 in their snake rooms etc. but prolonged exposure to the chemical in it is not recommended. It is meant to eradicate them, not to have around all the time. Anyhow with only the one snake & going about it right the first time to get rid of them, you should never have to worry about them again. Remember for any new future snakes to inspect closely, quarrantine & even do a preventative treatment anyway as it never hurts. Mites in a large collection or in the case of large Boids (Boas & Pythons) is a major hassle. I hate the lil buggers thats why I go out of my way to help folks kill them. If everyone went about things properly they would not be considered by some a common ailmnet of captive snakes. With the right prevention & treatment there is no reason for them to exist at all in captive specimens. Mark

[MorbidMindset]

ok thats what i thought too about right after the shed being teh best time to do the mite care but what is vapona..i have never heard of it and where would i get some..does it smell bad cause teh snake is in our living room and i dont want it to stink but i DO want to kill the mites so they dont come back!!

[gonesnakee]

Vapona is found in the pesticide area of the stores such as WM etc. In the old days they were called "fly strips" but now they come in "blocks". They do have an odor to them as thats what does the killing is the fumes. Like I said one of these overnight a couple times in the room in the general area of the cage NOT in the cage. You can take it & store it in a ziplock when not in use so it stays "fresh" longer & the fumes are contained when not in use. Its basically a white plastic holder thing that has a yellow block of "poison" in it. Put it out before bed & in the plastic bag in the am. You can use it in your basement to kill spiders etc. as well or in a garage or shed or whatever. Some folks hang them in their windows etc. to keep down flys in summer too. The fumes basically kill any bugs. If you have any spiders, crickets etc. you have as pets or pet food, don't use Vapona around them its fatal to them. Also should not be used around any Amphibians & I wouldn't have them around any birds or fish tanks or in the kitchen when preparig food. Wash hands after handling it as well. Its not stuff that will kill you overnight or anything but is one of those things that prolonged exposure over time is bad for you. Basically read the label & follow instructions & you are fine. They are not the long sticker fly paper type stuff anyway, but the new "block" type. Its a petty popular brand name anyway. Its fumes will work on the entire room & no spraying or leftover residues. Like I siad good to kill off any mites they may have wandered out of the tank area. Having only the one snake most of the mites are probably right there by the "food". Mark

[scotty99]

Mites are terrible little things. My BP and corn got them. I used zoo med "mite off" easier to use than frontline, nix etc. spray all the enclosure and snakes body(upto the head)

I placed him in a tub with paper towels on the bottom sprayed with mite off so it would get the little buggers that thought they could hide under the scales. One treatment worked for Patrick the BP, and 2 were needed for the corn.

Mites usually come in on the substrate, break the cycle by using newspaper as the sub. If you want to go back to other subs like aspen etc, put it in the freezer for a day before you use it, as it should kill off any eggs and potential nastys.

#1 Reptile Products Worldwide -- Welcome to Zoo Med (http://www.zoomed.com)

[gonesnakee]

Mites only come in substrate if the place you buy it from is heavily infested ;) Mites are usually transferred from one host to another directly, they have no interest in a wood product. The mites that come in shavings are wood mites & have no interest in your snakes. Unless of course they had snake or reptile mites lay eggs or crawl into them at the petstore. In the case of the BP & the Corn above one or the other (or both) likely came with them when purchased. Mites favourite location on a snake is its head too BTW & in the case of Boids they love their pits & nostrils. I would recommend at leat 2-3 treatments reguardless of thinking they are gone as chances are they are not & will reappear over time. Not that they would reappear but they would get to the point where you would notice them again. I'd say in the case of the BP & the Corn they came with the BP in its pits. All it takes is 1 gravid female. Also freezing the substrate will not nessicarily kill any eggs either as an insect they adapt to such things & can lay dormant until warmed up again. Mark

[scotty99]

The substrate came from a specialist reptile store and there's a good chance that there were mite eggs in there,because i went back there the other week and the green tree python and albino BP both had mites in there. so i think they came in on the bedding and they were definitely snake mites and not wood mites etc, as some were engorged with blood. I have not risked using the bedding again, and after you have said gonesnakee that freezing may not get rid of the little critters, i will stick to newspaper for now.Cheers

Anyways not had any mites since! thank god


Regards Scott

[gonesnakee]

Over here we have UFA or United Farmers Assoc or whatever it is. Basically a farmers/ranchers type store. They have bedding there & you don't have to worry about snake mites from them. Maybe you have something like it there?Mark