How to battel buggersome mites on a budget...

[Morgan says]

Hey guys, hope everyone has been doing good. As of late I have had a string of unfortunate events laid out before me.
Monday i was informed that I was no longer employed at my place of work. ((Great awesome.....))
Then yesterday I got into a car accident which totaled my car.
So needless to say I dont really have the money at all to go out and buy extra NIX or any of the other mite treatment stuff. I have enough to feed him this week and get some new bedding to clean out his cage.
I heard olive oil was a possible treatment??

Another question too, he did not have mites when I first got them, then when we started treating our cat for eat mites is when I noticed that he sat in his water dish for the next two days.
Are cats ear mites the same kind of mites that snakes get???
Thanks for the help.
Morgan

[Lankyrob]

Sorry for you your troubles. DONT put oil on your snake it isnt recommended - there are a few threads on here about mites so a quick search will give best results.

I would be very surprised it cat ear mites are the same as snake mites.

[Morgan says]

Then how did he get them? Also what if they are not black mites? can that be possible?

[Lankyrob]

Snake mites ARE black and look like a full stop with legs - when you squeeze one you should see a blood smear. If it is anthing else then it is possible that they are living off the substrate rather than the snake and shouldnt harm him.

We regularly get little bugs or spiders in out bags of substrate (part of the problem with buying bark that is not chemically/pesticide treated i guess) - the main problem they cause is htat they tend to drown in the waterbowls so we have to scrub them more regulalryl!! They dont to my knowledge affect the reptiles in anyway.

[stephanbakir]

If they aren't reptile mites you have nothing to worry about.