Mite question.

[hydrosaurus]

I recently found some mites on my frilled dragons.

I completely cleaned them. Unfortunatly ive never encountered mites at home, A friend sold me a boa, that had tons of mites on it and they travelled rather fast.
the frilleds are fine now, in a large rubbermaid container until i figure out what to do with their enclosure.
its made out of wood, the inside is treated and has glass for a surface and part of the side.
however its an old cage that was made by a friend about 6 years ago and i recently aquired it.
can the mites survive in little cracks?

There arent any crakcs on the inside, but the outside ridges have bumps and holes. is there anything i can treat it with? the cage looks great,, would suck to get rid of it.


my basement is my reptile area, should i hang a few vapona strips up for 12 hours??????
any help would be appriciated, either pm or post here. thanks

[hydrosaurus]

I also sprayed the cage with a bleach sollution and left it on the surface over night.

[SilverTongue]

Things to try is a product called Dr Flea Reptile Relief It is made by Natural Chemistry. It is safe to spray on the animals and in the enclosers. I wouldnt recomend leaving any food or water in there but otherwise it is compleatly safe (so I have been told) I havnt had a chance to use it yet cuz all my cridders mites are gone. Before I got this stuff I just used pest strips. There are a billion different ways to use this stuff. Some people say leave it on the cage for a week , but do not leave their water dish in there when you do this. Just make sure you soak them everyday. Basically a week on and a week off for a month. Other people say the water dish in there is fine if you just do 5 hours on and 5 hours off for a month also. So do what ever you think you are confertable with. I dont recomend Mite begone because if you do not follow the directions to the T then your animal WILL DIE.

Other non chemical ways are soaking the animal in oil and alsojust bathing them VERY OFTEN. The mites will dround. Hope some of this has been some help. But get more advise. I personally would not reliey on a vet for questions like mites because they like Drs get kickbacks for pushing products. Just rely on what people in these forums recomend, but use your best judgement.

[Linds]

Id recommend for a situation like that using (if you can get a hold of any) Black Knight. It will kill any invertabrates in the room that it is sprayed in, let alone anything that makes contact with it. It is safe to spray on you herps and enclosure (I'm pretty sure it would be ok for your dragons, but I'm not terribly familiar with its use on lizards). It actually was originally intended to be a bug spray for people. Mites are a pain when the object can be easily cleaned, but anything with cracks and holes is going to prove to be a real challenge. Mites can get in to any crevices and lay their eggs. I know its too late, but I would avoid using bleach on anything porous. It will be absorbed by the wood and all the harmful checmicals will take a long time to be released.

Other good mite products (again I'm not certain their safety for lizards) is Nix shampoo, but that wont take care of anything in the cracks..........

[Big Mike]

I would think that one could fill a spray bottle with water and Nix and spray it into the cracks of the wodden cage. That might work.

You might want to find a temporary home for your dragons and isolate the wooden enclosure from them and any other herps for a while. Treat the wood and enclosure with something (Nix, Black Knight etc). I'm no expert but I've been told that mites leave the host animal to lay eggs. In the cracks of the cage or in the substrate would be good spots for that. They can take a while to hatch (a few monthe I've been told). If you keep the cage (& the mite eggs) away from any food source (like your dragons) and treat it every so often with anti-mite stuff...you should be able to kill off the mites.

[hip]

whatever you do do not use ivermectin on lizzards it is ok for snakes but is a nerve toxin to most lizzard species mites are tough to get rid of some times just stay at it and you will prevail
nix or black night should do the trick quite nicely Hip

[Clint]

I had mites earlier this year. Cleaned the animal with olive oil on a cotton ball. Removed the animal from its cage, sprayed provent a mite on the substrate, let it dry according to directions. I also hung a no pest strip in my snake room. Mites run on a life cycle that completes in 13-19 days—at cooler temperatures some individuals may live up to 40 days. That's why I use the no pest strip one week in the room and one week out of the room. Good luck.
Clint

[lance]

can you get black knight over here in B.C.
great to hear if we can

[AstroZombie]

Could someone give proper directions/methods and dilution rate for using NIX to treat snake mites?

How long do you leave it on the snake, do you rinse it off?
Want to make sure I do this one right, new snake in quarantine room with mites, ugh, another cranky baby.

thanks,

Jenn