I Have Mites

[SnoopySnake]

I quarantined him, but since I didn't get him out much I missed the mites, and once I thought all was clear he had an infestation. Luckily my other snakes didn't get that bad at all so they were relatively easy to get rid of. I have chemicals but I really think the combination of the NIX and the no pest strips did the job. I also gave them baths with a couple drops of original dawn dish soap, the amount of mites that came off this white lip after that was ridiculous. There were hundreds. On the plus side, I'm now going to be much more safe about new additions and going to expos, pet shops, ect.

[Nightflight99]

Its easy to miss mites on a new snakes, especially if the snake has a color pattern that easily conceals them. Another common problem is the fact that while there may not be any adult mites on the snake upon arrival, it may contain eggs. This is one of the reasons why every snake (with very few exceptions) that enters my collection is quarantined for six weeks, during which they live on newspaper or paper towels which have been treated with 0.50% permethrin. There are a few select species that don't seem to tolerate permethrin well (Heterodon, for example), but the vast majority of them respond well to the treatment.

The good news is that once you've had to deal with an infestation, you tend to develop a level of paranoia that makes it much less likely that you will make that same mistake again...

[Andy_G]

I've heard the following sayings quite often;

1. For every mite you see, there's 10 you don't.
2. If you've never encountered mites, you probably haven't been keeping for too long.

They are easy to miss for the reasons already mentioned by others, but equally as easy to wipe out as long as proper quarantine procedures are put in place. Congrats to the OP for getting rid of the little buggers!