ahh, my snakes have mites?

Question

hi, ive been having some problems for the past couple days. My snakes have mites. I cleaned out my enclosure completely and washed and disinfected everything and put my snakes back in the enclosure with only consisting of papertowl substrate and a disposable hide spot and water dish. I have purchased this solution reptile relief, by natural chemistry.

If anybody has good ideas in getting rid of these things using the product above, I would greatly appreciate it. thanks.

Answer 1

spray the cage.. spray the animal .. two days later repeat... two days after that repeat.. and if you want to do it again two days later after that then feel free...

it takes about 48 hours for them to be born and then another 48 hours to reach sexual maturity.. so its a battle of geting the second batch before theve had time to reproduce..

Answer 2

While Reptile Relief is an excellent product, it is only killing the actual mites. It doesn't do anything for the mite eggs.

To get rid of mites, you have to break the mite life cycle. You have to get rid of not only the living mites that you can see, but also the mite eggs that you can not see.

The "official" answer is to use Provent-A-Mite {PAM} ($20 per can) and follow the directions exactly (do NOT apply this directly to your reptile). The more common answer is to use Equate Bedding Spray ($4 per can, sold at WalMart as a lice treatment...same active ingrediants as PAM). Here are the steps to follow:

Remove the snake from it's cage and soak it in warm water (luke warm, not hot!). Add a drop or two of Ivory dish soap to the water. This will break the surface tension of the water and more easily drown the mites. Make sure that the water is deep enough to come up to the snakes back, but not so deep that the snake has to actually swim.

While your snake is soaking, clean the cage COMPLETELY. Remove any cage furnishings and water bowls and sanatize these items (or replace with new). The cage should look brand new when you are finished cleaning. If you are using a home made wooden cage, this will be more difficult.

After cleaning, seal any vents and you want to spray the Equate (what I use) or PAM in the cage (give it a decent fogging, hard to say how long without knowing the size of the cage). The idea is to keep the "fog" inside the cage to treat the entire cage. DO NOT SPRAY WATER BOWLS WITH INSECTICIDES.

Let the cage sit, still sealed, from an hour or two to allow all the fumes to dissipate. The fumes are what will harm the snake and you should never, ever spray these products directly on your snake.

Once the cage is completely dried and no trace of fumes remain, you can then remove your snake from it's soaking tub. Use paper towels to dry your snake. You will notice alot of dead mites on the paper towel as you wipe the snake down. Return your snake to it's cage, but do not give it a water bowl for another 24 hours. Use newspaper or paper towels as a substrate until you are sure all mites are gone.

The PAM and Equate bedding sprays both have a residual effect that will kill any mites that come into contact with a treated surface for roughly 30 days. However, since you already have a mite infestation, you need to repeat this procedure in two weeks.

If you are looking for a product that you can spray directly onto the reptile, I would recommend Reptile Relief. I use this on every new snake that I aquire as I place the animal into quarantine. While not as effective as the stronger products I outlined above, it does kill mites (works in a different way and is safe to apply directly to the snake, providing you follow the directions on the bottle).

I hope this answers your question. As a point of reference, My husband and I are reptile breeders and dealers.We
have had to deal with mites on occasion when bringing in new animals. If you have several animals, you will need to treat every one of them as if they all have mites (even if you don't see any). Mites travel.

Answer 3

You are going to have to clean the cage every day until the mites are gone. If you keep having the problem check with your local vet that cares for reptiles.

Answer 4

I hate to declare it, yet snakes are not as sparkling as fairly some us pick to think of they're. It feels like husbandry isn't slicing it to that end. you could unquestionably purchase predatory mites to kill off the snake mites, besides as buying a cage medium that facilitates them to stay out their organic life cycle. examine herp furnish companies/puppy save for this. in the experience that your challenge persists, please circulate circulate on your vet to get some medicine for the challenge, and proceed to maintain up cleansing the cage.

Answer 5

I had the exact thing happen to me. Reptile relief can get rid of them but there are many steps. I can tell you how I got rid of mine. BTW, I am 13 so it's not that hard. my email is [e-mail] if you want me to tell you how to destroy the little a**holes

Answer 6

HAD THE PROBLEM WITH MY SNAKE USED TO PUT HIM IN TUB OF WARM WATER TO GET THEM OFF AND CLEAN CAGE THEN TREAT WITH MITE MEDS AND WIPES. GOOD LUCK YOU BETTER ACT FAST THEY CAN KILL UR SNAKE

Answer 7

ahhh u have snakes