how do i get rid of snake mites?

Question

my albino burmese python has gotten snake mites and i cant seam to get rid of them does anyone have any solutions please, as my local vet dosent seam to know either.

Answer 1

My beardie had mites when I got him (from a classified ad) and the guy at the pet store I deal with (not a corporate one either.) said to use Ivory bar soap. It is a really mild soap. It kills the mites and makes the beardie smell good! I was fortunate that my Ball Python did not get the mites as well but, the pet guy said I could do the same for the snake if I needed to. I usually soak them in the bathtub anyways but even now that the mites are gone I still use the soap on both every once and awhile! Also make sure to clean the cage very well. I bought a spray too but you have to be really careful with it. It works by dehydrating the mites and while you can spray it right onto the reptile I really don't like to. Good luck!

Answer 2

Simply eliminating mites from the cage is not sufficient, as they lay eggs away from the cage, and new mites will continue to return to the host. The trick is to make the host inhospitable. You do not need to apply anything directly to the snake. Most pet store remedies do not work very well. Here is what I have had success with; replace the substrate with newspaper, and sprinkle a small amount of Sevin dust under the newspaper. Sevin is an insecticide that is available at farm stores, and small quantities are harmless to snakes. Any mite that goes into the snake's cage will die before it can feed and reproduce. Clean the cage weekly, and replace the Sevin dust each time. You should be mite-free in about a month. If they come back, simply repeat the cycle. * I really don't know why this answer is getting thumbs down, but I have had 100% success with this method, as have several large breeders that I know.

Answer 3

An inexpensive, safe and fool proof way to get rid of snake mites. Remove the snake and its environment from any area where you may keep other snakes.
Place a quarter sized amount of vegetable oil (Olive, Canola etc.,) in the palm of your hands and rub hands together until totally covered (top and bottom) in the oil.
Next, remove the snake from the container and let it crawl through your hands, until completely covered in the oil as well. Be sure to get around the eyes too, mites like to hide out there.
You will see that the oil suffocates the mites and is %100 harmless to the snake. In severe cases, you may want to use another dose of oil immediately after first treatment.
Next step ~ after the snake is covered in the oil, place the snake in a clean container and set aside. Next clean the snakes tank and discard any substrate. Thoroughly clean any cage decore.
Keep the snake isolated for five days and re-treat the snake with the oil. This will kill any mites that have hatched from eggs within the five days.
Avoid the use of aerosals that can be inhaled and un-natural and costly chemicals. Good luck, follow these instructions and you will be free of mites. Thanks, Leo

Answer 4

By far the best product I have used is called Provent-a-mite. Search for it on-line and you will find it.

It is an aerosol that costs a bit more than other mite products, but I have used it on many snakes over the years with a 100% success rate.

It works - period. And with something as nasty as mites that says something.

Answer 5

until you get a something you can soak the snake in warm water and pick them off.

there is a product made by NATURAL CHEMISTRY. you can get it at your local pet store it is specificaly for mites. My son's boa had mites and this got rid of them right away. he now cleans the tank with a product called healthy habitat made by the same company, it has worked so far.

Good luck.

Answer 6

Mites are a drag, plain and simple. They are microscopically small in most of their growth states and are not nearly as easy to deal with as a flea infestation. With fleas, you can drop the dog or cat off at the groomer's for a flea bath, and go to a movie or something while the flea bomb you set off at home is doing its thing. A couple of hours later, you are flea-free. (At least, free until you or your dog or cat brings in more fleas from outside the home.

Generally speaking, the mite treatment products available at pet stores are ineffective. There is no easy way to get rid of mites. It requires a two-pronged attack: you must aggressively treat the environment as well as the reptile. You can treat the environment with toxic pesticides after removing the reptile to a safe area. While the environment is being fumigated, you can work on the reptile using less toxic means. If your reptiles are free roaming, treating the "environment" may be an overwhelming proposition but one that must be undertaken, and undertaken aggressively, nonetheless.

Attempts to treat the environment with herbal or homeopathic remedies will not work. Many people try to avoid the use of toxic chemicals in their lives (and I am one of them), but when it comes to ridding an environment of tenacious, hard-shelled pests who, in concentrations large enough, can kill your reptile, you must act quickly and aggressively.

Another problem with eradication attempts is that many people think that simply cleaning and disinfecting the enclosure/environment will eradicate the mites. It won't. It will get rid of the loose feces and may wash away many of the exposed mites. It will disinfect the bacteria left behind where the mites were squashed or defecated. It will likely not kill the nonfeeding morphs, larvae, and laying females hidden away in deep crevices.

The following methods have proven successful in ridding an environment and reptile of mites. Note that, due to the fact that unhatched mite eggs and mites in nonfeeding states will not be affected by most of the chemicals that will kill off the adults, you will have to repeat the treatment of the environment and reptile at least once, possibly twice, within a 2-6 week period.

Why Mites Are So Hard To Kill
The chemicals that will kill a mite will also kill the reptiles. The heat that it takes to kill a mite will also kill your reptile. Mites can be drowned, but if you are not careful, enough mites can just scurry up the reptile's and emerge from the water, hanging out around the eyes and nose (and heat pits and eye grooves of pythons and boas) until things settle down. Speaking of eyes and heat pits, mites can live their entire lives inside the tiny pits and grooves around a snake's eyes or in their heat pits, feeding and breeding and making more little mites to send off into the world. Other favorite places include the chin grooves of all snakes, in between the dorsal crests of lizards, and in the folds of soft skin around their armpits, necks and ears. While snakes can be fully submerged in water, and some lizards will voluntarily do so, lizards may have to have water poured heavily sprayed over their heads and necks to flush away the mites.

Another reason it is so hard to kill them is that they spend a lot of their non-feeding and reproduction time in tiny moist crevices, both on the reptile and in its enclosure. At any one time, you will have mites in several different life stages in your reptile's enclosure and on its body. The stages, and the time it takes to morph to the next stage at certain temperatures, are:

Life Stages / Morphs
Environmental Temperature

-86 F / 30 C
+68 F / 20 C

Egg
-28 hours
+98 hours

Larva (non-feeding)
-18 hours
+47 hours

Protonymph (feeding)
-3 days
+14 days

Deuteronymph (non-feeding)
-13 hours
+ 26 hours

Adult (feeding, mating)
-10 days
+32 days

Answer 7

go to the vet and ask for mite cream or some thing to get rid of sanke mites

Answer 8

Go to your local reptile store. Make sure they are knowledgable about reptiles. There is a powder you can sprinkle on them to get rid of the mites.

If you don't have one nearby, there are many online reptile suppliers that can help you.

Answer 9

get rid of the snake