My baby corn snake has mites, so I ordered some Hypoaspis mites that will eat them. However I read that these would not survive on certain beddings such as paper towel. I have aspen snake bedding in my vivarium. Would they survive in this?
2007-11-11 09:31:05 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pets ➔ Reptiles
Mites are an annoying problem especially depending on the type that happens to show up on your reptile. I've tried all different kinds of mite sprays (which don't seem to work well and get expensive). I never thought of getting more mites to get rid of the ones that are present (ewe). The most effective way to be rid of most types of mites is by diassembling the entire terrarium and washing with soap. Soak the snake in luke warm water in a covered container so it gets kinda humid inside for 30 minutes (check the snake every few mintues though to make sure he has enough air). At the end of the 30 minutes most types of mites (especially the white mites) are somewhat water logged and can be easily wiped away with a towel. Some types (red or black) I've had to pick them off with tweezers. It is better to just get them off before they begin to cause skin and scale irritation. Sorry i couldn't be more help with the cannibalistic mites. Good luck!
2007-11-11 10:16:28 · answer #1 · answered by Miranda W 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can get rid of the mites on your own instead of using other mites to do the dirty work.
If you have another tank on hand, set it up with paper towels as a substrate. Give your snake a luke warm bath in very shallow water to remove any mites that might be attached to her. Place her in the new enclosure with the paper towels.
Clean the other one with a mite treatment or other strong disinfectant and rinse thoroughly so there is no smell.
Don't replace the substrate with aspen, this is the reason why you got mites in the first place. You can use paper towels, shelf liner, or reptile carpet. If you use the repi-carpet, cleaning might be a bit more difficult, but no more mites!!
Good luck
2007-11-11 11:35:19 · answer #2 · answered by ms_lotr_freak 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
As someone mentioned above...it's scale rot. ..the person also mentioned how to take care of it as well, so I won't go into all that again. The viv humidity doesn't seem to be getting monitored as it should. It can happen with any bedding, not just aspen or else it wouldn't be as widely used as it is. They have to get a hygrometer/thermometer..they're sold at any chain pet store or you can order them online. Humidity and temperature is dependent on the kind of snake that is kept and what local it's kept in. Say you lived in New Mexico..you'd probably have to increase the humidity in the habitat by adding sphagnum moss &/or misting the vivarium occasionally, but if you lived in, say..Louisiana you'd probably have to take measures to make sure your viv isn't too humid. Regular cleaning of the cage is required to. Most people say a once a week scoop of feces and a once a month total cage clean-out is enough..generally that's right, but still there are exceptions, especially if scale rot is a risk. Taking the proper measures to assure that a person doesn't have to go thru illness with a pet is the best!
2016-05-29 06:08:21 · answer #3 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There was a discussion about using Hypoaspis on another snake forum. The poster had her corn in aspen and found the mites worked quite well. I guess that as long as they can burrow in it and it's not toxic to them then it's fine. The mites are known as soil breeders, you may want to put them on coconut mulch for the treatment to better your chances of success.
2007-11-11 12:23:10 · answer #4 · answered by Thea 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
they will only effectively work if they are supplied with a mixture of peatsoil and mulch to reproduce.they will hunt down and kill off the common snake mite and starve to death after the supply has run dry
2007-11-12 06:10:23 · answer #5 · answered by reptilekid1988 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋