I'm hoping someone can help here. I fed all of my snakes last night. This morning I noticed one did not eat and I removed the dead fuzzy. Under it to my surprise I found a couple of mites. Never experienced a mite infestation with reptiles. I have seen them in my invertabrate collection and treated them with Hypoaspis miles. Oddly I have not noticed any mites on my snakes. Not sure if these were snake mites or something else. Could be they might be after water as I noticed some in the water bowl itself. Any information or experience would be appreciated.
Mite question
- Thread starter arrowhd
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im not good with these tiny guys advice wise but in the past when I had em, I had them because it was TOO humid in my snake's enclosure.
How humid is your tank?
How often do you mist if at all?
Do you by chance have a picture of it/them?
Humidity is fairly low for all of my snakes. I have corn and kingsnakes.
I do not mist any of my snakes.
These guys are very small and clear/yellowish in color. I doubt my camera will be able to get a good photo of them. Will give it a try later tonight.
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What kind of substrate do you use?
they may have came in with the BARK if you use that.
Sometimes if its really hot in the tank and they dont have access to water that might be a way to kill them off them.
also if you have bark try taking it out and using newspapers until you can be sure they are completely gone.
This might not work but its advice.
Have you googled this at all?
Aspen. Been using it for years.
I suppose this is possible but never noticed it before.
Removing water might slow them down. However in my tarantula enclosures this has reduced the number of mites but not eliminated them. What I'm trying to determine is if these are the same type of mites or something different all together such as snake mites.
I would like to have an idea of what I am fighting before I do anything. I think this will be my first step though. However I hate to do this if not necessary as I have six snakes all kept on aspen.
This might not work but its advice.
Actually yes. However, I'm not finding a lot of information regarding my situation. I know that there are others on this forum who keep invertebrates and reptiles as I do. Hoping someone will have experienced this before and have some input as to what they did. I could treat my snakes for snake mites but I'm not sure this is what I'm seeing. Hate to use an insecticide as I would have to remove my collection of invertebrates to another location in the house to avoid possible exposure.
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Hmm most snake mites are black. But pictures would help. But if they are snake mites your gonna wanna put every snake in quarantine. I would examine your snakes closely and look under scales and under its mouth. Your gonna wanna get "Provent-a-mite" and Reptile releif
e Flea. Your gonna wanna follow the directions on both bottles. Make sure you soak them every day in the reptile releif water mixture. I would also reccomend trying to pick as many mites of the snake with a toothpick, being carefull though. And make sure to kill the mites. Hope this helps, if you can get pictures that would be great. If they turn out to be snake mites i can tell you everything i did to get rid of mine.- Joined
- Dec 17, 2009
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I only got mites once with a albino Burmese Python I had about 10 years ago. I got read of them by taking a can with a lid and poking small holes in it and putting a cat flea collar in the can and put the can in the snakes cage. this keeps the snake from touching the flee collar and allows the collar to do it's job. it worked pretty good too. I also picked the mites off the snake the best I could.
Thanks for all of the advice. I am starting to think these are not snake mites. I looked over two of my snakes very carefully and could not find any mites on them. The mites I have found are not black in color so this must be something else. I'm just going to keep a close eye on the situation for now.
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If you're finding dead mites (look like someone sprinkled pepper) in the water then you most likely have a mite infestation. It can be difficult to see the mites on the snakes, but the drowned mites in the water bowls is a sure sign. Snake mites aren't really all that similar to mites that tarantula cages get. Mites in tarantula enclosures need high humidity and generally feed off of old food scraps. Snake mites actually attach to the snake and suck blood, like a tick. Humidity levels aren't a factor, and reducing the humidity won't have any effect on snake mites.
Provent a mite and BK-II are good products. You'll need to clean EVERYTHING thoroughly, use PAM or BK-II and then do everything again a couple times spaced a couple weeks apart. The eggs generally survive the cleaning and pesticide, so multiple cleanings are needed.
Provent a mite and BK-II are good products. You'll need to clean EVERYTHING thoroughly, use PAM or BK-II and then do everything again a couple times spaced a couple weeks apart. The eggs generally survive the cleaning and pesticide, so multiple cleanings are needed.
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I've been Googling my head off for the past couple of hours. We have a snake mite infestation right now that came from two rescue boas. I am considering using Hypoaspis sp. as a remedy. I have love, years, and money invested in my tarantulas, and just the thought of spraying PAM anywhere in the house gives me nightmares. I don't think I have many willing babysitters either lol.
Here is one link with an apparent success, and there are others.
http://webspinners.com/coloherp/cb-news/Vol-28/cbn-0101/SnakeMites.html
I'm willing to give it a shot at least!
I HATE MITES!!! (Had to get that out)
Here is one link with an apparent success, and there are others.
http://webspinners.com/coloherp/cb-news/Vol-28/cbn-0101/SnakeMites.html
I'm willing to give it a shot at least!
I HATE MITES!!! (Had to get that out)