MITES D:

Yup so it happened... I found mites the other day. Well rather I found two of them on my bp. Where the bloody did they come from!? I honestly have no idea. Oh well... I still have a bit of my reptile spray but no PAM. And I am broke so I won't be able to order any until the end of this month. I have already switched out his substrate and I will give him a soak/spray when I get home this evening. Those little buggers.

Substrate maybe? I had a stupid ex that bought a red tail boa on a whim and she got mites from the coconut substrate he used for her.

I recommend getting rid of all the substrate and switch to paper towels and newpaper for the next couple months. It's got to be changed several times and the more surface area from substrate, the easier the odds that one will survive.

Absolutely! I have already switched him over to paper towels. And newspaper when I can get my hands on some.

Awesome. Good luck!

Also, another trick I read about, is soaking them before you treat. This will kill most of the buggers off and will hydrate the snake some before it goes without water.

Another thing, I've heard of people treating snakes that have mites right before they sell them. This gives them a 30+ day window to dodge the fault and by the time the seller realizes, it's too far spread to pin where it started.

Focal wrote:

Another thing, I've heard of people treating snakes that have mites right before they sell them. This gives them a 30+ day window to dodge the fault and by the time the seller realizes, it's too far spread to pin where it started.

Sneaky buggers...

Focal wrote:

Another thing, I've heard of people treating snakes that have mites right before they sell them. This gives them a 30+ day window to dodge the fault and by the time the seller realizes, it's too far spread to pin where it started.

Scum bags.

Sucks about the mites! Wishing you good luck in getting rid of them :c

Well I just got home a few minutes ago and checked Monty over and there are no mites. O.O Like none in the water bowl, none on the floor, none on Monty (checked eyes, vents, under chin) Its too creepy. And I know what I saw the other day was mites. But none the less I am going to continue treatment. Those little buggers are going down!

Is it common to get mites through substrate? I buy my aspen from Off the Ark (not saying it was them) but is that a good possibility of where they came from?

Aspen and wood substrates can sometimes have a different type of mites in them. Some wood substrates can house wood mites, but they don't look like reptile mites.

Wood mites are usually white, while snake mites are black; at least to my knowledge.

If I'm wrong, someone please correct me lol

We had a mites scare back when we had a few colubrids. Our adult super Okeetee corn snake male turned up with small light-colored mites when no other snakes in our collection had any. We changed the substrate, cleaned his tank thoroughly, treated him for snake mites and (obviously) saw none. The second we put him back on aspen, voila!, mites again. I did some research, and we wound up permanently keeping him off wood substrate. I'm not sure if wood mites can hurt reptiles, but I can't imagine it was fun for him to have them crawling about on him ><

I know a couple of my friends who have had trouble with coconut stuff before along with myself, so I personally don't really trust wood substrates often. My snakes normally stay on newspaper, but when they are getting ready to lay eggs, I switch to the coconut. I spray the chips down with mite killer and let it sun-dry and air out first, though, before I put my female on it. Seems to keep them at bay (although I could have just been having bad luck).

I've found white wood mites/louse in my aspen. Scared the heck out of me, until I googled around and found out that they were wood mites/louse & not reptile mites. Now I microwave all aspen before using it and haven't had any problems since.

Shelleyshadows wrote:

I know a couple of my friends who have had trouble with coconut stuff before along with myself, so I personally don't really trust wood substrates often. My snakes normally stay on newspaper, but when they are getting ready to lay eggs, I switch to the coconut. I spray the chips down with mite killer and let it sun-dry and air out first, though, before I put my female on it. Seems to keep them at bay (although I could have just been having bad luck).

Is the coconut you mentioned EcoEarth by any chance? I just started using EE and didn't treat it thinking it was fine. Lucky no reptiles are on it yet.

derpinah wrote:

I've found white wood mites/louse in my aspen. Scared the heck out of me, until I googled around and found out that they were wood mites/louse & not reptile mites. Now I microwave all aspen before using it and haven't had any problems since.

What type of aspen are you using? I use the Harlan Teklad and (knock on wood) haven't had a problem yet.

That is the same aspen we use I think Nick. We buy it in the big bags from Larry at the Richmond and Manassas shows... we tried the aspen chips once from Harlan and had a HUGE humidity issue so threw it away and went back to the other aspen...

Focal wrote:

What type of aspen are you using? I use the Harlan Teklad and (knock on wood) haven't had a problem yet.

It was Zoomed that I picked up from PetCo, I've never had a problem with it before until this last bag and had been using it for about 3 years. I've recently discovered Farm Choice and Tractor Supply Co., so I've bought a big bale of kiln dried aspen from TSC for about $10. I haven't used it yet, it's still in my trunk, I don't remember the brand of it.

I'm amazed at how much more affordable it is to shop at these places!

Where do you buy the Harlan at? Is it something you buy online? I googled it & don't remember seeing that packaging at either store.

I get the Harlan from National Pet Pharmacy. It's $12 and if you buy so many, you get free shipping.

Hmm I will have to look into our nearby Agri supply store for aspen.

As for an update there are no more mites. *knocks on wood* I mean, *takes in deep breath* none on him, (checked vent, under chin, eyes) water bowl, along sides, on the paper towel. I mean seriously. Its making me really consider putting down the bottle. And I just ordered the PAM XD. Oh well. As I said earlier will continue to treat. I swear they were mites. They weren't white, or grey. They were those little black beast from the depths of hades...

I'm not sure what brand it was, but it wasn't ecoearth, although the pet store could be selling both

Walmart was or is selling a mite spray for dogs that was the exact make up as PAM. It was in the pet department as I remember. A smaller can but also a smaller price.

Well at any rate, I'm glad they're gone, and here's to hoping they stay gone!!

Well Monty left a very nice poo for me to clean up. Smelly little bugger. XD He seemed so smug about it too.