Help Mites!

[zirliz]

I have a Western Ribbon snake who has black shiny mites on him I'm concerned about all my other reptiles mainly the baby garter and my Boa who is now always in his water dish.
At the moment I'm treating the tank with T-rex mite inhibitor as it's all I could find on short notice, any ideas to help rid the tanks of them?
Also can my Bark and Green anoles catch them?

[drache]

just make sure you wash hands thoroughly in between handling reptiles
be concious of your clothing too, as mites can get on them
I've had mites in one tank for a couple of months and they haven't spread to other animals
I clean the tank completely every other day, as well as bathe and wipe down the snakes
the mites were almost gone (finding just one or two) and then we moved and I slacked off with my treatment regimen, so now they're still almost gone
there's a couple of threads on mites with more info
http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/general-talk/341-mites.html
http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/husbandry/671-more-about-mites.html
good luck

[GarterGuy]

I'd follow Rhea's advice and the threads she's listed should give you enough info. to help you out with your mite problem. As far as your anoles, you don't have to worry about them. The mites are specific to the snakes and won't spread onto them. I would though, give their cages a very good cleaning, as even though they don't "get" mites, their cages still might have them in it and could reinfest your other tanks if they're close to the others.

Roy

[Jake Dubz]

so can you accually SEE mites??? lol I think my snake MIGHT have em but i don't even kno if the things are visible with the naked eye

[zooplan]

you should see the mites the biggest are about 1 mm of length.
Give your snake a bath with a single drop of liquid soap and you´ll see them in the water. Cleaning and bathing are very helpful to fight the mites but you´ll have to catch them all up to the last or the story will start again.
If´you have spiders or insects in your collection you must not use any
drugs to fight the mites or may kill those too.

[RZL36]

I bought a Lampropeltis getula floridana that had mites from a Hamburg show last year. Got Mite Off by Zoo Med and it solved it very quickly.

Get a big plastic container and put the snake is there for a day or two. Spray the Mite Off on the snake in the plastic container with good proportion. Then, scrub every bit of the snake's normal cage with bleach and get rid of anything that was ever in there unless it is plastic. The plastic stuff needs to be soaked it in bleach too. Let it sit for a bit, and obviously, rinse well (snakes don't like breathing in that stuff anymore than we do). I was so surprised how easy it was to kill mites with the Mite Off.

Rich

[KITKAT]

so can you accually SEE mites??? lol I think my snake MIGHT have em but i don't even kno if the things are visible with the naked eye

Like little black pepper flakes

[RZL36]

You will normally see them near the eyes. The young are little and white, then turn to very small black bugs. As they get bigger, and normally get themselves onto the snake they head right for the eyes. It's the most penetrable area for a parasite.

I had them on a big juvie king and they seemed be irritating her horribly. Could they really do a number on small garter?

[drache]

yup
they could
always best to get rid of them asap