The Day After Christmas Bull Crap ):

[Charlet_2007]

OK so I do my morning rounds turning the light on and what not.. I notice my little red tail boa not the sick one but the pastel male Spit Fire, Sabrina and Seth all have been in their water bowl way to long.. So i take a peak at them.. What do see? MITES!!! @$#^((^((_Y&%^$#!%&RW#%^R$&$^*^(*^^*^&$^#%&($R^$^$^$&*$&*$&*#$^*$**&%(&%(&*^^()*&()*&_(&*%^$!!! And this is a shock to me like BAM hits me out of no where.. the cage is normal degrees and everything and i haven't taking in a rescue for about 2 weeks now.. WHERE did they come form? God i hate these bugs!!!! NOW I'm going to have to clean out the 125g this &%&$(^$*^ sucks.. :mad::mad::mad::(:(:(

[infernalis]

Cheer up, mites are just bugs.....

Look how many forum members had dead snakes for Christmas....

I'd trade mites in a minute.

[Charlet_2007]

yeah true guess i didnt look at that way.. my apologies.. :(:(

[infernalis]

No need to apologize sweetie, mites still SUCK!!!!

[Charlet_2007]

yeah they do i HATE them with a passion.. ok i cant spray the enclosure down with the lice bedding spray hes to small.. so what should i get? trying non invasive steps first.. less harm.. With money the sky is the limit here i want these little %&($&*^ GONE.. :mad:

[infernalis]

I use this, it's all natural and contains NO pesticides, and it works.

I'd still empty out the cage and bleach the crap out of everything.

The zoo med section of any pet shop.

http://www.petmountain.com/shop/standard/1/510333/1.jpg

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

well, I can add two things to this thread. no... three. First off, I am so sad to see all the bad stuff that happened this Christmas. Second... the mites probably most definitely came from that burmese python that you rescued that had mites way back when. All that it takes is for ONE of those mites to have fallen off of her when you were holding her and crawl around aimlessly until it somehow reaches another snake cage. From there it lays eggs and once the eggs are laid, it starts all over again. That is the thing about mites..... you have to kill every, single, last one..... they suck SO MUCH!!!!

third, I am going to give that Mite off my own personal rating. I used it when I was having a problem, I sprayed it all over a snake that had them, rubbed it in, and left the snake in a deli cup over night. I woke up in the morning to find.... a very annoyed snake and no dead mites except for some that must have incidentally drowned in a droplet or something! I tried it on some other snakes, got the same effect. Quite frankly, the bottle went into the trash 3/4 of the way full. I also have used reptile reliefe from DeFlea and I got acceptable results with that, but it did not kill off ALL the mites which meant that I was only controlling their population, not eradicating them. I started with lice spray for people after being advised by multiple keepers and that works wonderfully. I just took out the snake, took out the bowl, treated the bedding, fluffed it around till it had dried up a bit and then put the snake back(but no water) the next day I had happy snakes and dead mites!

[gregmonsta]

Provent-A-Mite!!!! .... Kills 'em dead AND breaks the lifecycle!!!

[Charlet_2007]

well i got the mite off tonight only 6.00 for it.. If this don't work then I'm getting prevent-a-mite stuff i got a guy that's giving me some.. if that don't work I'm going back to the bedding lice spray.. this little snake is only 12 to 14 inches long about 3-4 months old if that i didn't want to treat with hard stuff.. :(:(

Can people get mites?

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

no, the mites that parasitize snakes only affect snakes. They are actually called the Snake Mite, Ophinonssus natricis. Without their reptile host, they cannot survive for very long. They cannot live on you, your dog, your bird or your children.

[Charlet_2007]

oh thank god.. i just sprayed them down all 3 and they didn't like it one bit.. actually i got struck at 4 different times lol.. some of the mites came off on me and i spayed them on my arm insently they did a head dive and fell off in the sink.. :D:D lets hope they stay dead.. STUPID little buggers!!!:mad::mad:

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

The nice thing about mites is that they drown VERY, VERY easily. even in that tiny amount of spray, more mites probably die of drowing than actually die because of the product itself.

oh, i found this...



A female mite lays up to 90 eggs in the environment. The eggs hatch in as little as 30 hours, depending on the environmental conditions. A blood meal is required for the mite to gain energy for a molt to each sequential life stage. The larva molts into a protonymph, the protonymph becomes the duetonymph and the duetonymph molts into the adult. Under warm conditions with moderate humidity, the lifecycle can be completed in 13 days. Mites can survive over a month off the host waiting for another blood meal.

[Charlet_2007]

i wish they had like tiny little bugs that ate these mites ONLY then then died after all the mites and eggs were gone.. :D:D

[Stefan-A]

i wish they had like tiny little bugs that ate these mites ONLY then then died after all the mites and eggs were gone.. :D:D
Such bugs do exist. :D

[Charlet_2007]

????? please pay tell me were do i find them?:D:D

[infernalis]

Here you go Natalie.

A Better Treatment for Snake Mites (http://webspinners.com/coloherp/cb-news/Vol-28/cbn-0101/SnakeMites.html)

[Charlet_2007]

ok kool where do i buy them at tho?

[Charlet_2007]

ok lady bugs eay mites as well lol i did not know that lol

[reptile3]

Provent-A-Mite!!!! .... Kills 'em dead AND breaks the lifecycle!!!

Provent-a-Mite Spray & quickTEMP Thermometer (http://www.pro-products.com/miteandtemp.html)

[reptile3]

Sorry Natalie.... mites do SUCK!!!

[Zephyr]

ok lady bugs eay mites as well lol i did not know that lol
I have some connections as to where you may acquire said "predacious" mites. :D

[Charlet_2007]

please let me know how much am i going to have to "pay" you lol :D:D:D

[Zephyr]

please let me know how much am i going to have to "pay" you lol :D:D:DWell, you wouldn't be paying me anything. XD
Here's who you would pay though:
Evergreen Growers Supply Home Page (http://store.evergreengrowers.com/prostores/servlet/StoreFront)

From the convos I've had, the species H. miles or something is pretty good; The A. whatever species I haven't heard too much on. Also, you'll have to raise the humidity a little to use these, but apparently they're 100% effective if used correctly.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

I personally won't use provent a mite because I hear they don't tell you what's in it. If I don't know what's in it, I'm not using it on my animals :eek:

[infernalis]

That's why I used the Zoo Med stuff Shannon, it did work, Maybe I just drowned the mites in it, but it does not have any harmful pesticide.

[adamanteus]

I personally won't use provent a mite because I hear they don't tell you what's in it. If I don't know what's in it, I'm not using it on my animals :eek:

I think that would be illegal in the UK... they are obliged to tell you what you're buying over here. If you buy a bag of peanuts over here, there is a warning on the packet saying 'This product contains nuts'!:D
Maybe Greg could post a list of the active ingredients in Provent-a-mite?

[Stefan-A]

If you buy a bag of peanuts over here, there is a warning on the packet saying 'This product contains nuts'!:D
Even funnier when you know that peanuts are technically legumes, not (true) nuts. :p

[infernalis]

Certainly glad I am not allergic to my favourite legumes, Cuz I could eat six PB sandwiches a day, and never tire of them.

[Snake lover 3-25]

mites sure do suck!!! hope you can kill em fast:)

[Charlet_2007]

ok i sprayed down the mite off sorry dekay it didn't do #$^%* for the mites .. i had to end up using the lice bedding spray.. thought he was to small for the lice spray he actually looked like he thanked me a while ago when i looked him over for mites..:D:D all 3 of them did..

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

That's why I used the Zoo Med stuff Shannon, it did work, Maybe I just drowned the mites in it, but it does not have any harmful pesticide.

man, I wish that stuff had worked for me. Maybe I have some evil mite-off resistant strain. I even tested it by taking a bunch of big fat mites, rubbing some mite off on my finger and then saturating the mites in it, then putting them into a conatiner over night. They were still alive in the morning....

DeFlea makes a product called reptile releif that is all natural... that works to some extent. It disintegrates their exoskeleton. Supposedly. Never stuck around long enough to watch one turn to mush!

James, that is what I heard from another breeder as to why they won't use it, that they don't say what's in it. I thought that was the law also??? I have never examined a can of the stuff myself... once I heard not to use it I just never cared to.

[NetBSD]

im dealing with mites right now, ive been using this stuff

Natural Chemistry, Inc (http://naturalchemistry.com/products/show/52)

called reptile reliefe and i used it once so far on my garter and BP's. they are clean from mites right now but i dont think the eggs have hatched yet, only been a few days now.


simple as spray it on the snake, set them in a tub for about 20 minutes then soak them in warm water for 20 minutes, this stuff will dry out the snake so you must soak it after the spray, or so im told. while the snakes were soaking i would take and clean their tanks with bleach and hot water, rinse it out real good and let air dry. then just use paper towels or newspaper as bedding so its easier to spot mites.

so far this is working great for me

[sschind]

im dealing with mites right now, ive been using this stuff

Natural Chemistry, Inc (http://naturalchemistry.com/products/show/52)

called reptile reliefe and i used it once so far on my garter and BP's. they are clean from mites right now but i dont think the eggs have hatched yet, only been a few days now.


simple as spray it on the snake, set them in a tub for about 20 minutes then soak them in warm water for 20 minutes, this stuff will dry out the snake so you must soak it after the spray, or so im told. while the snakes were soaking i would take and clean their tanks with bleach and hot water, rinse it out real good and let air dry. then just use paper towels or newspaper as bedding so its easier to spot mites.

so far this is working great for me

I've used the zoo med product once and I must say that in my experience it is great for mites. What I mean by that is that I sprayed it on my snake and 2 days later there seemed to be 10 times the number of mites and they appeared as lively and as happy as could be. Not a single dead on in the bunch. If that's not good for mites I don't know what is.

Currently I use the Reptile Relief by Natural Chemistry. I've found that it works very well and I have never had to soak any of my snakes afterward. I usually give them three treatments and sterilize the cage. The down side of this product is that it actually has to come into contact with the mites to kill them so it doesn't work as well for a cage treatment

A while back some people were pushing a product called Black Knight roach spray as an alternative to Provent a Mite. It supposedly had the same ingredients. As it was not available in my area I found a product with the same ingredients (permythrin) and used that. I have a pair of mountain kings that were treated with it about 8 years ago and up until the male died last spring (he was about 16 years old) I had babies from them every year. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find anything similar of late. All the permythrin based products all seem to have other ingredients now.