Lori's snakes and such

[Lori P]

You're cracking me up! THIS from the woman that RAISES COCKROACHES???????????? Too funny!

LOL... ok, ok, but the difference is these are nasty blood sucking little demons who are ON MY BABIES making them miserable!!! How dare they!!!!! And for some reason, seeing those little specks running on my hands totally creeped me out.... icccckkkkkkk I'm still itching!!!!!

The only mite killer Petsmart had was Jurassi Mite... it's sodium laurel sulfate (soap), cottonseed oil and clove oil. Anyone used it with success? I've euth'd fish with clove oil so I know it's deadly to some critters... I hope this is effective... I can order something better online if I need to.

[Garter_Gertie]

Okay. Touche, Lori. You're right. Cockroaches (shudder, shudder) ARE different than something sucking the blood outta a kid.

Still... It is cute. Or, *I* think it's cute! It's just CUTE!

You figure to handled one too many snakes at the Expo? Thass prolly how they came home, don't you think?

[Lori P]

Actually, I'm wondering if Bob Evans had them and I just never noticed before? There are way too many to have just come from the expo, I think. And I found them on Curious too. Sigh... my pretty tank is now totally bare and my poor boys are crawling around on paper towels with just a couple of hides... they aren't used to this kind of treatment!!

Man, I need to look at new snakes coming in waaaaay better. Live and learn, live and learn...

[jitami]

Lori, how is the Jurassi stuff applied?

[Lori P]

Spray on or rub on.

[jitami]

Not a fumigate type thing? Does it say to repeat application at regular intervals? If so, I'm guessing olive oil would do just as well. I just held Sly over the sink and smothered him in olive oil, letting him cruise through my fingers for several minutes, and then gave him a quick rinse off and repeated every other day until I was sure they were gone. I was slightly paranoid so probably did this for a month Poor Sly

I've heard the fumigate/bug bomb type things are more effective and only require one or two applications, though.

[Lori P]

Ahhhh.... it says to repeat as needed (gee, thanks for the details) and that it is safe for daily use. I'm assuming that, like with most mites, you kill off the adults and then repeat treatment in a week to kill off the hatching eggs, and then again... I like the olive oil idea too, smother those little suckers.

Bob Evans is currently in a wet bag (he still has some shed stuck to him) and it does say to not apply to a newly shed snake. So, I think I'll pull him out in a while and rub him down with the olive oil.

THANKS!!!!!

[jitami]

It was a long time ago, but if I remember correctly the mite life cycle is something along the lines of every three or four days which is why I went with every other day and did occasionally stretch it to every third day. It really wasn't too big of a deal with just the one snake, but I'd probably go with the stronger stuff now... especially since people I trust here have used it with no ill affects

[jitami]

I also think I read that immidiately following a shed is the best time to kill them because they haven't had as much time to embed themselves between the scales...

[Lori P]

Jamie suggested just stomping them to death. I think he's a bit of a smart arse... LOL!!!