Hi All,

I know that somewhere on this forum there's a thread about mites, but I can't find it...So...

Here is an observation of mine. I've never read it anywhere, but I have seen it many times in all sorts of snake species.

It seems to me, that immediately prior to sloughing, any mites on a snake's skin take part in a mass exodus, leaving their host and accumulating in some numbers in the snake's normal resting place (hides etc). So at the moment of shedding it's skin the snake is totally free of ectoparasites (obviously). On returning to it's hide the animal is immediatly re-infested. I have found (in the past) large numbers of mites hiding within the texture of bark hides or in the rim of plant pots etc. whilst their host is busy "peeling off" elsewhere. It would seem that the mites know when sloughing is imminent and so they react in this way.

This information could be used to our advantage when we believe our snakes to be parasitised.

Has anyone else ever noticed this behaviour?