MITES and GRAVID FEMALES

Please help me. I need some reliable advice to treat my gravid females for mites. I have only noticed a few mites in water dishes so far, and actually not in with the females yet. They are barely visible without a magnifying glass. I put one under the microscope, and there is no doubt of what it is.

I have a collection of about 90 colubrids in one room. Most are about one year old, however I have about 10 gravid females, who I expect to lay eggs anytime from now into the next 3-4 weeks.

I have removed the water from the juveniles, and cut up vapona strips and put them into small jars with holes to try to kill the mites. Some books say to leave these in for only a few hours, and one says for 5 days! Im not sure what is best.

I have also mixed an ivermectin solution for spraying the cages, room and snakes.

I am nervous about trying to treat the females though, because I dont know if the chemicals could have a bad effect on them. I want to try to get rid of the mites before the eggs are laid though.

Would you please give me some advice on what to do. I am sooo worried about my snakes and (hopefully) eggs.

Thank you,

Lorri

How about an oil treatment for them? That should be completely safe.

mites

I got a great tip from rick at Renegade Reptiles. It worked for me so give it a try.

first reduce the amount of bedding considerably and clean out the water dish with bleach solution.

next buy some flea powder for cats. the kind you rub into the fir and where they sleep. sprinkle the entire cage with the powder and put the snake back in. In about three days they should all be dead. dont use so much that the snake has to inhale it but enough that any of the tick that venture out of the belly scales will get killed.

I wouldnt sweat the gravidness of the 10 females if you dont over do it.

hope this helps I tried the spray treatment and bleaching everything in the cage to no avail. when I tried this it worked in about a week. I have been mite free since.

I'd remove all bedding, clean out the tank, use paper towels as cage liners and soak the snakes. You should soak them until you don't see any little unwanted critters on the paper towels.

Please don't use chemicals on gravid females. You do not know how the chemicals will affect the eggs.

Also, I have tried the flea powder thing, and my snake got VERY sick. I was able to save her...but it was a long hard road!

I would bath them in lukewarm water with a few drops of dishwashing liquid in it. Then lightly coat them with olive oil. Try to avoid getting it into their nostrils.

If there are tanks the mites haven't gotten to, you can put a thin line of vaseline around the inside and outside of the top of each cage. If mites try to enter or exit that cage, they get stuck in the vaseline and suffocate. This will help you control them from spreading to other tanks.