Stupid snake mites

[saraelf69]

i found one crawling on my baby so i smashed it. i hate these things. could this be the reason i havent seen her shed since i bought her a month ago? why did she get the mites? i clean her cage every 2 weeks and i clean everything. how do i prevent this?

[kimbyra]

She must have came with them. I HATE mites! Anyway, get some snake mite spray, and spray down everything in and around (including snake). It probably did give her shedding prob's. Do you have a big enough bowl for her to soak in?

[Roy Munson]

A young corn will usually only shed every 30 or 40 days anyway. A true snake mite infestation will sometimes prompt MORE frequent shedding. Are the mites tiny and black, like specks of pepper? With snake mites, if you see one, there are usually many, many more on the snake. :shrugs:

[saraelf69]

yeah she does. i havent seen her soak EVER and she eats every 4-5 days so i didnt think there was a problem. i noticed that there were black dots in her scales near her face but i didnt think anything of it until i saw one crawling around. BLEH! they are so gross. i saw that people use nix and sevin dust what is the difference?

[Penman6668]

Sevin dust may be harmful to the snake. I use it is the garage for get rid of spider. I would not recommend using that around a snake.

Zoo Med makes a product called Mite Off. http://www.zoomed.com/html/miteoff.php

[Cflaguy]

get rid of the little #@%&*^$#. I fed my snakes Tuesday and saw one on my Eastern King. She was infested last month. I used Sevin Dust for poultry in the olden days. But it is now illegal. I used the 5% Sevin Dust and soaked her the next day. Bleached her shoebox and water bowl. Now they're back. Fortunately she is still in quarantine and no other snakes have been infested yet.
I have heard good and bad on the sprays you can buy now. I to bought the Mite-Off and are going to give it a try.
You might try first soaking her in water with some mild soap for no more than an hour. Preferably ten minutes.

[kimbyra]

I used Reptile Relief by Natures (Natural) Chemistry. It worked great. I bought it at Petsmart or Petco. Sevin Dust kills fire ants, so I definetly wouldn't use it on a snake.

[BeckyG]

Actually, Kathy Love recommends the use of Sevin Dust in The Cornsnake Manual (both editions). She does state that they wash the snake thoroughly afterward, and it appears to be harmless.

[Cflaguy]

consulted with Kathy on it because I was apprehensive about the non-poultry dust. I used it on a fairly small King. I put her in a bag for five minutes. Shook her up a bit, took her out and washed her. No damage done. But this time I will give the Mite-Off a try.
If you can get a hold of Dri-dye (can't remember the spelling) that would be great. I believe it also is banned in the U.S. but I saw a web-site from Australia where a herp used it on his snakes. You could put that stuff on your hands, let a snake crawl through them, you could hear the mites pop.

[SnakeCreations]

i found one crawling on my baby so i smashed it. i hate these things. could this be the reason i havent seen her shed since i bought her a month ago? why did she get the mites? i clean her cage every 2 weeks and i clean everything. how do i prevent this?

If you use a search function you will find many treatment options on this forum. I don't think there is one that is better than the other, but you can make up your own mind about that.

My corn was a hatchling when I found mites on him. I was looking for the least invasive for him. After much research and consideration I decided to do a combination of soaking and Reptile Relief. I put the snake in a container with enough tepid (not warm to touch) water to cover him, but not too much that he couldn't support himself. Put a drop of dish soap in to decrease water tension so the mites don't sit on the surface. They will either drown or move to your snakes head to get away from the water. While he soaked (about 10 minutes) I removed all bedding and cleaned his entire container with a bleach solution. I threw away his hide and put paper towels in his cage so I could see the mites. I changed these every day. I repeated the soaking every three days and the Reptile Relief spray weekly.

After two weeks I didn't see any mites ever again. But, I do quarantine all new animals for a few weeks.

Good Luck...

-Tonya

[ghosthousecorns]

I got mites once from rescuing a snake. That reptile relief stuff worked but it took several applications to completely eradicate them - if you miss even one the problem can come back. Definitely take everything out of the viv, bleach it, spray the reptile relief stuff in it and rinse it out again, replace all hides and aspen, and keep treating the snake with the spray as if it had mites for a while even if you don't see any more.

[saraelf69]

ok well i used sevin dust and she didnt seem to mind it too much. i coated her body then washed it off. the ones that were stuck in her scales i had to dig out but there are still 3 or 4 black spots near her head which i thought were dead cause they wernt moving. so i put her in another container then i checked up on her later that day and i saw some crawling around!!! so they probably were eggs. tommororw im going to fish out every black thing i see. im proud of my snake cause she didnt try to bite me once. she just sat there and let me poke at her. :cheers:

[Cflaguy]

Be careful with the Sevin dust around young snakes. Don't expose them to long. Sounds like you did well. Make sure to bleach her cage and the items inside. And it wouldn't hurt to soak her for ten minutes today. Maybe repeat if you see anymore in a week or so.

[BeckyG]

If you haven't already done so, I'd suggest putting her in a smaller tank on newspaper with disposable hides like toilet tissue rolls. That way you can toss them every day and prevent mites from hiding in and laying eggs in the substrate.

If you've already done this, disregard this post. It will self destruct in 10 seconds... :sidestep:

[saraelf69]

If you haven't already done so, I'd suggest putting her in a smaller tank on newspaper with disposable hides like toilet tissue rolls. That way you can toss them every day and prevent mites from hiding in and laying eggs in the substrate.

If you've already done this, disregard this post. It will self destruct in 10 seconds... :sidestep:


heh she is 2 months old and it caught me by suprise that she has mites. she is currently in her feeding container with paper substrate. she seems to be ok she wasnt too freaked out about the sevin dust. she tried to burrow under it but that didnt last long when she looked like she was about to sneeze. i change the substrate every day and i look through out her scales to find ones that have been hinding and i kill them. she lets me hold her and ill pick them out of her scales. she doesnt fight at all it seems like she knows im trying to help her. :crazy02: hopefully after tommororws treatment she will be rid of the lil buggers cause i cant find them on her anymore!