Help! I think my snake has mites. arg..

[miara20]

I noticed this morning when I went to go take sasha out of her cage there were four black dots floating in her water. So I went to take out the water bowl and I looked further at the specs and it was these tiny little grey furry lookin bugs that looked like a tear drop and had two little antaneas. I went to scoop one up and accidently smashed it so I got some tweezers and went to grab another one and it jumped away and then the third jumped away and I dumbed the other down the sink. I didnt see anything on her skin but I didnt open her mouth eiether cause well after I had to tube her for and RI she dont like that no more so anyway I called the vet and I have to take her in on Monday and I went to the pet store and they gave me mite off. So I sprayed her viv and washed her tank and her astro turf and put paper towels at the bottom of her tank and will change them out in the morning. I dont know if Im doing the right thing and how will the spay help if its in her mouth. and once I get rid of them if she has them how do I keep them away. Do they get on the carpet do I have to sterilize the whole room. And the two that exscaped in the bathroom will they die? Can I get them? I've never had a mite problem so Im new to this. Please help.

[Tula_Montage]

Astro turf is generally not a great idea to use as a substrate as it harbors bacteria and will only make your mite infestation harder to get rid of. I would completely switch her substrate to newspaper for now, and when the mites are gone, don't go back to astro turf. Why not try something more comfortable for the snake like aspen. This encourages natural burrowing behaviours too!

I would soak the snake in luke warm water for 10 - 20 minutes and see if there are any floating mites in the water afterwards. If so I would definitely treat her using a reptile safe mite treatment. Be careful though, a lot of these treatments can do more harm than good though. Good old fashioned elbow grease ie scrubbing the tank every few days and bathing the snake will get rid of most minor mite infestations.

[sargeoif]

best thing to do is buy this stuff called natural chemistry: reptile relief and bleach your tank, just soaking the snake wont do much because they use an air bubble to breathe underwater.

[miara20]

Thanks guys that was a great help. I did switch her bedding out to paper towels and I definetly wont go back to the astro turf. I had her on repti bark when she was little and she loved to burrow in it. But the vet said to use astro turf. But I didnt know it helf bacteria and such. Anyway is Aspen safe for snakes will she digest it? And I got this stuff the other day called mite off. Will that help her. or do I need to go with something else? And I will def bleach my tank. this evening. I washed it out with dial and a toothbrush and extremly hot water but I will go with bleach. I havent seen anything else on her thou and when I soaked her the other night I didnt notice anything but I want to be safe than sorry too.

[sargeoif]

No aspen is really the recommended substrate to use with corns snakes. I bought a boa and a python that had mites and when I had my boa someone told me to use dawn dish soap and add afew table sppon of it to some warm water and let the snake soak in it for afew hours because its suppose to pop the air bubbles that the mites use to breathe in. With my python I bought this stuff called Natural Chemistry: Reptile Relief, what you do is take a rag and sray alittle on it and wipe the snake from the back of its head down but whats nice about this stuff is you can all so use it to clean out their vivs.

[miara20]

Ok thank you. I will definetly try that. I appreciate all you help.

[susang]

Make sure you rinse really well after the bleach. Aspen is safe but I wouldn't feed my snake on it as then the snake could ingest it. susan

[SNAKEWISPERA]

if you want to get rid of it using chemicals i recomend p-a-m aka prevent a mite it works very well but it is excpensive