Mites on one of my older snakes... not on any others...?

[Hypancistrus]

So last week when we were feeding I found mites on my 2007 albino Nelson's milksnake, Mac. I've had Mac since December 2007, and he's not really held a lot because he is thrashy and crazy when handled. (Yes I know that's a self-fulfilling prophecy)

When I found mites on Mac, I assumed they had to have come from Ajax the Baird's Ratsnake, who is my newest snake and is right "next door" to Mac.

I used LLL Reptiles instructions on de-miting today, and for safeties sake did all the snakes in the back room, except my ball python, who is across the room from the rest. I am probably going to go ahead and do the entire rest of my collection next weekend in preparation for the racks coming the week after.

These are the instructions I followed: http://lllreptile.com/info/library/care-and-husbandry-articles/-/dealing-with-snake-mites/

Now here's the really weird part... the only snake that we found any live mites at all on was Mac. In fact, even after the spray I can see them on his head (not moving) and around his eyes. The instructions say to treat all the snakes again a week later and two weeks after. I am going to do this. The Provent-A-Mite works for up to a month, so the cage furnishings should be fine.

My question is this... am I just missing the adults on Ajax or some of the others?? How else could Mac have gotten the mites and no one else? I really was sure if they came from anyone, they would have come from Ajax, but I checked him over completely and saw no evidence of them.

[midnightgallop]

I believe you can get mites from certain beddings or transport them yourself by going to places such as a pet store or reptile show and handling infected animals. Or, your new snake had them and you just haven't noticed any adults. In any event, I'd treat them all since you won't be able to see the eggs, and that is what make mites hard to get rid of.

[PJ@PJCReptiles]

Lauren,
Here are few ways this may have happened:

1. You came from a reptile show, store, any herpers house and you brought them home and they happened to have found Mac to be the first host.

2. Do you feed him live prey? They can come in on your live feeders.

3. Someone came to visit you and they brought them in.

4. Eggs were on your newer snake.

Sorry to hear about Mac and I know you will correct the mites issue without any problems. Sounds like you are right on top of it. This has happened to us as well. We went nuts trying to figure it out. We do local exhibits and we do go down to NERD and our daughter is a manager at a local pet store. We also attend a few reptile expos, both as vendors and lookers. So we have many ways for mites to come in. We have learned a few trick to keep our animals mite free, so far so good. We do treat all in coming animals as well.

Smiles,
PJ :wavey:

[Hypancistrus]

When Tara and I reorganize the basement "herp room" with our new racks, we are going to create a proper quarantine area that is seperate from everything else. We do the best we can with the shelving, and if it's REALLY questionable, the animal stays in our bedroom away from everything... but this was VMS and the cage was available.... so yeah, dummy me....

Now Mac used to eat live feeders every now and then if one of the other problem feeders refused, but the last time he'd have had a live feeder would have been around Christmas... could it have taken that long to manifest??

Perhaps it still was simply eggs coming in on Ajax, but why would I not see any live mites at all on him if he was the vector? I probably won't ever know, but I am now going to treat all new animals for mites within the first two weeks of bringing them in, and their bedding will be pre-treated with the Provent-A-Mite as well.

[wade]

Lauren
Be really proactive. They will hide in the carpet and around the cages as well. Repeated treatments is really the key. David and Tracy Barker have a great article on mites. Here is a link.


The life history of Mites (http://www.vpi.com/publications/the_life_history_of_snake_mites)

[wade]

Here is a quote from Tracy’s article, I’ll probably be shot for some copy right thing so go to her site and read the rest. It’s a really good article.

At 86 degrees F (30 degrees C), gravid engorged female mites looking for a place to lay eggs can travel at a speed of up to 8 inches per minute, potentially 48 feet per hour, and they may travel several hours looking for a good place to deposit eggs. Unfed females are observed to crawl up to a rate of 11 inches per minute. That's 55 feet per hour! Out on a short stroll, mites can travel considerable distances from their host snakes. They easily can pass through the ventilated surface of a cage and travel to another area of a snake collection.