AHHHHH!!!!!!!!! please help!! I HATE MITES!!

O my god i hate them more then anything, what can i do? My 4month old corn I just got has a small infestation(spelling?) of mites on him! 1st i took him out and let him soak in water that he could touch. While this was happing i took everything out of the tanks and soaked it in a bleach/water mix for like an hour. Then i rinsed the tank with vinger/water then soap and then water i placed paper towls back in as my substrate(carpet) was still soaking in bleach. I took him out of the water and of course the little things had gone up to his neck and eyes!! i figured he was tired anyways from all that soaking so i put him back in his paper towl lined tank. Gosh i really don't know how to get rid of them this is like the second time i have done all that! What do i do ?
Please help my poor mite infested soul

O.k.

I know. Its frustrating.

This is what you do.

Give your corn a bath. This time put a drop or two of dish soap in the water. This breaks surface and the mites will drown..Yes you'll have to get his face wet but it won't harm him and the mites will drown.

Clean entire tank again like you did the first time. Taking special care at corners, and edges where they lay their eggs.

Repeat a few times. Also clean the ENTIRE surrounding area of cage!!!!!!!! This is important. LIghts, hoods, lids, dresser tank may be on, wall surrounding, everything.

bmm
P.S. For a more serious infestation, one can use a solution with water and NIX which also kills mites, as well as Provent A Mite, and Black Flagg.

will try

thanks so much i'll try what you said. Will the soap hurt his eye's? and for how long do i let him soak. Once again thanks for you help
and my snake will thank you 2

well

I can't say if it will or not because I wouldn't feel comfortable answering that for sure either way. BUT what I can say is that I have seen and heard this recommended many many times before by respectable herp people and they have never mentioned ill effects or hurt to the eyes.

Of course we aren't talking about soaking the head much. Just enough to get them off. And only a drop or two of dish soap. Well unless you are using the tub then you might need a few more, but just a tiny amount to coat the water surface will do it. So it is not full strength or anything. I am sure even "no tears" shampoo would do it because you are only trying to break the water surface so they can drown, its not the actual soap that kills them. But then again, no tears for us doesnt' necesarily mean no tears for them *shrug* but like I mentioned, never heard ill effects.

Repeat this a few times and it should be all good. The thing you are trying to stop is the life cycle. So if you repeat this a few times, even if the first time an adult lives, but you kill all the eggs repeatedly the mites will die off and in any case chances are the bath and cage wash will kill every mite. But thats why repeating is needed. When you are sure they are gone, and see nothing and no mites then do it once more!

bmm

Thanks

Thank you it has been most helpfull i'll let you know how it goes , well i gota go to sleep now i have a long day of class's cage cleaning and snake bathing ahead lol

ps snakes have scale 'spectacles' on their eyes so if the soap doesnt bother their body it is unlikely to irritate their eyes. I've always been told to avoid soap near my snakes...incase they swallow some but there you go.

hi

I hate mites. i recently purchased a baby corn from petco and he was covered in mites. it took me a week to finally get rid of them but what i did was put olive oil on the snakes body everyday. it supposedly suffocates the mites. he is finally mite free..

Thanks

thanks. I'll try that next time (hopefully there won't be)
I scrubed and rinsed the tank every 2days with vinger/water mix then i cloroxed all his rocks and sticks. I then placed them in the freezer for a week all this whil he was staying on paper towls with 2 hides and thats all. Everyday i would give him a bath with a few drops of soap for about 15min (while i scrubed his cage) then i would let him warm up in my hands before going back to the tank. I did this for little over a week. Yes it was prob. overkill but thats what mites need.
Thanks for all your help and marley my corn thanks you to so far we'r living the mite free life

I also purchased mites from Petco along with my corns. After much research on how to rid my babies of these horible parasites I decided on Provent-A-mite. It might be a little more expensive, but so much easier than what you went through, anyway this is what I would recommend should you ever get infested in the future.

In the course of doing rescue...

I have taken on mites quite a few times... and I can honestly say that the easiest, quickest, fastest way to get rid of them is to bite the bullet, buy Provent-A-Mite, use it according to the directions, and be done with it. It's easy, just remove the water bowl and snake, spray the cage with the product, making sure to mix the bedding and spray again, let the tank air out (over night is best), put snake and water bowl back in, NO MORE MITES.

Good luck, Mites suck (literally and figuratively!)