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big mites

S

spongebob

New member
iv just noticed some black spots under the scales off my snake on the under side of his chin. they have lifted his scales quite a lot.
 
My MBK has mites too. I'm treating him with frontline, along with the rest of the snakes. I've been spraying it on a cloth and running the snakes through it. So far, I'm still seeing dead mites in his tub every time I change his paper towels :twoguns:
 
iv been told by a very good pet shop owner to bath him in cooking oil once a week for three weeks up-to now iv found the mites are coming out and i can pick them off and squash them.fingers crossed for both our snakes.
 
i've heard prevent a mite works wonders, never had experience with mites or a snake for that matter, but alot of sites and forums suggest prevent-a-mite.?
 
Seems like you all are in the dark like I am. Getting thousands of soulutions. I read and was told to use a human head lice shampoo "Nix". Couldn't find that so using a store brand. 4 oz bottle mixed into a 1 gal jug distilled water. Was told to spray snake and let it stay on for 20 minutes then bath snake. Was told to spray tank and stuff (not water bowl) and let dry. Put snake back in and the 24 hrs later water bowl.

I have a baby with mites. What I plan on doing is letting her "swim" in a solution of 1/2 cup lice-distilled water and 1 cup tap water. Spray tank and let sit for 30 mins. then scrub tank with soapy hot water and rinse with scalding hot water. I'll let you know how it works.
 
Okay. Gaia shed (sheded) yesterday and she got her mite bath last night. I let her swim in the solution for 5 minutes and put her in plain water to rinse while i cleaned her tank and stuff. I sprayed the tank and stuff down with the soultion and let it sit for 20 mins then scrubbed it with dawn and a brush then rinsed with hot water. Wiped each item dry with fresh paper towel.

Dried Gaia off and sprayed her with Shed Aid and put her back in her tank. She sulked up on the rim of her of her tank until I feed her, she took 2 pinkies and now she is trying to get back up on the rim even with her swollen belly.

So far so good, no sign of mites. I'll keep you updated.
 
I was holding Tolmie last night and I found a bug on her- it was larger than i thought mites were, and kinda...bulbous?

I freaked and searched her cage with a fine toothed comb, and found 1 more in her water dish. For the life of me I couldn't find anything else, and even though I looked VERY closely at her eyes and neck scales, couldn't see any specks or things to be worried about.

Just because I'm extra paranoid, I gave her a very shallow bath, emptied out all the aspen, re-baked her stick and coconut hide, washed everything, and stuck her back in there with paper towels.

anyways, my question is


what do your mites look like?

because now that I think of it, my b slash f has some plants on the bottom shelf of the cabinet where I keep her, and I was thinking (hoping) that they could have been just miscellaneous bugs?
 
plasticknives said:
anyways, my question is


what do your mites look like?
Click to expand...

I use plain white paper towels on the bottom of Gaia's tank. I saw tiny black specks moving around and when I mashed them they left a black and red streak. As I was feeding Gaia it looks like flakes of black pepper sticking up on her head.

I had been handling her since I got her and never seen anything on her until the 14th. I had her for 5 days by then. I have no idea where they came from, if they were in the tank or already on her but to tiny for me to see.

I mashed about 7 on the paper towels on the 14th. As I just feed her I did not disturb her but mashed about 3 more on the towels after she feed and went into her hide. Yesterday was day 5 since I feed her last and figured it was okay to mess with her. I managed to knock off 3 more from her before her soak and then we noticed stuff floating in the rinse bath. (small white flecks and two large fish egg shaped objects).

As I feed her today it will be a couple of days before I'll mess with her again so I just have to wait to see if I got them all. I know the soak bath was stressful on her and I don't want to put her through it again if I don't have too.
 
PS.

If the photo under your 'name' is Tolmie; then, Tolmie and Gaia can be sisters because Gaia looks just like Tolmie (only meaner).
 
well its been 5 days now, and the cooking oil idea seems to have worked, no visible mites, i hope all your snake's get well soon. cheers.
 
suecornish said:
I use plain white paper towels on the bottom of Gaia's tank. I saw tiny black specks moving around and when I mashed them they left a black and red streak. As I was feeding Gaia it looks like flakes of black pepper sticking up on her head.
Click to expand...
I'm not quite sure where to go from here... i looked up snake mites on google, and what i found did look like what the pictures looked like...
but i only found two. and they were much bigger than pepper specks.
I searched everywhere and I can't find anything that looks like eggs, or anything else that was like what i found.

I'm just REALLY hoping that either it was a TINY infestation, and cooking her branch and stuff killed any eggs that might have been around, or that they weren't snake mites at all.
I really hope they're all gone, anyways.

I don't have ANY idea where i could find any mite treatment or prevention stuff- the pet stores around here don't have any, and I don't have a credit card to order online.

hrmm.



spongebob said:
well its been 5 days now, and the cooking oil idea seems to have worked, no visible mites, i hope all your snake's get well soon. cheers.
Click to expand...

congrats! :)
 
i guess that since I can't find any more and i cleaned her tank like a madwoman that i should just chill...

but the idea of tiny bloodsucking bugs freaks me out to no end.

:sidestep:
 
Same with me. It's like having leeches on you.

Right now Gaia is sleeping off her meal of yesterday and I don't see anything crawling on the paper towels.

I just can't see using oil on a snake. It must leave a residue that has to be washed off with soap or such. The guy that confirmed that NIX works is Dave, he is the brother of Alex Hue (alexhuereptiles.com) and works at the local Petsmart. He said he used it on his snakes sucessfully.

If you can't get NIX, get a 4 oz bottle of human head lice shampoo. It, so far, has seemed to work on Gaia. When mixed with a gallon of distilled water it can be kept up to a year. I only used 1/2 cup in the soaking bath and about a cup when I sprayed the housing down. The rest will be saved under the sink in case we need it for our two adults. A 4 oz bottle of the store brand costed me $6 and as it makes a gallon of treatment solution, it is really cheaper than Provent-a-mite.
 
Hi guys...

I don't post a lot, but I had to stick my nose in here. I bought a ball python once with little round things under it's scales....and they turned out to be TICKS :puke01:

Either pick them off or try dabbing oil / alcohol / vaseline depending on who you talk to and they will die.

Hope this helps...

--Drew
 
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