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Possible Mites

A10Airknight

A10Airknight

New member
My gf and I were playing with my Nicaraguan Boa Iris, when we noticed something unusual.

On Iris was a little red bump, which was moving. On taking it off, it was clearly an insect of some kind. On searching Iris, we found one more.

My question is this-Have any of you ever seen little moving red bumps like this on your snake? Is it possible that they are mites? If they are, how can I get rid of them? I plan on baking all of the wood in the glass tank I have her in as well as using a bleach solution to actually sterilize the tank. What else can I do?

Also, and related to cornsnakes, what can I do to keep these bugs away from Willow, my normal cornsnake?
 
Mites are usually black. The look like poppy seeds. You will often find the drown in the water bowl. Here is a link to treat mites. It is a serious problem and needs to be addressed. If you have found them on one snake it is likely you will have them on all snakes.
 
I had a similar incident yesterday. Our first snake Willie who is nowhere near any of the new ones..different room completely, had one tiny black spot on him yesterday. It was moving. So we immediately got the mite spray we purchased just in case and put him in a tupperware container for a while. We then took every viv out and bleached them, treated them with mite spray as well and took everything out of each one..bleached them, baked the wood, etc. We never saw another one on any of the snakes and have yet to see another one on Willie. We even checked all the other snakes in all the rooms. We used a magnifying glass and this thing my son has that you use on the tv, can't remember the name but it magnifies it big time and still nothing on any one of them. What was it, could it have been something other than a mite??? We checked them again this morning and still nothing...also nothing in any of the water bowls.
 
May have been a mite. Tiny and black and moving. Think of poppy seeds that is the best description I have heard. You may have done the job, but keep a close eye out for several weeks. The eggs will hatch and you will have a whole new batch.
 
Nanci-It didnt look like the pictures of the spider mites I saw online, but it could be. In this case, it is better to be safe than sorry. Today, I plan on baking the Nicaraguan Boa cages wood and using a bleach solution on everything else in the cage. I will also use paper towels for bedding to see if there are any more of the little buggers. If I still see the specks, I will use the link that wade gave me for a more permanent treatment.

Tomorrow, I will do the same thing for my corn snakes cage.

Is this a good course of action? I still dont know where the suckers came from
 
We thought it could have been a flea because I pet sit two dogs frequently but they are never near the snakes because we keep the dogs downstairs and the snakes upstairs on the 3rd floor. But wasn't sure. If it is a mite, where could it have come from? We are so careful with cleaning, feeding and keeping new snakes separated.
 
Oh, forgot to mention I have 2 cats but one is strictly indoors and the other strictly outdoors with no contact with each other so if it was a flea it wouldn't have come from them. And I know that mites don't transfer to other pets..but what about other insects?
 
did you check the boas water dish? usually if your cage has mites, they'll be in the water dish. when i had a mite problem, i obviously removed all the substrate. i bought prevent a mite. i gave my ball python a bath then quaratined her. while waiting for the prevent a mite i used the normal bleach, water wash, cleaning the cage. when the pam came i sprayed the cage followed the directions and used paper towels after that. knocking on wood, i havent had a problem since.
 
It may not have been a mite. They are sneaky little suckers. The will hitch a ride on you if you have been to a snake show or pet store. That is probably how most people get them. Of course the obvious is if you have brought home a new snake.
 
Mites

I believe mites can be black or red,at least I believe thats what I read in Kathy Loves old book.
Just walking into a place that sells reptiles, someone can bring mites back home with them.
Again, before buying any new animals or even supplys be very carefull bedding,decorations,water bowls really anything should be inspected and treated properly before use.
I have seen people adding cheap low cost animals to there collections such as Wild Caught animals from importers/exporters,most every single one of these animals have parasites and other problems,unless you are a highly trained vet tech,its next to impossable to keep these animals healthy and could likely kill every reptile in your house.Keeping them seprated in another room isnt a sure fire way to prevent it either.
Another example would be buying animals from Craigslist and other places like that,usually you are bringing home problem animals.Its not such a great deal if you spend more time and money trying to get these animals healthy.Also taking the risk of getting your whole collection infected.I dont think some take this to seriously and when it does happen, it isnt something that anyone shouldnt have to go through. Mites arent easy to get rid of,I had them in one of my reptile rooms a long time ago when I had boas.I had bought a new boa baby at a show that was supposed to be treated already and at the time was perfect looking when I bought him.It was a farm raised one,well after about two weeks I seen mites in its cage,I was able to get all the mites killed and eggs I thought, only to see them again in another two weeks.So I ended up using pest strips after the complete cleaninng.I took everything out of its cage,washed and sterlized everything then cleaned and sterlized every thing in the room.I bought 6 hot shot pest strips and hung one in the room and changed it out about every 3 weeks till they were gone,so yes it took a very long time but did rid them. Good luck with yours and try to keep in mind the problems you may bring home when purchasing your next animal or supplys.
 
The life cycle of mites is 13 to 19 days. If you kill all the mites today and do nothing more, they will all be back in two weeks. Read the article I cited at the very top to see how to treat them. It is a major operation and must be done.
 
Thanks for the article Wade. Sorry for taking up so much of your thread A10Airknight.
And Stephen thanks for the info. As far as the Craigslist snakes. Yes we have gotten 5 out of our 20 snakes from there. Two people being members on here. But until this weekend it had been since mid March since we have gotten anything off there (and that one was from a CS member). And before bringing the one home over the weekend, I checked her over for a good half-hour, not meaning that I would have seen it right off, but she isn't anywhere near Willie and they haven't even been exposed to each other unless something got on our clothes then when we picked up Willie it went onto him. I checked over Blossom immediately after seeing the one on Willie while Mike started the clean-up process. I didn't see anything on her at all. But they did have other animals at the house-Hedgehogs being one. Would I have maybe brought something home that way? They had no other snakes that I saw but they did say that they had had them before....I will be sure to keep a close eye out for any signs of any bugs for the next month that's for sure! And where do we get that paper you hang-pest strips-are they like the fly paper? And where would we put it to be sure?
 
Here is a link...

http://www.hotshotbrand.com/ProductCategories/IndoorInsecticides/NoPestStrip/
Thats what I used in the room itself,not to close to the cages,I think it kills the eggs that you probably cant find or see. I suppose that the pest strips can cause problems to your animals so be carefull with the stuff as not to get it to close to them. I think that they have to have there water taken away while treating them cause the stuff may get into there water.
Although visual inspections are good to do,it tells very little of what other problems they may have.If you plan to be serious about keeping and breeding your snakes for long term,long thought out decisions should be made before bringing in ANY new stock to your collection.If mites are your only problem,consider yourself very lucky!
....:)
 
Thanks for the article Wade, I will make sure to read that immediately.

Strangely, there were no mites in the water bowl.

Also, Iris was the only animal I ever bought from a show, but that was two months ago. If she had mites, I would have noticed them by now, as I handle both her and my corn snake nearly every day. On the other hand, I was at a show in Indy 2 days ago. It could easily have been me.
 
It is hard to say where they may have come from. Everyone gets them from time to time even well know keepers so you never know. A reputable keeper would not sell you a snake with mites "if the knew it had mites". That doesn't rule them out however.

Snake mites don't live on other animals, but they will hitch a ride. Mites usually won't lay their eggs on the snake but somewhere in the vicinity.

I used to use no pest strips a lot but then they got hard to find. Here is a link for some on Amazon.
 
I dont think that these are snake mites though. They were red, not black, they were relatively large, and I have only seen 2. When I took her out last night I saw nothing, and there is nothing in her water bowl
 
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