Where did the mites come from?

[boa_lou]

Ok haven't had a mite problem up until 2 days ago.
Got Myth at end of February-No mites
Switched from Aspen to Repti-bark-didn't notice mites
Had been feeding pre killed mice-didn't notice mites
Switched to frozen ratsicles-didn't notice mites

And now I am in all out war. Monday, I threw away the substrate and hide. I didn't have an internet connection (DSL issues at work) so I couldn't check with the forums here for advice. So i strolled into Petsmart (i know ugh) and picked up a product called reptile relief. Sprayed down the cage, rinsed, and then sprayed towels and treated myth with the reptile relief stuff. Now he is in a minmal enclosure, just the essentials, water dish, hide, thermometer and humidity. Noticed in water dish again yesterday more drowned mites, so i repeated the whole process, Sprayed cage, but didn't put any on myth (directions said 3 days between direct treating).

So to make a short story long....
Any suggestions on where the mites came in from?
and what can i do to get rid of them faster then what i am already doing?

	Mites Mites, close relatives of fleas and ticks

[Stormyva]

Chances are the mites came in with the reptibark.
Sorry I cant help you with the reptile relief, I have never used, so I dont know how it works.
What do the mites look like?
What you were seeing in the water bowl may have come off of the snake. They could have been hiding under the scales as mites like to do.
One thing that you can do is head over to Walmart and get some Repel Permanone or to the pet store and get Proventamite. Remove the snake and water bowl from the cage, spray the cage with a few quick blasts, cover the top with a towel, and let it set for about a half hour. Then remove the towel, let the cage air out for an hour, finally place the snake and the water bowl back in and you should be good to go. The permanone (provent-a-mite) will leave a residue on the cage items and continue to kill off mites for at least two weeks after treatment.
For future prevention of mites pre-treating everything that goes into the cages is a must. Wash water bowls and cage decor with a mild bleach solution and hot water, even better run the stuff through the dishwasher if it will take it. Substrate should be treated with a spray or baked before putting it in a cage.

GOOD LUCK!

	Mites Mites, close relatives of fleas and ticks

[boa_lou]

could the mites have been dormant that long in the reptibark? it was just a few weeks after I got Myth that i switched to the bark, when i was having humidty issues with the aspen. And TY Stormy i will try and find that stuff around here, which sometimes isn't easy.

PS i have one of the mites in a zip lock bag, but i don't know how good a pic i could get of it. lemme experiment. Now i am wishing i got my kid the digital blue microscope instead of the camera lol

	Mites Mites, close relatives of fleas and ticks

[Ed_r]

More than likely they came from the pre-killed rats. It is possible they came from the substrate too. Thing is you don't notice mites right away. There may be a few, they lay their egss, 2 weeks later you have more, and so on and so on.

I've never used reptile relief. Only thing i ever use is Prevent-A-Mite. buy a can $18-20.00. Remove snake and water. LEAVE the substrate IN and DON"T replace it. Spray the cage down with the PAM let it air our from heavy fumes for 20-30 minutes. Place clean waterbowl in the cage, and place snake in the cage.

The light fumes and covering of the substrate will kill the mites, your snake will soak to drown the remaining ones.
VERY IMPORTANT!!! Repeat the steps above in 14 days!!! 14 days is the gestation period of the mite eggs. The treating the cage will kill off the newborn mites before they can lay new eggs. If you don't do this they will continue to lay eggs and you will never get rid of them.

Now if you can follow my directions to the letter, you can substitue the brand Prevent-A-Mite for a number of other brands. R.I.D lice spray, Sawyers tick Spray, Repel tick spray. Just make sure the ingredients includ the description in this pic. .50% is the highest concentration of Permethrin that can be safely used.

	Mites Mites, close relatives of fleas and ticks

[Ed_r]

Permanone

Permethrin

And yeah you will probably get some funny looks when you go and buy Lice spray.lol But the lice spray is $5.99 and prevent-A-Mite is $18-20.

I personally will deal with the funny looks to save almost $15.00

[JuliusSqueezer]

Mites spend aboput 10% of their life cycle actually on an animal. While rodents do often carry certain species of mites, reptile mites do not feed on warm blooded animals. There is a chance that they can still be carried in on live mice but no chance of coming in on frozen. The likely suspect here is the reptibark. IF a petstore has a mite problem, bags of reptibark on the shelves seem to attract them for a breeding ground...or maybe they come in from the supplyer and that's how petshops get them too...who knows? I'm sure if someone knew the origin, they would do something about it. But I have noted far more cases of mites tied to reptibark than any other substrate.

I've never tried reptile relief but have heard mixed results. Provent-a-mite or any of the many .5% permetherin spray is what I use now exclusively and have never had a problem. Just remove the water bowl and snake. Leave everything else in and spray the substrate. Wait an hour and then put the snake and water bowl back in. Directly spraying the snake or allowing it to breath the fumes will kill your snake so take precautions if you use it. There have also been reported issues from the really high humidity snakes that lap water from the glass...so if this is the case (glass cage- high humidity-condensation) DO NOT spray the glass. Provent-a-mite is 20 bucks a can. Or you can go to walmart and buy it under a different label but the same exact ingredients for 4 bucks a can. Sawyers makes a product meant for treating clothing and campsite grounds for tick prevention...same stuff. They just changed the label and the name and I can't remember what it's called now. Rid bedding spray for lice is also the same thing. the tick repelant is back in sporting goods near the camping stuff. Rid is near the pharmacy. Read the Label...what you are looking for is .5% permetherin and 99.5% inert ingredients. There are also other methods that work. This is just the one that I use and have so far a 100% success rate.

Things not to try are pest strips and flea collars. I don't care what anyone says. Even a cat or dog couldn't take being closed up in a confined area with either of these. They kill and/or cause severe neurological problems.

	Mites Mites, close relatives of fleas and ticks

[boa_lou]

Originally Posted by Ed_r

And yeah you will probably get some funny looks when you go and buy Lice spray.I personally will deal with the funny looks to save almost $15.00

I'll just start itchin my head at the counter, that will change their funny looks. LOL

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[JuliusSqueezer]

lol...lotta posts happend while I was typing. There were no replies when I started so sorry if I seemed to be repeating what everyone else was saying without giving them credit.

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[Ed_r]

fast fingers

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[Stormyva]

You just need to learn to type faster

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[herpkingdom]

that's what happens when you type with just two fingers :P

it takes a long time to finish.

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[boa_lou]

Thanks all who posted here. I knew if i could have just gotten to RTB you all woudl have some answers for me.

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[MTB Mamba]

Hey, I think all the repetition from you guys is just a sign that its the right way to deal with mites. Great advice. Dani let us know how it turns out for ya.

	Mites Mites, close relatives of fleas and ticks

[boa_lou]

Kent it wasn't Dani that started this it was me. Just keepin ya on your toes

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[louise]

i think reptile relief is what i sprayed directly on the snake. then i used permanone on all the assecories and sprayed it on the substrate. took the water bowl out first and cleaned it real good. let the permanone sit on substrate for 1 hour with the lid on the tank and no air holes then i took the lid off and let it all air out and put snake back in and the assecories. i guess you really dont have to spray the snake with reptile relief but i did that before i knew better. i havent seen hide or hair of a mite since. it worked real well. ldydrgn told me how to do it and it worked like a charm!

	Mites Mites, close relatives of fleas and ticks

[MTB Mamba]

Originally Posted by boa_lou

Kent it wasn't Dani that started this it was me. Just keepin ya on your toes

Sorry boa_lou, don't know what I was thinking. Maybe I had just finished reading one of her posts? It wasn't even that early, and I wasn't really tired either so I don't even have any good excuses!

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[boa_lou]

lol it's all good just messin with ya

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[cherriepie]

I recently had the same problem, and my vet recommended Frontline for dogs. Spray a little onto a paper towel and wipe the snake down (except for the head, of course). For the enclosure, she told me the best combo was a half a cup of bleach to a gallon of water, let it air out very very well. This worked wonders for me, and Frontline is expensive, but a little goes a long way and could be utilized again in the future.

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[mnolan9876]

I use Paper towel as my substrate, would it still be ok to use the prevent-a-mite?

[akpuffin]

i had a bad day because of provent a mite so i sprayed my cage, subatrate and all like it says i keep my snake out of there for like two and a half hours because I could still smell it. another half hour later it seemed dried no vapors left so i put my snake back and went to bed. in the mourning she was having confulsions and writhing excessively like she had little control of her muscles so i took her to the vet cuz i was worried. they gave her valume and it knocked her out for two days. when she came to she had regained most of her control and has been improving every day she even ate last night. it was the third time i used that stuff. once a month for the two months before but this time i guess i used to much or just didnt wait long enough. so lets just hope i got rid of the mites

	Mites Mites, close relatives of fleas and ticks