I believe these are what you are referring to…
Taurrus-L
I’m just going to double check with @t_h_wyman and @thebeardedherper whether they will kill your cleanup crew though.
3 Likes
@eaglereptiles yes you are correct! Found out about this long ago when wiping down bangka bloods was leading to too many war wounds lol.
2 Likes
i can’t see that being the most enjoyable experience. I’ve never held one but Blood Pythons look insanely strong and like they pack a mean punch 
2 Likes
I assure you thomas they do! Lol
3 Likes
Those branded mites aren’t available state side. They are just a certain species, I found the species available in bulk. Hesitant to try it if needed
1 Like
Trick I learned from Dav Kaufman about 3 yrs back. Sevens Dust works amazing on mites. You can buy it at your local hardware store for about 10$ or so. The powder is completely harmless to snakes, not sure about other reptiles. Cover their tub with a thin layer, take out the water bowl and they will be dead in under a week. Sounds kinda weird but it works wonders.
3 Likes
For the lazy, from @thebeardedherper link above.
“7. Taurrus predators are great for bioactive enclosures
Using chemical treatments will invariably mean stripping an enclosure, cleaning and treating the whole setup and then rebuilding it from scratch. Using Tarrus predators means there’s no need to strip a bioactive enclosure, which may have taken months to mature. And don’t worry, Taurrus predators won’t kill off your clean-up crew custodian bugs either.”
3 Likes
Yeah. I contacted the company and never got a response back. I always wondered what keeps them alive and fed before you get them and they feed on the mites and starve.
2 Likes
I’m pretreating for my rats and water mixed with Diatomaceous Earth is what I have to spray,. I wouldn’t put it where the snakes or Reptile could touch but it says its harmless to them as well but could cause skin irritation.
Do you mean Sevin Dust? I can not find Sevens Dust
Correct, I apologize. I didn’t catch that spell check.
1 Like
Sorry, late to the party, I was traveling and off the grid (even more so than usual LOL)
I do not know about Taurrus mites but I use a mixed species of predatory mites that includes A.cucumeris, N. californicus, P. persimilis. and A. swirskii in my naturalistic cages. I have not needed them for snake mites specifically, I just pre-load the cages as a preventative measure because having to tear down the whole system would be a nightmare when you are dealing with a 76cm x 2.5m space. I have not had an issue with them going after any of my clean-up crew, they generally will eat pollen and plant matter if there are not any prey mites available. They also seem to like fungus gnat larvae.
DE is not toxic per se, but I would be inclined to avoid it when it comes to snakes/reptiles. The ultra fine nature of DE (basically like baby powder) makes it easy to aerosolize and thus it becomes an inhalation hazard for them. Additionally, DE is ungodly abrasive. Once upon a time, DE used to be put in toothpaste because it was great for removing the plaque and stains from teeth… Come to realize that it was good at that because it was actually removing the enamel from the teeth (for those of you that do not remember this trivia tidbit, enamel is the hardest substance in your body). If it can do that to teeth, just imagine what it could do to the scales of a snake as it constantly crawls around on DE or if small amounts of DE accumulate between/under scales… 
5 Likes
I’m running into my encounter of this ****s. MY DG breeder male brought these. I followed a three day quarantine and say nothing. My mistake I should have gone longer. Now my 5tub rack and the ball pythons are infected.
I bought he frontline and soaked them all in a dawn dishwater bath first and the rubbed it on then and sprayed their tubs and took out all substrate and hides and water bowls. Last night I still noticed some small one and big ones on them. Does it take days to kill them all off?
Most people use 2-3 months. I do minimum of 3 months with no added animals. If something new comes in the quarantine starts over for the whole rack/stack.
1 Like
Treatment for mites is not an immediate thing. Even using miticides you have to work through at least a full breeding cycle.
1 Like
I bought a ball python from a chain pet store. I quarantined her and I’m glad I did. After a couple of weeks I noticed mites on her.
After a lot of research , I used blue Dawn dish soap. It seems to be a safer alternative to insecticides.
From what I’ve read , snake mites have a twelve week life cycle. So repeating the Dawn dish soap is needed.
After the treatment , I could see mites under scales. I took a sexing probe with a dab of Vaseline on the tip and gently massaged the mite out from under the scale. The mite sticks to the Vaseline on the tip of the probe. I’ve sat for hours getting mites out that way. The infected snake didn’t seem to mind me massaging the mites out from under her scales.
After the last treatment two weeks ago , she is still mite free. Fingers crossed !
1 Like
I treated one of my young boas recently for mites with reptile spray and noticed that he has brown scales dotted on him, what did you mean by the mites leaving scale spots?
1 Like
So update tonight there were no mites in the paper towel the ones last night where all dead. Will continue to monitor but the frontline thing seems like a win.
For me, prevention is better than cure.
In my quarantine I use ‘ardap’ on the tub and substrate. See the link below for directions, do not put it on the animal.
In addition I no longer use oil as stated in this video. See below discussion for how I was convinced otherwise.
I now use Mild human baby soap with a good rinse instead, (dawn soap is hard to find in the UK).
The above has helped me not get mites, but if I idid, I would try predatory mites first which are readily available here.
Both quarantine precautions and any later actual mite treatments would take into account life cycle.
(which is dependant on temperature)
