For some background: I recently purchased a very large collection from someone local to me. He truly cared for his animals but they seem to have come with mites, that I just identified this morning.
I have been watching videos and reading the heck out of the other boards regarding how to get rid of them. Most of them mention only having a few snakes or identifying them on a single new snake…I have 62. Currently they’re in a smallish room in my house in multiple racks. We purchased a 12x12 insulated, air conditioned shed but it won’t be completely ready for them for at least another week. I have experience keeping snakes since I was young but I don’t have any experience with mites or treating a group of this size. I have new hatchlings all the way up to breeders and all of the equipment to treat. I’m sick about it!
I have Reptile Spray right now. I plan to bathe each one in water with Dawn and then move them into cleaned tubs with paper towels. Repeating this weekly for the next few weeks, spraying their racks throughout the process. I also have ASF colonies in the same room. This will have to do be done systematically with such a large group, starting with my hatchlings and moving to adults.
I’m just wondering how do I treat the room and prevent this from being a never ending cycle? Any tips for treating such a large group? I’m trying to put together a plan to ensure I’m not going to bring them to the new building. Thanks so much in advance!!
You added a plethora of resources that I hadn’t included in my quickdraw response though @t_h_wyman! Plenty of reading material in one place now to address the topic at hand
Please be careful, this product was reported in the corn snake group on Facebook as the suspected cause of death of an animal. The Amazon reviews also mention deaths with photos.
I’m seeing a lot of risk in most of the mite-killing choices, which makes it difficult to choose something. I’m thinking frontline spray or the reptile spray. I don’t think I said before but all of my snakes are ball pythons.
The snake mites are not going to infect the ASFs so you are safe in that regard. However, it is possible for them to take cover in the bedding and then resurge out after you get them controlled on the snakes.
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This.
To use “on” an animal, gently spray a towel or something and then wipe that on the animal. Do not spray directly on the animal
I’m hoping after starting a round or two of treatments, I’ll move the snakes to their new area and leave the ASFs. Is it reasonable to think that after removing the snakes, any mites hiding in the ASF bedding will die without a food source?
Mites can aestivate for a while so I would keep a cautious eye on the colony but I would not necessarily expect them to be a permanent source of potential contamination
So recently had 3 snakes come in with mites and went scorched earth. But the big thing was I bought a steam cleaner off Amazon. A professional one but a step down from industrial. Kills on contact and you can get into all the books and crannies. Then I released 30 to ladybugs in my reptile room after the steam cleaning of the rack and spraying bins down with frontline. Only had one tiny resurgence in just the top bin. Went to town with steam cleaner again then wipe down snake bath. Bin sprayed with anti mite spray let dry while snake with small amount dawn in her water. For a couple hours. Been mite free 4 or 5 months. Hopefully in the clear. Best part of the steam make sure it leaves the hose at 160 plus degrees that will kill eggs in contact
I had a mite problem after I got my Bumblebee from a chain pet store.
I tried Dawn dish soap as I’ve seen in videos on YouTube. They kept popping up even after the Bumblebee was free of mites. They can and will travel from one side of a room to the other in a matter of days.
I removed all substrate from my entire collection and put everyone on paper towels sprayed with Provent-A-Mite spray.
After using the spray twice (a week apart) , no more mites.
I used it on multiple snakes with no issue from 200g to 1600g, however, it is extremely important you do not get it in their mouths or eyes, it is toxic if ingested. Externally i saw no issues, so the bad cases my guess would be either sensitive animals, or improper application.
It works well, but is limited by its lack of being used on the head area, the mites will just move to the eyes, however it works very well to clean the enclosures (rinse thoroughly afterwards) and as a preventative between mite life cycles. For me however, this spray wasnt enough to cleans my collection, only mitigate the numbers.
Switching to bioactive and adding predatory mites was what finally got it under control for me, however if you dont have the ability or want to go that route, wymans guide was extremelt thorough! (You in a general term here as this is more towards the OP)
This! As i mentioned before it is extremely important you do not get this in their body, wetting a papertowel with it and applying this that way helps get rid of the risk of ingestion, as well as allowing you to wipe off the dying mites and dispose of them.
If you want to be extra safe, if your snakes like to soak in their water, i would rinse them off after applying this to them so they dont soak and contaminate their water. Reptile spray works fast at killing, and the residue isnt that effective at it, so you arent losing much effectiveness by cleaning it off afterwards.
Those are not safe around animals. It says directly on the packaging to not inhale vapors or to keep them anywhere near where people or pets regularly are. They are primarily meant to be kept in garages close to the outside doors. You are putting your snakes and your own health at risk using those in that way. @jbglow Definitely don’t do this. Instead follow the advice of @t_h_wyman.
