Cant se them easy in pic, but there is about 40 springtails in this photo. Haha.
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Have you tried vegetable oil and dish soap baths to lower the parasite load before treating? You basically just coat the body of the snake in veggie oil (other use olive oil) and let it stay on for about a minute, then put the dish soap directly onto the oil and lather the body up. Wait another 60 seconds then rinse the oil and soap off. Repeat soap if there is oil residue. After that you’ll have knocked about 90% of them off and mite spray can do it’s thing easier.
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You should not use oil on snakes, it is not good for them. The dish soap alone is sufficient for dislodging and disrupting the breathing spiracles on the mites
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Not disagreeing with you, just curious as to why?
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The oil soaks in and actively interferes with the natural oils the animal produces between the outer skin and the underlying developing skin. It can trigger improper, underdeveloped shedding and, in some particularly sensitive species, delamination/degloving
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I thought it would be something along those lines. You can see the difference in their iridescence after using oil. I never had any issues that I noticed after doing it but I’ve only done it to my BPs too.
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I have not done that, the mite spray basically causes the outer ones to fall right off, then the rest start to flea and die after some time in the tank. Sadly i just havent had the time because of my work, so ive been doing what i can with the small time i have to keep the numbers from exploding while im away. Once im back for a month or two, the room is getting scorched earth to get rid of them for real.
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So another update. Finally home from the road, all the enclosures have some amount of mites now, but not as bad as when i first discovered it. The exception being the springtail enclosures, those are still clear. Something of interest, while the scaleless snake enclosures do have mites, the snakes themselves have been left untouched. Considering i couldnt treat them i had thought they would have it the worst, but it seems since there are no scales to hide under, the mites walk on them, but dont feed. For all the husbandry issues scaleless has, this was a benefit i didnt expect.
Now that im home for some time, its time to nuke the room.
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Another followup. I was shocked how little the mites bothered the scaleless snakes and thought there had to be a catch. I found it. Scaleless ball pyrhons still have eyecaps, so while its harder to see with scalelss, the mites did work their way into the eye sockets. So while most of the snake is clear, this area still requires treatment.
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A couple more updates for those following the saga. The treatment is hit or miss for the snakes. Some seem to be doing much better, and have been for a week or so now, while others are constantly infested, even the day following treatment. I know the key is breaking the reproductive cycle, and its going to be a month or two before i can fully get rid of these lunks.
Onto the side of curiosity, i had moved one of the infested snakes to a bioactive enclosure as an experiment. (I did not stop their topical treatments, the only change is i wasnt sterilizing the bioactive enclosure every 3 days.) In about 2 weeks, this snake is just about clean. I can see a couple under the scales, and a few dead ones where the topical killed them after climbing, but they have gone from covered every other day, to just about mite free. In the non bioactive, the mites love climbing all over the plastic hide, in the bioactive, there is just about no visible mite activity.
The infrsted snakes that were not moved to bioactive continue to be covered every 2-3 days (in line with treatment, as it can only be used every 3 days). I sterilize their enclosures every 3 days when i take them out to treat them. The numbers are slowly dropping, but it is night and day between bioactive and sterile. Im begining to wonder if perhaps the person i got the springtails from may have been keeping predatory mites with them and i happened to get some through the exchange. I dont see any evidence of this besides the mites inability to thrive in what should be a perfect environment for them.
Snakes that have been in bioactive with springtails remain clear after all this time.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience and journey with snake mites! I am currently dealing with snake mites in my rainbow boa and this is the most info I have found so far! I have her in a bioactive set-up, but perhaps the springtail colony died out or isn’t large enough to effect the infestation? She’s my only snake at the moment so I think my best move is to just nuke the infestation and start fresh with my bioactive set-up. I’ve moved her to a basic tub set-up after treatment until I re-establish her permanent enclosure.
Question for anyone experienced with dealing with clearing out a bioactive: is there any way to salvage the isopod culture currently thriving in this enclosure? If so, any recommendations on how to catch the little buggers?
I don’t know much about the mites but to catch the isopods you could put food (cucumbers, carrots, etc.) in there and pick out the isopods, however if the mites are attracted to the food you’ll also collect mites and move them to the new enclosure. I would recommend just starting fresh.
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Oof yeah hadn’t thought about hitch hikers. Thanks for the insight!
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You might consider getting predatory mites to take care of the snake mites, they’ll typically leave the springtails and isopods alone!
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I believe it depends on the species. Most predatory mites will eat both springtails and isopods but the springtails reproduce fast enough to still survive.
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If you dont want to start fresh, consider predatory mites, they feed on the snake mites and leave the isopods alone. If you have no springtails the pred mites will canabalize and die off, and if your springtails are thriving, they will have a predator/prey relationship with the predator mites.
If you want to start over, save nothing of the substrate or any of the like. Anything that can be baked at 200 degrees (f) for 2 hours can be saved in terms of decor. This excludes most plastics, but wood and rocks should be OK to bake. As for getting your isopods out, youll likely need to accept that there will be casualties. The bigger ones should be easy to capture from under their bark when they try to scramble, the babies you will never catch all of.
Keep any salvaged isos in their own colony enclosure away from your snakes room (as far away as safely possible is best) for at least a month. It is likely that no matter how careful you are, there will be mite hitch hikers. The goal is for them to starve to death. They need blood to continue their cycle, so you can safely feed and water your isos without the mites getting food. After about a month, any eggs should be hatched and starved, and any mites should have starved. Depending on how your treatment for the snake is going, now is the time its safe to add them back. Though 2 months would be more sure.
Snake mites cycle, it will look clear for a time as the adults die and the eggs wait to hatch, so wait until there are no mites for at least 2 weeks before planning to rebuild your bioactive. It would be a shame to waste all of those supplies just to have it come back.
Before restarting, treat every nook and cranny of the enclosure and then wash it all out good. You want to ensure there are no hidden eggs, and then make sure there are no chemicals that will harm your isos and springtails when you readd them. While treating your snake, toss any shed, it is no good for your bioactive as it will be contaminated.
My infestation is just about gone after switching just about all of my snakes to bioactive. There are a couple i find from time to time, but their numbers are extremely low.
I hope this helps! Im no expert in this by any means, and all advice ive given is simply a matter of what ive read from others, or researched myself. Its not something i wanted experience with, but i hope my situation helps others learn 
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They do eat springtails, but the populations tend to balance. Springtails are prolific breeders, so if the colony is health, the pred mites wont wipe them out
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Ive not found them to be an issue for isopods, their shells are too tough, in fact, many iso breeders actually keep them with their isopods to prevent pests. You are right about springtails though. They will actively hunt springtails, but as youbsaid, if the colony is healthy, they will reproduce fast enough that it doesnt matter.
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Thank you for this gift to new keepers. 
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Mr. Wyman definitely left some sage advice, i’m glad this discussion has brought about so much information for reptile keepers new and old 
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