What paper do you use?

That’s exactly what I’m dealing with right now, I learned the mite lifecycle is about 40 days and if a snake only has one or two on it (females can lay fertile eggs even if they haven’t mated so it only takes one) it can take a few generations for there to be enough that they’re noticeable. So depending on how many months ‘several’ is, it’s quite possible that they on one of the snakes.

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Thank you, I’ll look for these! I think I prefer paper towels because of the absorbency but, at least where I am, they’re still being sold at covid prices so I’d definitely prefer something a little more affordable.

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What kind of animal is the paper for?

Ball pythons while we do mite treatment

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Yeah, paper towels are best because they are white and it’s easy to see living/dead mites.

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yeah, that’s what I’ve been doing, but they’re still being sold at covid markup prices so it’s starting to add up.

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This is what scares me about using substrate. I read reviews of some product saying their snake got mites from it. Now the review didn’t mention if it was a new snake or not, but so it could be the mites in that case were already on the snake and they put everything together new. I got my bp baby a few weeks ago and she is on paper towels. I have two bags of substrate, one is forest floor and the other is reptile prime. I’m sure both of them are fine but i don’t want to use either without treating them. do I spray it with Frontline or provent a mite? how much should i spray on the substrate and how long should it ‘dry’ before I can use it?

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Provent-a-mite has clear instructions on how to spray (I think it’ 5 sec per square foot, but definitely double check). The instructions say wait 30 minutes so it dries fully, but since the fumes can be deadly to snakes, especially young ones and certain species (hognose I think is one) some people recommend waiting up to 24 hours and/or making sure there’s plenty of ventilation in the enclosure.

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I would guess that baking the substrate would be a lot safer, but I could be incorrect. That method worked well for me with my hermit crabs.

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This! 150*f will kill mites and eggs

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Been keeping my collection on paper towels the last 2 weeks or so to help me deal with a gnat problem. Well one of them pooped and I can tell you everything is going straight back on coconut. Absolutely disgusting. Stunk up the whole room they are in within a couple hours. I don’t know how anyone can stand keeping a collection on that. Worth the money so they aren’t sitting in their waste to me! Idk if people use more, or newspaper works better or what but that’s too gross.

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Oh my goodness this. Since I’ve started keeping snakes I’ve been telling my friends and family how surprised I am at how little odor they have and now that I’m on paper for a bit I’m realize that nope, they smell exactly as much as I would expect, what’s surprising is how good coconut is at odor control!

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