Are these mites? Snake mites? bark mites?

[orient81]

My royal has never struck at his food so I always have to leave it on the hide for him over night. Anyway the past couple of times I've done this, the next day the underside of the gerbil is crawling in tiny little insects...little white things which move very fast and disapear under the gerbil as soon as it is moved.

My royal has not eaten for 3 weeks and I'm not sure if its connected.

What should I do? are these bark mites or snake mites? also the dead skin has still not come off his neck and when I try and peel it he gets a bit nasty as if I'm hurting him.

[carl24bpool]

I would certainly get rid of the little critters. Anything else living in the viv except for the snake shouldn't really be in there.

[beguana]

yeah sounds like you have a mite problem it might be connected to him not eating
heres a cupple links might help you out

Getting rid of reptile mites

Mite treatments for reptiles ... that work!
or listen to the other people on here, im sure somone will help you out (i find you understand it better on here then websites lol!)
hope your snakey feels better soon!

[Spen]

I thought I had parasitic mites the other day, turned out to be black globular springtails... but yours sounds like mites, though if they're light coloured, they're probably not parasitic, but rather dust mites. Which are an arse cause they're everywhere. Good luck man.

[mark11888]

i just had the same problem recently. my thread is titled things in my viv. i thought it was mites at the start but these guys on the site give me lots of help and info and when i got sorted i found out that they were bark mites. bark mites are small and white were as snake mites are black.The bark mites wont do any harm but to be on the safe side i cleaned the whole thing out (orchid bark) and put in the zoo-med repti bark to be on the safe side. hope this helps

[SnakeBreeder]

Did you say little WHITE things.
That's unlikely to be reptile mites as those basicly come in black and red.
Fast moving white things in a moist cage are often springtails or "peat lice".
You find these under things like bit of bark if the bark is resting on peat or damp substrate.
Just clean the cage and get rid of all the wood and substrate.
Wash the snake in luke warm water and dry it with kitchen towell.
Keep the cage completly dry for a week.
A Water bowl is OK but make sure it does not spill, you need to keep the cage floor completly DRY.
You should find you then have no white beasties running around.
Hope this helps
Stephen.

[Paul Chase]

Originally Posted by SnakeBreeder

Did you say little WHITE things.
That's unlikely to be reptile mites as those basicly come in black and red.
Fast moving white things in a moist cage are often springtails or "peat lice".
You find these under things like bit of bark if the bark is resting on peat or damp substrate.
Just clean the cage and get rid of all the wood and substrate.
Wash the snake in luke warm water and dry it with kitchen towell.
Keep the cage completly dry for a week.
A Water bowl is OK but make sure it does not spill, you need to keep the cage floor completly DRY.
You should find you then have no white beasties running around.
Hope this helps
Stephen.

Yup i will agree with this completely.

[Bernie]

Yup, we get these every now and again with the BRB's, with the high humidity and the orchid bark, they often come in the substrate and can thrive. We switched to coconut husk (the stuff that expands in water) and haven't seen 'em since. Pesky lil buggers!

[blue-saphire]

white ones are bark mites and red ones are snake mites.

[Plutino]

re: retained shed on the neck:
I'd put im in warmish water just deeper than his thickness for a good 10-15 minutes, then see if it doesn't come off a bit easier, if not, leave it for a day or two and try again. It'll likely come off on it's own after a good soak. Soak'll also give you an idea if your royal has mites or not as they should come off in the water.