Snake Mites are a parasite that feeds from your snakes blood. They are small and light coloured when young, but will become red/black colour when older and filled with blood. The can move surprisingly far over a period of time, and will easily find their way into neighboring vivs.

First its best to remove substrate if you can and use news paper or paper towels, this helps remove places for the mites to lay eggs and survive away from the snake. The snake may want to soak, this helps relieve the snake and helps to hopefully drown some mites.

These are some of the types of removal available:

Frontline is a powerful mite killer and is excellent to clean the viv and surrounding areas, this will kill any roaming mites and all eggs.. it will also provide a residue to help afterwards, however, make sure there is no fumey smell remaining before a snake is placed back in the viv. I personally would recommend only using frontline directly on your snake in a diluted form, as much as 50% if your the paranoid type, but not all people feel this is necessary. One method of applying it is to apply to a cloth and let the snake slither through it in your hand from head to tail, minding that none goes near the eyes or mouth. Also its best to remove the water bowl for a while after application in case the snake goes in the bowl and then drinks some water.

Hypoaspis miles predator mites from Defenders Natural Biological Pest Control - These guys are predatory mites and will hunt and kill all snake mites, and will also eat/kill their eggs! after all the bad mites are gone they will die of starvation. These guys need relatively high humidity to survive so you need to get the sprayer out a few times while they do their work. I used these after accidentally infecting a fairly large number of snakes from a new addition. The snakes were in racks so they spread quick! the predator mites did an excellent job of removing them and I definitely recommend using for large scale 'problems'!

Ivomec is an injection sometimes offered by VETs that can be given to kill the mites as they feed on the treated blood, I have heard that this can cause damage to reptile organs. It also of course does nothing to treat the mites in the viv, eggs etc etc so this method is not recommend.

Oil has been used which is smeared over with a cloth or the snake is bathed in it to starve the mites of air making them let go, or climb out of the scale their under. Seems a slightly messy idea, and would not rid your mite problem alone.


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That's all for now, tired of typing... ill update if I think of something later

Theres something else that can be used aswell, its called F10, heard good things about it and have got some ordered, should be here any day soon

i would just like to point out, that frontline DOES NOT KILL MITE EGGS

should NOT be used on snakes in shed

can cause respiratory distress and damage to snakes if there is inadequate ventilation

water bowls MUST be removed following treatment, frontline is toxic.. if the snake passed through the water, and later drinks it. it may die in agony.

frontline is also toxic to aquatic and amphibeous life. do NOT use it near frogs and fish!

ideally should not be used on young snakes, it has been seen to kill neonate boas for instance..

please, if using frontline, do you own research and read about the pro's and con's. it is not a product to just wipe over the snake and not think about..

N

Thanks for delivering that in your usual aggressive way 'N'.... I just cant help but reply to your comments....

Just flea eggs?: http://frontline.us.merial.com/produ...cts_flplus.asp - Yeah ive heard the normal stuff doesnt kill the eggs, but really if a cluster of mite eggs have been sprayed down with any type of frontline and then wiped down, I dont think they will survive long.

Yeah I would agree with that, wouldnt want the skin getting dryed out!

"make sure there is no fumey smell remaining before a snake is placed back in the viv."

"remove the water bowl for a while after application"

Why would you while treating snake mites, anything even slightly chemical would be harmfull to aquatic and amphibeous? life.

From being wiped down with diluted frontline? with none being ingested or inhaled in anyway?

Where was it suggested otherwise?

Yeah thanks

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Any chance of a tick one?

Do Snake mites live on Humans? or any other animals like tortoise, beardies because since finding a small problem of 'mites' everyone in the house seems to be itching more, or is this just in the mind?
much obliged for any suggestions!!!!!!!!!!!

If you stick to any substrate other than paper, tissue and newspaper, you are putting your animals at risk due to how much longer and harder it can be to fully deal with a mite infestation.

With regards to whether or not the mites will be on the tortoise, it is possible, in much the same way as the mites crawl on to us when we make contact. I'm not saying they are feeding off of her, but could have easily crawled up inside of her shell for example just as they crawl into any item be it a box or such, usually when they have fed and wish to find a cosy spot in which to lay their eggs.

Please all take note that many treatments including frontline are still a toxic substance, and so should be used with great caution.

It is well noted that frontline has killed hatchlings, so I personally would not even use a very diluted treatment on them, much preferring to take the safer method of treating their housing only, and waiting until fully dry, then keeping the hatchling on white paper towel with water bowl and throw away hides. Doing it this way ensures that when the mites come into contact with the container, even though they may still continue to walk for a while until they die, in that time they will not be able to lay or feed off of any other creature, and also it will mean that you have avoided placing the liquid directly onto the snake, which is far better and safer for it.

Frontline stays active for at least a month if not longer so you should try to avoid having to wash the container out, sticking instead to spot cleaning for that period. This then means that you should get any newly hatched mites too.

With larger snakes, it is pointless applying the Frontline directly onto them when they are in shed as it will mean that within a very short time the snake will shed it's skin and the Frontline treatment with it, and then means that you could have to reapply yet again exposing the snake to the toxic yet again within a short while. Better to wait.

As well as hatchlings being at risk, other species are too, including some small lizards/geckos, and off course all amphibians are. Lets not forget the snake that is already weak here. Not a good idea to apply Frontline directly onto them, and the same goes for over weight snakes, and any species where you can see their exposed skin between the scales.

Maureen.

PS Please all, don't forget that your live food, crickets and so on, will also be killed by Frontline, so don't treat anyway near them, and also remember that any container wiped with Frontline can continue to kill crickets for 3 months at least down the line.

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do they kill snakes

Proventamite. I had problems with my royal and this got rid of the little buggers overnight