A way of mite prevention and treatment, informative thread. - Page 4

pet_snake_78 · 01-04-17, 07:16 PM

Sometimes you just gotta strut full on nude to get the job done. The sacrifices we make for our reps.

**Tsubaki** · 01-04-17, 07:26 PM

Serious risk of unwanted nipple piercings, I'll pass

GyGbeetle · 01-06-17, 03:54 PM

If I choose to use Nix, what kind do I buy? They have shampoo, conditioner, cream. I'm assuming I don't buy the starter kit right?

**Tsubaki** · 01-06-17, 04:54 PM

They only sell the conditioner here, brand i use is called Loxazol.

GyGbeetle · 02-01-17, 12:33 AM

I'm so glad I have this thread subscribed. Found another mite tonight. I'm so angry! I HATE these stupid bugs!!!!!!!! It fell off my son's snake while he was holding her, so he panicked and took a shower (apparently my son is a snake and can get eaten by these things). We had JUST put all the bedding back in, too, because we had a couple of dry babies needing some extra moisture.

I have so many words to say to those dumb bugs. I'm going to try and find predatory mites, and keep these guys in strict lock down until we get this eradicated.

**Tsubaki** · 02-01-17, 04:09 AM

Mite treatment always takes a minimum of 8 weeks, since the life cycle of a hatching mite Egg《-》Egglaying adult is 6 weeks minimum, and you can not see a mite that easily if it's younger than +/- 2 weeks. That minimum is assuming you didn't miss any eggs/mites in or outside the enclosures. I'd always advise treating longer than theoretically nessecary!

GyGbeetle · 02-01-17, 04:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tsubaki

Mite treatment always takes a minimum of 8 weeks, since the life cycle of a hatching mite Egg《-》Egglaying adult is 6 weeks minimum, and you can not see a mite that easily if it's younger than +/- 2 weeks. That minimum is assuming you didn't miss any eggs/mites in or outside the enclosures. I'd always advise treating longer than theoretically nessecary!

I was arrogant in thinking I had this licked the first time around. Or just really worried about over exposing them to chemicals I don't know enough about with snakes. But they all seem to be doing fine with the treatment of Nix so far. No neuro signs. My woma is stressed though being on the paper towels.

**Tsubaki** · 02-01-17, 08:11 AM

You can add wet sphagnum moss in between treatments to keep humidity up, just have to toss it afterwards. (Add it day after treatment, toss it day of next treatment) will also prevent bad sheds during treatments. Pour water on it regularly, should work fine. Why is your Woma stressing? You can always add disposable cardboard hides if they miss cover during treatments.

GyGbeetle · 02-01-17, 09:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tsubaki

You can add wet sphagnum moss in between treatments to keep humidity up, just have to toss it afterwards. (Add it day after treatment, toss it day of next treatment) will also prevent bad sheds during treatments. Pour water on it regularly, should work fine. Why is your Woma stressing? You can always add disposable cardboard hides if they miss cover during treatments.

If I mist the moss, will that also get rid of the Nix? Everyone has hides in there (everyone has plastic hides, so they were washed really good, and put back into the clean tanks), except for 2, which had bark hides. So they have cardboard hides while the bark hides are being treated. They seem quite content with these for the moment.

I think the Woma is stressed because of the paper towels. I don't think it feels good on her skin. She's usually very active at night, but then once we turn off the lights and go to sleep, she's typically resting in her hide (knowing she won't be taken out at that time I'm guessing). So when she had to stay in a pillow case while we treated the tanks, she escaped a couple of times before we let her back into the tank, with those paper towels, and she kept pacing back and forth, even with the hide in there. I'm wondering if I can just put her back onto a towel instead. I don't really care to know how many mites are coming off her (only 1 snake in the collection was found to have mites, and it wasn't her, so I'm comfortable she doesn't have them, even though they were all treated). she's usually on a towel, and she really likes it from what I can tell.

What do you think? keep her on the paper towels and see if she appears less stressed? they're going to all be on these paper towels for awhile, and I want them to be comfortable in the process.

**Andy_G** · 02-01-17, 09:39 AM

Nix isn't going to work very well on mosses or loose substrate. As Tsubaki said, it's imperative to routinely and frequently throw out the moss if you will use it as it's a great hiding place for the little buggers.

Your snakes experiencing bit of stress on paper towels now is far better than them experiencing stress from a mite infestation. Stick it out with the paper towel.

GyGbeetle · 02-01-17, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy_G

Nix isn't going to work very well on mosses or loose substrate. As Tsubaki said, it's imperative to routinely and frequently throw out the moss if you will use it as it's a great hiding place for the little buggers.

Your snakes experiencing bit of stress on paper towels now is far better than them experiencing stress from a mite infestation. Stick it out with the paper towel.

*sigh* I just hate to see animals in distress. I'll stick it out as best as I can.

Where else should I treat? My son was holding his snake on the mainroom couch, when the mite fell off onto his shirt. I am thinking we don't need to treat the couch as long as we don't handle the snakes too much during this time frame, and if we do it's in an already treated area. So what are thoughts on this? Treat the couch and mainroom? Treat the whole house, even if snakes weren't in there? How about the car? Can they drop eggs off in the car, and then have those newly born mites hitchhike back into the house?

Should I just set the whole house on fire and start over again?

**Andy_G** · 02-01-17, 10:30 AM

Handle the snakes over a treated area so there is residue present for any mites that may fall. Treat any other surfaces that the snakes have touched, only once should be enough since there's at most a few stragglers. Any snake that you see mites on should be handled only for maintenance until the issue has been dealt with.

**Aaron_S** · 02-01-17, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy_G

Handle the snakes over a treated area so there is residue present for any mites that may fall. Treat any other surfaces that the snakes have touched, only once should be enough since there's at most a few stragglers. Any snake that you see mites on should be handled only for maintenance until the issue has been dealt with.

Can't stress this enough. Please ensure to handle them minimally until the infestation is taken care of.

GyGbeetle · 02-17-17, 01:26 PM

I have another question. We are going on treatment #3 of Nix this weekend. 2 days ago, we found a rather large adult mite, not moving, in the tank where we first noticed the re-infestation of mites. We are treating all the tanks, everyone is on paper towels, put olive oil on the tops of the tanks to prevent them from hopping out, sprayed the carpet around the tanks. So how come 3 weeks later we still found an adult mite?

Just to be sure, we soaked the snake from the tank we found the not-moving (but not confirmed dead before we smooshed it) mite from, and nothing came off of her. Checked the scales, checked the vents/mouth/eyes, and didn't see anything. So where did this mite come from? Are we truly eradicating the mites?

I'm a little panicked because we are on treatment 3, and I wouldn't expect to find any mites at this point, least of all adults. If anything, I would think baby mites would show up since this would be about the time eggs would be hatching.

We will continue for a fourth treatment after this weekend. No other snakes have been found with mites, so it doesn't look like it's spreading, just confined to this one tank. I'm really at a loss. Is the Nix helping? What else can we do?

**Andy_G** · 02-17-17, 01:48 PM

You must have missed spraying an area. Are you spraying all around the tanks? Inside, outside, top, bottom, the tables they are on, any shelves or wood around them? The fact that you are only treating one of the tanks may also be problematic and increase the chance of recurrence and infestation. It's hard to tell you what/if you're doing something wrong because we aren't doing the treatments personally. I hope also that you aren't rinsing anything off and that you are keeping water dishes out for 24 hours after spraying. Also, any loose substrate (moss) should be kept well away from everything, and ditch or bake anything porous. I would also suggest treating at least weekly instead of every 10 days. I think I mentioned in another thread that I actually treat uarantined animals twice weekly for a period.

Something else you could do is buy some sevin dust and sprinkle it around as an extra safeguard, but with proper treatment, nix should do it.

That's all I can think of for the time being. I'm hoping that I touched on something you've missed so we have something to blame for you finding more flipping mites!