information needed on mites

i posted this in another forum (yayyy for copy and paste) but wanted to get some more opinions:

hey guys, i have done a forum search, and haven't quite found the information i am looking for.

last night i took out our het. pied female ball python, and i saw a BUG on her! a teeeeeeeeeeny tiiiiiiiiiiiny white bug! and of course i started freaking out, since they had just come out of quarantine, and the whole collection is now together, in a plywood rack. AHHHHHHHHH freakin' out! no idea if i can get Provent-A-Mite here in canada, haven't looked into it yet cause i haven't confirmed if it's mites or not. i really only saw 1 or 2 bugs on her, but none on any of the other snakes.

so i checked the water dishes, and sure enough in about half of the snakes, there were black spots floating at the bottom of the dishes. however i am not sure weather or not it's dirt; we hadn't washed and replaced everyone's water in almost a week. i didn't even bother checking the brazilian rainbow boas, because they're kept in what looks like dirt anyways, so i wouldn't be able to tell weather it's mites or dirt.

what we did before bed last night was empty out all the water, and throw the dishes in the dishwasher. this morning i replaced everyones water, and i'm going to wait a day or two and check again for black spots and also try and find a magnifying glass.

the only thing that leads me to believe it's not mites, is that the bug was white, and i didn't find any on any other snakes, not even in the typical under-chin skin folds. i have read that mites are black, or red.

also about a year ago i saw a white bug on an ornament in my snow corns cage, but that was it, the only bug that i saw.

could the bug just simply be some sort of bug that came from the plywood? it's a new rack that we just built a little while ago, and the wood was obviously sitting in a warehouse at Home Depot, and then sat out some more at my boyfriends grandparents garage after we had cut the plywood.

sorry for the long-winded post, BUT what i'm really wondering overall, is WHERE DO MITES COME FROM!?!?!?

we had them all in quarantine, and inspected all of them whenever they were handled. do they just immaculately concept in snake collections or WHAT! i had a work friend come in and tell me that Repti-Bark that has been misted seems to attract tarantula mites. but...where do they "attract" from?

and also, what harm do they cause to the snakes? is it like fleas in dogs? can they wipe out a whole collection? are they really as hard to get rid of as a flea infestation?

is this due to poor husbandry? i certainly hope not, as i am SOOOO diligent about EVERYTHING.

i know, i know, "it happens to everyone" but this is really gonna suck if it happens to be mites.

does anyone have pictures of mite eggs in water dishes? or a snake that is infested with mites?

any info would be so greatly appreciated.

Mites are generally black/dark brown...I read a post on here once that talked about white mites....it stated that they were wood mites, from either the wood used for the rack or the substrate...I honestly can not remember which. I also vaguely remember it saying they were not a health concern to the snakes just a nuisance.

In the search option type the word mites and you should get all posts mentioning mites and hopefully you can find it and read it yourself for better info. Sorry I do not remember all the details that well.

Read this....
The Life History of Snake Mites | Vida Preciosa International, Inc.
The best way to tell if they are the dreaded mite is to crush one between the flats of your thumb nails.... They will leave a blood spot.....

Heres my link from my lovely mites experience
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/sho...ighlight=mites

Originally Posted by Asbit

Mites are generally black/dark brown...I read a post on here once that talked about white mites....it stated that they were wood mites, from either the wood used for the rack or the substrate.

Hmm, I've seen a couple of these over the last few months but never on my corn. and never seemed to be trouble.



when i got my corn it sadly came with mites, here is a quick fix though:

1, just go to a shoppers drug mart (or pharmacy), and get something called NIX, its lice shampoo(pharmacist will know about it if you cant find it), get a 500ml bottle of water, put a tablespoon of Nix(thats all you need) into the bottle of water and shake.
2, get a container, put your snake in it, and pour some of the solution in with your snake, not enough to drown it, but you need to make sure it gets all over( a light shake should do) and let your corn bath in it for about 10-15 minutes this will kill all of the mites on your snake.
3, clean out your viv, get rid of all of the substrate clean any hides, water bowls, everything! with the solution, then just pour some into the viv and wash the walls down with it.
4, Dry your viv (paper towels, wash cloth what not), replace the substrate put your snake back in and repeat the proccess once every week for 3 weeks, just to be sure you got them all. (most likely they will all be gone and no more eggs after the first try)

Nix is maybe $15 at most

and you don't need to use all of the solution, just 500ml per 1 tb spoon is the consistency it needs to be. you should have a lot on NIX left over

hope this helps

Jay has a good sticky in his members forum regarding treatment of mites. Here is the link.

http://cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52545