Frank the snake
New member
I was speaking to Kathy Love and Mary from Hart's Reptile World (canby, OR) and decided to use the SEVEN DUST method. It worked like a charm!
This is exactly how I did it. Please note, I don't think you are stupid, I just want every step to be exact, extremely clear, and understandable to anybody.
1. I bought a 1 pound, round container of Garden Tech (R), SEVIN-5 Ready-to-use 5% dust from my local Ace Hardware. It was something like $8 and I barely used any of it. (note the spelling is sevIn as opposed to sevEn. Search google for sevin-5)
2. I washed 2 plastic bins with soap and water, rinsed, sprayed down with 5:1 bleach solution (5 parts water to one part bleech), rinsed again, and dried. I was treating 2 snakes. The infected snake cage was on top of the healthy snake cage so I treated them both for safe measure. I would do the same if both snakes were located close to each other.
3. I put a liberal amount of sevin dust in a pillowcase. Enough so there was about a 1/4 inch sitting at the bottom seam. I then folded the top and folded it again and shook up the pillow case. Then I put frank in, folded the top in the same manner, and shook the pillowcase to cover him with dust. This was a quick process, like 5 or 6 shakes. Not too violent, not to gentle. I then put him in one of the clean bins and treated the infected snake in the same manner. (CAGE MUST BE COMPLETELY DRY FOR THE DUST TO WORK) I set a timer for 15 minutes and finished the next steps as fast as I could.
4. I was planning on giving the snakes their wood hide boxes back so I put them in a cold oven set to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and removed them as soon as the oven preheat beeper went off. This is plenty hot. The sap was starting to seep out and smoke. The wood was in no danger of catching fire.
5. I removed everything else in the cages, washed the inside and outside with soap and water, rinsed, sprayed inside and out with same 5:1 bleach, rinsed, and dried. I put paper towels on the cage floor instead of any substrate. Newspaper would have been better, but I didn't have any. I put in the hide boxes but nothing else. No water dish.
6A. The 15 minute timer went off about 3 minutes before I was done treating the cages. This time is more of an approximation than anything else, but I would leave the dust on for AT LEAST 15 minutes. At this point I took the first snake out and rinsed him under lukewarm water, dried him with a paper towel, placed him back in his cage, and then did the same to the girl.
6B. The poor girl had mites all around her eye caps so I coated her eyes with triple-antibiotic ointment (generic neosporin) but just as easily could have used petroleum jelly (Vaseline) if I'd had any. This suffocates the mites.
7. I sprinkled a barrier of 7dust around the outside of the cage thick enough that any tiny mite would have to crawl over the dust to get back into the cages. While it is a very mild pesticide used for vegetables, I cautioned the older kids to stay away and that it was out of reach of the 3 year old. If I ever have to do this again, I would put the cage on an up-side-down box lid of some type to more contain the dust. No problems came of the way I did it, however.
8. I waited one and a half days to add a sterile water dish. This was advised to me by the ultimate corn snake expert, Kathy Love, who has dealt with mites more than you or I care to think about. I fed the snakes 3 days after treatments. Frank didn't eat one week of treatment but kept growing and did not starve. Don't worry about feeding schedule. Getting rid of mites is much more important, and remember... Snakes can go months without eating. You can't feed them right after treatment, but you don't want to treat them soon after being fed, as you would not handle a snake soon after being fed. Day 3 or 4 are the only acceptable days.
9. It takes 3 weeks for mites to surface. I didn't want it to get that bad again. I treated them both the same way one week later (minus the Vaseline to the eyes) and again on week 3.
10. I hated keeping them on the paper for so long, but I waited 4 weeks after the last treatment just to make sure the mites were gone for good. If I saw any little black specs on the snakes, in the water dish or on paper, I looked at them with a 10X (ten power) magnifying glass just to make sure they weren't those pesky mites. I got rid of the 7dust moat and put them back in the aspen. The other things in the cages went back in as well. It has now been 7 weeks or so, and any mite on the other cage stuff have outlived their lifespan in the garage.
I am very accepting of anyone's advice. If you are confused by any phrase, sentence, or word, please let me know. If you disagree with anything I have said, please let me know. If you need any additional advice, let me know. I check my g-mail much more often, so feel free to e-mail me at [email protected].
This was written to help anyone out who is dealing with mites. Any improvement that could be made to this needs to be dealt with.
Hope this helps!
This is exactly how I did it. Please note, I don't think you are stupid, I just want every step to be exact, extremely clear, and understandable to anybody.
1. I bought a 1 pound, round container of Garden Tech (R), SEVIN-5 Ready-to-use 5% dust from my local Ace Hardware. It was something like $8 and I barely used any of it. (note the spelling is sevIn as opposed to sevEn. Search google for sevin-5)
2. I washed 2 plastic bins with soap and water, rinsed, sprayed down with 5:1 bleach solution (5 parts water to one part bleech), rinsed again, and dried. I was treating 2 snakes. The infected snake cage was on top of the healthy snake cage so I treated them both for safe measure. I would do the same if both snakes were located close to each other.
3. I put a liberal amount of sevin dust in a pillowcase. Enough so there was about a 1/4 inch sitting at the bottom seam. I then folded the top and folded it again and shook up the pillow case. Then I put frank in, folded the top in the same manner, and shook the pillowcase to cover him with dust. This was a quick process, like 5 or 6 shakes. Not too violent, not to gentle. I then put him in one of the clean bins and treated the infected snake in the same manner. (CAGE MUST BE COMPLETELY DRY FOR THE DUST TO WORK) I set a timer for 15 minutes and finished the next steps as fast as I could.
4. I was planning on giving the snakes their wood hide boxes back so I put them in a cold oven set to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and removed them as soon as the oven preheat beeper went off. This is plenty hot. The sap was starting to seep out and smoke. The wood was in no danger of catching fire.
5. I removed everything else in the cages, washed the inside and outside with soap and water, rinsed, sprayed inside and out with same 5:1 bleach, rinsed, and dried. I put paper towels on the cage floor instead of any substrate. Newspaper would have been better, but I didn't have any. I put in the hide boxes but nothing else. No water dish.
6A. The 15 minute timer went off about 3 minutes before I was done treating the cages. This time is more of an approximation than anything else, but I would leave the dust on for AT LEAST 15 minutes. At this point I took the first snake out and rinsed him under lukewarm water, dried him with a paper towel, placed him back in his cage, and then did the same to the girl.
6B. The poor girl had mites all around her eye caps so I coated her eyes with triple-antibiotic ointment (generic neosporin) but just as easily could have used petroleum jelly (Vaseline) if I'd had any. This suffocates the mites.
7. I sprinkled a barrier of 7dust around the outside of the cage thick enough that any tiny mite would have to crawl over the dust to get back into the cages. While it is a very mild pesticide used for vegetables, I cautioned the older kids to stay away and that it was out of reach of the 3 year old. If I ever have to do this again, I would put the cage on an up-side-down box lid of some type to more contain the dust. No problems came of the way I did it, however.
8. I waited one and a half days to add a sterile water dish. This was advised to me by the ultimate corn snake expert, Kathy Love, who has dealt with mites more than you or I care to think about. I fed the snakes 3 days after treatments. Frank didn't eat one week of treatment but kept growing and did not starve. Don't worry about feeding schedule. Getting rid of mites is much more important, and remember... Snakes can go months without eating. You can't feed them right after treatment, but you don't want to treat them soon after being fed, as you would not handle a snake soon after being fed. Day 3 or 4 are the only acceptable days.
9. It takes 3 weeks for mites to surface. I didn't want it to get that bad again. I treated them both the same way one week later (minus the Vaseline to the eyes) and again on week 3.
10. I hated keeping them on the paper for so long, but I waited 4 weeks after the last treatment just to make sure the mites were gone for good. If I saw any little black specs on the snakes, in the water dish or on paper, I looked at them with a 10X (ten power) magnifying glass just to make sure they weren't those pesky mites. I got rid of the 7dust moat and put them back in the aspen. The other things in the cages went back in as well. It has now been 7 weeks or so, and any mite on the other cage stuff have outlived their lifespan in the garage.
I am very accepting of anyone's advice. If you are confused by any phrase, sentence, or word, please let me know. If you disagree with anything I have said, please let me know. If you need any additional advice, let me know. I check my g-mail much more often, so feel free to e-mail me at [email protected].
This was written to help anyone out who is dealing with mites. Any improvement that could be made to this needs to be dealt with.
Hope this helps!
