That most dreaded of all words to any real snake guy. (Insert fast and furious meme here) These things aren’t talked about, or how every show you go to there is at least one person whose table is completely infested. Or how you’re more then likely going to bring home these little pests from a show, or a trusted friend. They are everywhere! If you have more then 4-5 snakes and haven’t had them yet, count yourself lucky. If you say you never get them, congratulations you have them. Keep snakes long enough and you will get them. They seem to be a snake and gecko thing more then a beardy/monitor issue, this is due in part to the basking temps preferred by the latter 2. This not going to be a preventative post, go to YouTube, look up Stephen Katz mite video. (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BwCAuhSVRV4&feature=youtu.be) Do what it says for every snake entering quarantine and have a strict qt procedure in place. This is going to be a post about what to do if you find your whole fucking collection has them!
Firstly a little light homework, go look up the barkers paper on mites, they go very deep into life cycle, history, and even offer some prevention tips. The main take away from the paper is that you have to interrupt the life cycle of the mite, either by killing eggs or the bug itself. So what do you do once these disgusting little bastards are in your room? Nuke everything with a 50% permethrin solution!!
Just kidding don’t do that if you value your animals. So the method I use now is a bit different. I treat both the animal and the cage at the same time. I use a product called frontline, it’s a flea and tick spray for dogs, but is fairly safe to spray on your animals here is a pic for reference.
So first things first, remove all water bowls prior to spraying animals. Your going to withhold water for 24-36 hours minimum. Then your going to spray the cage and animal. For the initial bombing your gonna want to concentrate most of it on the snake, but make sure you also get the enclosure as well. Then your gonna wait 24-36 hours and replace water bowls. In 5-7 days your going to go back and do a complete cage cleaning.
SURVEY THE DEATH AND DESTRUCTION YOU’VE CREATED!!!
There should little dead mites all over the place. This is one of the few times killing should be considered a good thing!! Now completely clean the cage, take the front line and spray a thin coating on the cage floor, add back in your bedding (should be some sort of paper product till your sure the mites are gone) and replace the animal and your going to with hold water for 24 hours. Replace water and rinse and repeat for weekly for 2-3 more weeks.
That’s it. Not particularly difficult, just time consuming.
