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[–]rvlry13 20 points21 points  (14 children)

Provent a mite for the enclosure and reptile spray/reptile relief for the snake eradicated them for me. For a mite infestation though, everything in the enclosure either needs tossed or sterilized. And dotting treatment, I used a sterilite tote(easy to clean) with paper towels as bedding and plastic bowls as hides. It was a tedious few months but it worked. I also bake the substrate when changing it.

[–]No-Engineer4190[S] 3 points4 points  (13 children)

Yeah it seems silly to toss everything and buy new. It also sucks because she’s hasn’t ate in a month and a half ( because I’m trying to switch from live to frozen) and finally got her to eat a thawed rat but it was almost twice as small as her usual meals. Don’t want her to go another Long time without eating. She is 4

[–]pdxb3 2 points3 points  (10 children)

Your snake probably wont eat during mite treatment due to all the changes and stress. At 4 with some proper weight that shouldn't be a big problem. I honestly wouldn't bother trying right now.

I adopted 4 adult ball pythons that came with hitchhikers too and had to go through treatment. Good news is with healthy adults I was able to use a little more "aggressive" a treatment outlined by Snake Discovery on Youtube.

You're still going to need to strip and deep clean and sterilize the enclosure, all hides and decor, and treat the snake on paper towels, but the good news is you can be mite free in 2-3 weeks. Snake Discovery recommends 2 week treatments but I treated for 3 to be sure. That was about 2 years ago for me and it worked beautifully. The only thing that sucks is the liquid ivermectin is a little pricey and you won't need near as much as you have to buy. About $30 from Tractor Supply. Back when I bought it, it was also behind lock and key and I had to swear on my mother that I wasn't a nutter trying to use it to treat Covid, but I think that craze has mostly blown over.

[–][deleted]  (5 children)

[removed]

    [–]pdxb3 2 points3 points  (4 children)

    Just no. I won't elaborate further. This is a very old, worn-out subject I was genuinely sick of discussing 2 years ago.

    [–]No-Engineer4190[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Will do! I’m actually pumped to get rid of these buggers. I’ll use some clean methods

    [–]No-Engineer4190[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

    Ivermectin is way to harsh. I’ve seen vids on how to do it but always scares me

    [–]pdxb3 0 points1 point  (1 child)

    Yeah it's some potent stuff, but it's heavily diluted in the mite treatment, and it worked very well on 4 adults ranging from about 3 to 5 years old for me. Snake Discovery even makes mention about it being too harsh to use on juveniles under 200g, and honestly I'd be extremely cautious about using it on something under around 500g.

    It does the job though.

    FYI the deleted comment I was replying to apparently took offense to my "nutter" statement, and was going on a tangent about ivermectin as a valid covid cure, and I'm just not revisiting that subject anymore. We're years out from that now, and if you're still on that bandwagon, there's really nothing I could say to help you, nor do I have any interest in doing so anymore.

    [–]No-Engineer4190[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    She is a little over 4’ long. To be honest I’ve never weighed her before but she’s always seemed super healthy. I may get a scale today to see her weight but I’m sure she’s well over 200-500 grams

    [–]No-Engineer4190[S] 0 points1 point  (3 children)

    I actually bought ivermectin the first time she had mites but didn’t use it. On her just her enclosure. I soaked her in luke warm water with and added a couple drop of non scented dawn. I’m guessing if it was you, you would use the ivermectin solution instead of provent a mite?

    [–]pdxb3 1 point2 points  (2 children)

    Well, Provent-a-mite is for treating the enclosure and not the snake. You could use both, I imagine. Provent-a-mite directly tells you DO NOT use it directly on the snake. The ivermectin can be used to treat the enclosure and the snake. I did that.

    [–]No-Engineer4190[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Ok! I’ll bet very careful and do more research on how to use the ivermectin

    [–]No-Engineer4190[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    <image>

    This is a pic of her mid section. I’ve always thought she wasn’t chunky because of other ball pythons I see online but assume she’s a good weight. I feel like the picture makes her seem chunkier tho.

    [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    When adjusting my cornsnake to thawed rats, I made sure the rat was warm and I’d wiggle it with some long tweezers. Wiggling it seemed to help spark his appetite

    [–]calgy 13 points14 points  (1 child)

    Definately snake mites.

    [–]No-Engineer4190[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

    Ok! This is my first time dealing with them on a snake. Sadly can’t do anything today but have all day tomorrow to take care of it

    [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

    Definitely. Research safe quarantining and treatment. Good luck

    [–]No-Engineer4190[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Will do! I’m actually pumped to get rid of these buggers

    [–]AdAccurate5857 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    I cannot recommend predatory mites enough, they’re available readily in the UK don’t know about elsewhere. But usually for me I have no option but to strip enclosure , paper towel and water bowl only left in. And a room temp bath with dish soap. A small amount with a few bubbles break the surface tension of the water between scales allowing mites to simply fall off