#snakemites

What is a Snake Mite?

My interpretation of a snake mite.

    What are snake mites?  If you ask anybody that has ever dealt with them, chances are they'll tell you "Mites? I hate those blood-sucking little bastards!"  Mites are parasites that feed off blood.  They are arachnids, but because of their love of blood, I compare them more with mosquitos than I do spiders.

How Do I Tell If I have a mite problem?

Imagine that you're holding a snake, smiling proudly as his tongue flickers and he moves smoothly through your hands.  Then, out of the corner of your eye, you notice a little black speck scurrying across his head.  Upon closer inspection, you hear a high pitched, menacing chuckle and a sound similar to liquid being sucked through a straw.

Okay, maybe I made that last part up.  But all joking aside, count yourself lucky if you notice only one little hitchhiker on your snake.  They usually travel in groups.  If you see one or more crawling bugs on your snake, you most likely have mites.

Why are they so serious?

Mites can carry serious illnesses from one snake to another, quickly spreading sickness throughout a private collection.  Many people have lost entire collections of reptiles worth thousands of dollars because of diseases spread by mites.  They can be very deadly, and affect snakes in a number of ways.

They can cause loss of appetite

They can cause poor shedding

They also lay their eggs around the eyes and anal vents of the snakes, and I'm sure each and every person reading this can imagine how uncomfortable that would be.

How Do I Treat Mites?

There are several treatments available for mites, some more effective than others.  There are a number of steps that should be taken in preparing to eliminate a mite infestation.  Most of them, I'm sad to say, are "snake oil" treatments.  By this, I mean they claim to treat mites but they are ineffective at best, and absolutely useless at times.  One of the most used and most effective treatments is the Provent-A-Mite spray by Pro Products.  It is specially formulated for snakes (and perhaps other reptiles, but I'm not sure on that), and from everything I've heard it works wonders.  Others use Equate Bedding Spray, which is typically for lice.  Many people have used this with no problems, but I've read pros and cons of using it.

There are other sprays out there and some very unorthodox treatments as well.  The bottom line is, mites are bad.  Very bad.  They can kill your snake if left untreated.  I sincerely hope that this post is informative and helps every reader learn something.  I will provide links to some websites discussing mites as well as the Pro Products website so you can see for yourselves what the hype is about.

Links:

Dealing With Snake Mites

http://lllreptile.com/info/library/care-and-husbandry-articles/-/dealing-with-snake-mites/

The Life History of Snake Mites

http://www.vpi.com/publications/the_life_history_of_snake_mites

Pro Products

http://www.pro-products.com/

Enjoy!