R.I.P Ticks

[Lost_in_the_Jungle]

i had ticks in my mac earlier today and after about 2 hours in warm water they were just sliding off

just thought i would pass on the info so that other people will not have to stress over them

[junglepython2]

Any picks of them Lost in the Jungle? Never seen them with herps and would love to see the size diff b/w them and mites.

[Lost_in_the_Jungle]

will do just give us a minute

[Lost_in_the_Jungle]

the tick from a distance

[Lost_in_the_Jungle]

i ended up with about 20 or more on the paper after the bath

[junglepython2]

Thanks for that lostinthejungle not as big as I thought.

PS - Is the snake in the avatar yours?

[Lost_in_the_Jungle]

yes he is a male

i hope he has breed this year

[Lost_in_the_Jungle]

there is mopre pics of him in my gallery

i will get some new pics of him soon

he is currently shedding

[Pythoninfinite]

Ticks don't usually drown that easily, in fact they're almost impossible to drown, but mites are easy to drown (it's one of the treatments for them) and it usually takes a couple of hours. It would be very unusual for a captive (bred) herp to have that many ticks at any time, so I would be very cautious. If you smear them with your finger onto a piece of tissue or paper towel, do they leave a little blood smear? If they do, they're mites, and you either got them with your snake, or have recently acquired an infested snake, or have been around an infested collection.

They look about the size of mites as well.

Check them out carefully.

Jamie.

[Mysnakeau]

Had a visit from one of my Wholesale reps today who says statistics predict its gonna be another bad year for ticks. According to some report he had, last year the mid north coast of NSW recorded the biggest number of pets visiting the vet due to ticks. Northern Sydney had the second highest recorded incidences.

Today I was picking grass and weeds for my guinea pigs and rabbits, a piece of milk thistle was absolutely covered with bugs that looked like ticks. I am not 100% sure but they were the right size and shape. I washed them off - dunno if ticks wash off that easy but I made sure I washed them all off anyway.

[Lost_in_the_Jungle]

okay makes sense

i only said they where ticks because they where black and i thought all mites where white

okay so how long till i know they are gone

[Mysnakeau]

Lost in the Jungle I don't know if "reptile mites" differ from mites of any other animal but I know with the likes of rabbits, rats, guinea pigs, mites can look different colour with different colour hair. Surprisingly, i have found that mites look white in dark coats while white coats have dark specs.

The person I bought my python from said she has successfully used human nit shampoo on her snakes to eradicate mites. She has only ever had one problem with mites when a snake friend of hers handled her snakes, obviously he must have had some mites on his clothes and thus gave them to the snake.

[Pythoninfinite]

OK L_I_T_D, if they're mites, and it looks like they are, they're purplish-black mostly, and about the size of a pinhead, and you can see them moving when they're on a pale surface, and as I said before they'll leave a smear when you wipe them on a paper towel. Their faeces are whitish, and this can give your snake a pepper & salt look if the snake is heavily infested. If your snake has them, so will the cage and all it's substrate and decorations, branches and all cracks & crevices. There will be eggs in those places as well, so you'll have to treat not only the snake, but also the cage and it's entire contents. I haven't had to treat for mites for years, but the current preferred treatment is a product called Top-of-Descent, comes in a spray can and can be used without harm directly on the snake (very light misting) and in the cage itself. I would suggest putting the snake into a bag or pillowcase for a few hours while the cage has been fogged with TOD and left closed up to fumigate. Replace the snake into the cage, preferably on a paper substrate, and repeat in 2 weeks to kill any mites which may have hatched in the meantime. Anyone who is more familiar with current treatments please feel free to correct me, or offer alternative advice.

Get onto it pronto, they can breed into swarms in a matter of days/weeks, and will kill your snake by sheer numbers.

Jamie.

[junglepython2]

Make sure you also remove the water bowl when treating, and i found that more then one repeat was needed. There buggers to get rid of. They seem gone then pop up again in a few weeks. So keep a close eye on them.

[Pythoninfinite]

Actually a friend of mine in Perth treated his snakes & cages as described with TOD, then for good measure (after removing the snakes from the room!) bombed the closed room, with cages open, with cockroach/flea bombs, aired it out for 24 hours and then replaced his herps. Hasn't seen a mite since, and it's been months. Would certainly work on any mites not actually in the cages too.

Sorry, forgot to mention removing the waterbowls - very important!

Jamie.