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dragonlover1

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my son has just found mites on a darwin he swapped for recently.If I tip the substrate out on the ground will the mites continue to live there? And could they re-infest our reptiles?
We often bring our snakes outside for a wander
I just bombed the enclosure itself,I took it outside.but we have other snakes and reptiles in the same room.Will they be a target ?
 
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Yeah I read it,luckily before I cleaned out the enclosure.that's why I got the bomb.
Doing the whole room could be a problem as we have 6 snakes and a couple of bluies in there but no spare enclosures to move them to

Use tubs with heat cords while you treat everything.
 
A good reason to quarantine any new addition to existing collections. Completely stripping one enclosure to deal with a mite outbreak can lead to stripping many enclosures.
 
I personally would treat your entire collection just in case. Use tubs and treat the whole room if you can.
 
If you use white pillow slips to hold the animals during treatment of the room, you should be able to see if those animals have mites by looking in the white, contrasting pillow slip.
 
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If you use white pillow slips to hold the animals during treatment of the room, you should be able to see if those animals have mites by looking in the white, contrasting pillow slip.

Exactly what I was going to say - you beat me to it Wokka! Your animals will be fine if you put them into clean pillowslips for the few hours needed to do a good fumigation. Just put them into another room, with animals in pillowcases in cardboard boxes to provide a bit of insulation and secure darkness. Then follow the process through...

Jamie
 
thanks fellows;done deal.
Today was my sons day off so he bagged all the reptiles and bombed the room,so hopefully that's it.

Rick

- - - Updated - - -

My son read an article saying a betadine bath would help kill mites?
Betadine was added after the initial soak when snake had finished drinking obviously
any thoughts on that?
 
Just a soak in a tub with an inch or two (I'm old, so around 30mm) of water, and a couple of drops of dishwashing detergent to act as a wetting agent will drown the mites in 30 mins - they die very quickly as long as they get properly wet, which the detergent facilitates. Betadine is an antiseptic, not an insecticide, so it serves no purpose in killing mites. The bomb you have used contains an insect growth inhibitor, which will prevent any hatching mites from developing into adults - it's a hormone that stops them from moulting through their stages into adults, so it's not a poison as such. The bombs contain both a fast knockdown insecticide which kills mites (and cockroaches, fleas etc) on contact - in the two hours or more you leave the room closed, and the hormone growth control chemical for ongoing control for a couple of months. This is long enough to ensure that any eggs which might hatch won't produce mites which go through to adulthood to breed again. The mite lifecycle is only a matter of weeks.

As has already been suggested, quarantine (placing new acquisitions in isolation - another room is essential) for about 12 months is absolutely necessary to reduce the chance of contaminating your existing collection with mites and more importantly, potentially devastating viral diseases which can take many months to show up, and may wipe out every snake in your collection.

Jamie
 
Thanks Jamie. @pythoninfinite , I always knew of the effectiveness of the flea bombs but never knew about the growth inhibitor.

On the betadine suggestion though it can be beneficial to soothe the bites after the mites have been killed.
 
thanks Jamie ,1 quick question though - would the soap hurt the snakes eyes?
I've noticed with the Darwin he keeps his head underwater for a couple of minutes
 
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