I only discovered the oil method several years ago when a friend of mine was hospitalized for several weeks and asked me to keep an eye on his snakes (8 carpets from juv to aduld, 1 yearling woma and 1 childrens python) . On my first visit i discovered they were all mite infested and the young woma apeared to have a respiratory infection. I took the woma to my local Vet who prescribed Fortum injections. I then started studying up on snake mites and came across an old treatment surposedly used by zoos or reptile parks in the past that involved covering the animals in vegetable oil . I have never had mites on any of my snakes, but never liked the idea of exposing them to "TOXIC CHEMICALS" i should have said Sdaji , if i ever did so i decided to give the oil a try. At the time old mate was hospitalized he was in the process of decking out his garage and building new enclosures for them so he already had them set up in temporary plastic tub homes in his laundry. At first i tried soaking each one in warm water with a little dishwashing liquid as it lowers the suface tension of the water and prevents any attached mites from trapping air bubbles to breath , and sure enough it seemed to help , in the short tem anyway. The next day after consulting my Vet i covered them all by hand in canola oil . Not only did they look nice and shiny , when i returned the next day i could clearly see dead and dieing mites in the bottom of the tubs. It seems that when they come in contact with the oil , there finnished. I only had to apply it once and cleaned out there tubs every day for a week. One of the carpets was a juv albino darwin and the mites were easy to see on him as they seemed to gathered mainly around his neck , labial pits and under his chin. Meanwhile i used Anti mite spray (can't recal the brand) to treat the laundry they were kept in by basicaly chemical bombing the room then sealing it up for 2 days then repeating the process again , to get any eggs that hatched after the first attack. I spent a lot of time working on old mates snakes and didn't want to spread the damn things to my 3, so every time i finnished working on them i would shower and put all the clothes i was wearing in the wash. Fortunately mine were not effected but i know just what to do now if they ever do get mites . Old mate was released from hospital after about 3 weeks and resumed care of his snakes. To this day as far as im aware he has had no issues with mites since.