he is on a 15 watt heat cord its slightly warm at the moment, no chance of burning I'm crazy about keeping mites of but in the last 3 months i would have moved 60 snakes in and then out again! the black colouring is sitting on the top of the scales which is the strange thing not like mite sitting underneath, but will be watching with a keen eye!!! as i have not seen mites in the flesh before just random pics.