Removing Snake Mites from your Collection

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This step by step guide, if followed step by step will rid your Boa Constrictor Collection of all snake mites.  Keep in mind these steps must be followed exactly as instructed or you are not likely to be successful in your quest against these pesky creatures. 

Step 1: Understanding Snake Mites

Snake Mites have 5 stages of life; Egg, Larva, Protonymph, Deutonymph, and Adult.  only the Adult stage is easily visible to the human eye with the Deutonymph stage being visible under extreme scrutiny of a snake or its environment. 

The average life cycle of a snake mite at 80 degrees is 15-20 days in which it can lay in excess of 70 eggs and travel great distances at a speed of 1 foot every 20 seconds.  In cooler temperatures snake mites can live up to much longer which means more eggs and more distance traveled.  They can also scale just about any surface, including walls of Rubbermaid tubs.   

Snake mites feed on the blood of your Snake and once a female has done so, she will look to lay her eggs and start the process over again.  In order to disrupt this process you must follow these steps in order and be very thorough in your work.

 Step 2: Preparation

In order to properly treat for snake mites make sure you have the following items available at all times during this process and it is best if kept for any future additions to the collection (See Step 8).

- Mite Spray (Active Ingredient must be 0.5% Permethrin, not to be mistaken with Pymethrin)      

- Dish Soap (Such as Dawn)

- Paper Towels

- Soaking Containers with limited ventilation and preferably white lids

- Garbage Bags

- Vacuum Cleaner

Step 3: Treatment of Snakes

Because your snakes may have mites on them currently even though you have not seen them it is best to soak them in a soapy water solution.  Pour a few tablespoons of dish soap (i.e. Dawn) into a minimally ventilated Rubbermaid container and then add enough water so that your snake will be completely submerged, but not floating.  Allow the animal to soak in this solution for 4 - 6 hours.  The soapy water will drown most if not all of the mites on the snake.  While waiting for the snake to soak complete steps 4, 5 & 6 and do not place  the animal back into its enclosure until these are completed.  

Note:  Some snakes may experience a bad shed after the soapy soak, this is normal and there is nothing to worry about. 

Step 4: Removal of Substrate

To break the life cycle of snake mites you must get rid of all mite eggs and the only way to do this is throw out all of the substrate in every cage.  Since the naked eye cannot see mite eggs and you don't know where a mite has already traveled you must take the ultimate precaution and remove all the substrate in each and every enclosure in your facility.  Though this may seem wasteful and expensive, the cost will prove to be worth it versus the alternative of continuing to treat for them because of passing over one cage the has mite eggs in it thus allowing the process to start over again.  This is the most important step in removing mites from your collection. Step 5: Cleanup

After all the substrate has been removed from your enclosures go through and clean each and every cage with your normal disinfectant and paper towels.  Make sure to spray out all the cracks and crevasses in each cage.  Then thoroughly clean your floor.  If you have the ability to move your cages do so and clean behind them as well.  If you have carpet, vacuum it several times.  For hard flooring, sweep it very well and then mop with a standard floor cleaner. 

Make sure to clean all cage fixtures, hide boxes, bowls, etc. as well.  They can just as easily harbor mites or eggs.

 Step 6: Treatment of Environment   

Once your cage has been thoroughly cleaned and is dry, apply your mite spray with the active ingredient of 0.5% Permethrin to the entire enclosure, hide boxes, outside of cage, etc.  Do Not Spray This On Your Snake.   Allow time for this to dry completely and then place the water bowl and snake back in its enclosure with only paper towels as a substrate.  Paper towels are used because they are white in color and mites can easily be spotted on them even in nymph forms.  They also allow for easy clean up during this cleansing period for your snakes.  It is recommended that you keep your enclosures this way for 60 days from the last time you have seen a mite alive or dead and that you continue to treat each enclosure for mites each time you clean it.

It is crucial that all areas are dry before placing an animal into a treated area as the product can lead to neurological damage or worse if the snake inhales or licks a wet spot of Permethrin.

During this time, it is important that water is not spilled on the treated areas as this can create a potentially harmful side effect if your animal comes into contact with this treated water. 

Another important note if you have lizards or Amphibians as well, make sure they do not come in contact with this spray at all.  It has potentially lethal effects on small animals such as Geckos or Frogs.

Step 7: Patients

Though this can be the toughest step for most as we would all like for our animals to get back to their normal habitats and us to our normal routine, it is very important to follow through with the recommended time period for removal. 

A good gauge to use is your snakes shed cycle.  Once you have completed all the treatment for the first time keep a record of each animals shed cycle.  Once each animal has shed once, mark the last snake to shed and then when that snake sheds for a second time since the treatment began, providing you have not seen a mite live or dead since then, it should be safe for you and your animals to return to normalcy and you will be Mite Free!

Step 8: Quarantine

Now that you have endured the most stressful and frustrating part keeping snakes you are much more aware of the painstaking work that it takes to rid your collection of these pesky creatures.  From this point on, whenever you bring a new snake into your collection, quarantine it for a minimum of 60 days.  Treat the snake as if it has mites and follow all the steps above for the quarantine period and remember don't skip anything, those cost is too high.  If you have not seen any sign of mites after the 60 day period you are safe to introduce the new snake to your collection.  If you have found mites, wait 60 days from the last mite you saw.  Good record keeping is very important and you will be a much better more responsible keeper for it. 

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For Questions or Clarification on anything in this paper feel free to contact me at brandon@summitreptiles.com.