# Help Please!!! Mites in Venomous Collection



## immunetek (Mar 13, 2008)

Hi Folks,

Can anyone help me with the best solution for Snake Mites in a venomous collection, My Western Gaboon is heavily infected with Mites and they have certainly spread to my Falsy and my pair of Eastern Diamond Backs. So far I have seen no signs on my Cobras or my WDB but I want to treat everything at once to be on the safe side.

Before I kept hot snakes I succesfully treated mites on a Burm with Frontline but this isnt really practical with this collection.

Anyone any ideas?

Just for info, the collection is;

1 Western Gaboon
1 FWC
2 EDB
1WDB
2 Naja Samarensis
1 Naja Atra
2 Naja Annulifera

Any help would be really appreciated


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## GT2540 (Jan 31, 2012)

I really wish vapona was still on sale and ivomec is difficult to get hold of.

I did try something in a yellow can about £20 to treat my bloods and it seems to have worked well. Give me a little while and I will walk down to snake house and dig the name out.

gaboons are just mite magnets, mine use to turn white overnight


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## immunetek (Mar 13, 2008)

Vapona seems to keep coming up as an answer within my friend circle. I believe I can still get it just not on sale in the UK.

Thanks for your help


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## GT2540 (Jan 31, 2012)

immunetek said:


> Vapona seems to keep coming up as an answer within my friend circle. I believe I can still get it just not on sale in the UK.
> 
> Thanks for your help


callingtons mite spray

Hope you are lucky with the vapona, the active ingredient has been banned in Europe and the Sates for a while


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## immunetek (Mar 13, 2008)

Do you know why?

I'll look into Calington, ive heard of it I believe it's known as "top of descent"


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## GT2540 (Jan 31, 2012)

immunetek said:


> Do you know why?
> 
> I'll look into Calington, ive heard of it I believe it's known as "top of descent"


The yanks believe it causes cancer/brain damage in infants, not a surprise for a 1960/70's pesticide. Think the ingredient is "dichlorvos"


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## SnakeBreeder (Mar 11, 2007)

When I asisted the MAFF, in the early 1990's, they had several snakes with organ failure, normally involving the lungs.
Most of these snake, when checking their history, had been treated with Vapona for mites and became ill weeks or months after treatment. The link was never confirmed as far as I know. It was know that the snakes had had peices of vapona, in plastic cartons, left in their cages, sometimes for days at a time. This was a common practic at the time.
This had nothing to do with the european ban of Vapona just a cautionary note.

Have you thought of trying the defender mites ( the mites that eat snake mites ) Hypoaspis miles.
Used correctly they are very effective and chemical free.


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## dunny1 (Feb 2, 2009)

callingtons mate works a treat.


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## immunetek (Mar 13, 2008)

Thanks for the help guys, I went and got some callingtons today and did the first treatment.

You could see the mites falling off almost immediately so fingers crossed.

Thanks again


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## base (Apr 10, 2010)

dont you need to dilute callingtons.. cause it can kill smaller snake species :/


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## becky89 (Nov 24, 2009)

We have just got over a case of mites on our burm didn't want them spreading the FWCs next to him so took him out of the reptile house. never seen so many.Killing the mites is the start of it, just remember you need to break the cycle. And getting rid of the eggs is the most important part as im sure the mite sprays don't kill the eggs that well so we fed ours up as much as we could to get a shed out of him, that gets the eggs out in one go.
then a light treatment after just to make sure.
He is now free of mites and eggs in 3weeks.
cheers.


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## Khaos (Jul 9, 2007)

Callington's is brilliant. Spray it in substrate (while the snake is out) and let the vapour escape the vivarum. Then let the snake in and, as mentioned, watch the mites fall to the floor. I've seen one treatment kill every mite on my giant rat snake when other sprays did nothing at all. Very good stuff, worth every penny.


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## Tim Hallam (Aug 17, 2010)

Ardap works very well indeed :2thumb:
is cheap easy to use and has a residual factor of up to 6 weeks and you can get it easily.
needs to be used with caution but if the animals are fairly healthy it's of little consequence.
sanitise the cages, lay out kitchen towel spray sparingly, leave to dry and then replace animal - do not spray animal directly and do not allow it to come into contact with wet Ardap , leave out water bowl and watch the little bastards die
repeat after 7-10 days to sort out the last hatch.
it's very satisfying to see dead mites all over the floor 

cheers.


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## mikeyb (May 8, 2011)

my understanding of this is either way ur gonna have to pick them up so why not callingtons the vivs then tube them and front line there body my understanding of front line is it leaves a pesticidal residue on the snake that then kills any mites going onto them then leave them in rubs with news paper for a few days any mites near the points end will eventually move and come into contact with the frontline. and i belive they even do an avian version of frontline now which might be worth looking at as bird fall off the perch for even minimal eposure to chemicals they dont like


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## PESKY (May 25, 2010)

predator mites? simple easy fast cheap and best off all you dont need to do anything in particular with your snakes i.e restrain re-house etc


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## Herpalist (Jun 17, 2009)

Whatever you get good luck with the application of it and goes without saying be careful. This is the worst possible prospect for a keeper of hots. It was for me but thankfully none of them ever got mites and I dont keep hots anymore anyway.


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## Tim Hallam (Aug 17, 2010)

sorry but don't really see how treating venomous snakes with mites is any 
more difficult than treating non venomous, presumably if you keep venomous snakes then you are capable of capture,restraint moving from A to B etc .
so where's the issue?


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## Lord Vetinari (Mar 4, 2011)

Tim Hallam said:


> sorry but don't really see how treating venomous snakes with mites is any
> more difficult than treating non venomous, presumably if you keep venomous snakes then you are capable of capture,restraint moving from A to B etc .
> so where's the issue?


'capable' doesnt equate to 'want to do it' or 'easy to do it'.

If you can avoid it I'm sure you would want to!


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## SiUK (Feb 15, 2007)

Tim Hallam said:


> sorry but don't really see how treating venomous snakes with mites is any
> more difficult than treating non venomous, presumably if you keep venomous snakes then you are capable of capture,restraint moving from A to B etc .
> so where's the issue?


I can definately see how treating venomous snakes for mites is more difficult than non venomous, even getting them out of the viv is more difficult before you have even started with the mites.


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## Tim Hallam (Aug 17, 2010)

SiUK said:


> I can definately see how treating venomous snakes for mites is more difficult than non venomous, even getting them out of the viv is more difficult before you have even started with the mites.


no that's cobblers if you are an experienced and fully competent venomous snake keeper then there is no issue. if in deed it is an issue then you should not be keeping venomous snakes. if you do not have the confidence to safely restrain and control your animals then you are a risk to others which is exactly the whole point of the dangerous wild animals act.


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## immunetek (Mar 13, 2008)

Well Tim, the reason I asked for advice is because I dont want to put myself or others at risk and certainly dont want to cause stress or distress to my animals. Yes I am capable of restraining and securing my snakes but this causes stress to both them and me and I would rather not do that if it can be avoided.

It is more difficult to spray down hots as Si pointed out, you cant just pick up a Samar Cobra and spray it down like you would a Royal can you?

Thanks for all the positive replies and the Mites are now gone thanks to callingtons and close monitoring


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## chondro13 (Aug 18, 2008)

mikeyb said:


> my understanding of this is either way ur gonna have to pick them up so why not callingtons the vivs then tube them and front line there body my understanding of front line is it leaves a pesticidal residue on the snake that then kills any mites going onto them then leave them in rubs with news paper for a few days any mites near the points end will eventually move and come into contact with the frontline. and i belive they even do an avian version of frontline now which might be worth looking at as bird fall off the perch for even minimal eposure to chemicals they dont like


Callingtons in my experience is so effective that the above suggestion would be completely unnecessary. 

As with ANY snake - an outbreak of mites should be dealt with as efficiently as possible with as little stress as possible. Treating hots shouldn't be much more difficult than treating non venomous. Take snake out, spray viv with callingtons, put snake back in. Simples.


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## Tim Hallam (Aug 17, 2010)

immunetek said:


> Well Tim, the reason I asked for advice is because I dont want to put myself or others at risk and certainly dont want to cause stress or distress to my animals. Yes I am capable of restraining and securing my snakes but this causes stress to both them and me and I would rather not do that if it can be avoided.
> 
> It is more difficult to spray down hots as Si pointed out, you cant just pick up a Samar Cobra and spray it down like you would a Royal can you?
> 
> Thanks for all the positive replies and the Mites are now gone thanks to callingtons and close monitoring


I don't understand what you mean by "spray it down" you shouldn't really spray any animal down with insecticide! as I suggested earlier with Ardap and as been suggested with Callingtons there is no need to "spray it down" and fiprinol shouldn't be sprayed down either! so treating a venomous snake is no different to treating a non venomous snake as regards to mite treatment .
my point is having to get hands on with a venomous snake is at times nescessary. any body can keep a venomous snake in a viv but not everyone could remove an eye cap. so differentiating between venomous and non-venomous is irrelevant when talking about any remedial treatment animals require. what I find surprising about this thread is that you need to ask advice for something so fundamental to reptile husbandry as mite treatment information for which is easily and readily available and yet your list of charges would suggest you have the experience and knowledge of seasoned keeper.
I don't mean to sound blunt but I usually do.

I'm glad you've controlled your outbreak. Mites look great when they're dead!


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## immunetek (Mar 13, 2008)

Hey Tim,

Dont worry about sounding blunt, I prefer people to be straight as you have been. Yes I have experience and prefer not to get hands on unless its necessary. You are quite right, keeping hots in a viv is just like looking at them at the Zoo and isnt really looking after them.

The reason I asked the question initially is because the only other time I have had a mite problem was before I kept hots and many years ago I was advised by my vet to rub frontline into the infected burm. At the time I was naive and inexperienced so I did what the vet suggested.

In hindsight it wasnt the right thing to do, although it worked, but I didnt want to go down the same route this time. However experienced you are as a keeper there are always new situations encountered and, although this one isnt new to alot of people it was to me so I asked the question to get the best advice.

Im sur ethere are questions I could answer quite easily to some people that I would think are quite basic but you dont become an expert without asking.

Cheers


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## SiUK (Feb 15, 2007)

Tim Hallam said:


> no that's cobblers if you are an experienced and fully competent venomous snake keeper then there is no issue. if in deed it is an issue then you should not be keeping venomous snakes. if you do not have the confidence to safely restrain and control your animals then you are a risk to others which is exactly the whole point of the dangerous wild animals act.


Of course its not what are you talking about! I have full capability of safely handling and restraining any of my venomous snakes, but that doesnt mean that working with them is as easy as working with non venomous. 

Perfectly capable keepers and experts get bitten all the time, why? Its because no matter what you can never guarantee to be safe all of the time no matter how good a keeper you are. Its a numbers game the more snakes you have the more time you spend with them the higher the chance of an accident, thats the way it is.

With a non venomous snake there is never the chance of an accident and that in itself makes it safer and easier.

Anyone that thinks otherwise should never keep venomous snakes, you need to have a healthy respect.


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## immunetek (Mar 13, 2008)

Never a truer word spoken Si.


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## Tim Hallam (Aug 17, 2010)

you're kind of missing my point somewhat so I'll leave it at that 

I'm glad you've sorted your're mite problem and hope you do not get a recurrence.


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