# TARUS MITES In my rack will they do the job?



## KylMT (5 mo ago)

Hey I have a small breeding collection of high in recessive morph BP and many invertebrates. We have recently got the curse of reptile mites for the first and hopefully last time. I'm not sure if it was missed on a RTB female we received from Morph Market purchase in May. Honestly I have been lucky and was probably lax in my quarantine for her. Possibly it could have been from person we purchased some feeder rats from a local area breeder who has 6 BP in the same area with the rats I always get feeders from Layne Lab's but the heat and shipping problems we were having with Fed ex around that same time could be where we picked them up. Regardless when we noticed but several snakes had them we removed bedding microwaved it sealed it and burnt it then hexed there tubs and put them all on paper towels then ordered mite spray and tarus mites from the UK. Not liking the idea of using a bunch of mite spray on my babies "I love these snakes like family raised most of them from hatchlings".. I just got the preditory mites today and expected them earlier but they finally got here I found them in my mailbox today and they were hot in there and now I am treating with them tonight It says to use them when you receive them so I am I looked and I just see saw dust but l just thought the best bet was to use them so if they are fine they can eat and get started. So I split them up throughout hoping the best. Any thoughts or advice on this process or issues you see or seen would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. KMT


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## Malum Argenteum (5 mo ago)

KylMT said:


> Any thoughts or advice on this process or issues you see or seen would be greatly appreciated.


My thought: a QT that let mites through is wholly inadequate to guard against nidovirus, arenavirus, cryptosporidium, etc -- that is, collection ending pathogens. Pythons entering a collection should be QTed with biosecurity procedures in place at least long enough to send out swabs for those pathogens, preferably much longer since PCR false negatives are not uncommon (and pathogens like nido can take a couple tests to catch since they're not always shed consistently). "High end recessive morphs" would be worth three consecutive tests and 6 months of QT, IMO.

Mites are thought to be able to able to transmit at least arenavirus (which causes IBD) -- at least, such seems to be presumed by virtually all the snake arenavirus studies in the last decade. Since the QT process has not ruled out virus infection, prudence dictates treating all snakes as carriers.

In light of that, I personally would recommend ending the mite infestation as fast as possible by any means necessary. 'Provent a Mite' is safe and effective when used as directed. I've not used predatory mites and don't even know the process, but it seems to me that PAM used between enclosures could at least help to prevent the spread of mites from enclosure to enclosure while the efficacy of the predatory mites is being determined.


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## LiasisUK (Sep 30, 2019)

Taurus mites are a waste of time and money. Best bet is to put everything on paper. Remove all hides/decor that aren't plastic or resin and treat with reptile safe pesticides. This gives less places for the mites to hide which means treatment is faster acting. Also less places for them to lay eggs 

Availability of relevant products varies a huge amount between UK and USA so hard to advise what to buy. 

However fiprinol works well to wipe down snakes and basically makes the snakes toxic to the mites. It's commonly available as a treatment for ticks on horses.

Then permethrin based flea sprays that are sold for dog beds or pesticide sprays that are sold to use with rabbit hutches and similar work well to Spray down the animal enclosures. This kill any mites that walk on it.


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## Malum Argenteum (5 mo ago)

LiasisUK said:


> fiprinol


*fipronil (sp) for anyone doing a search. It isn't labeled for use on horses in the US (though off label usage seems not that uncommon). It is sold for dogs and cats under the brand 'Frontline'.

'Provent a Mite' is a permethrin product sold in the US and labeled for snake mite use. Probably functionally the same as any other permethrin product or homebrew of similar concentration, but having clear and detailed usage info on the label is a good thing for those who are unsure of the process or who to trust for usage info.


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