Mites good and bad

[amcurls]

Recently I had the unfortunate discovery of snake mites on one of my Meraukes. I went and treated as directed in the care sheet . It is working but curiosity required me to learn more. I an article on biological control ie: Hypoaspis mites on webspinners.com/cloherp/cb-news/Vol-28/cbn-0101/SnakeMites.html . Has anyone tried these?

[donkeybuff]

link isn't working (for me at least)

[Katrina]

I remember threads on these, so I'd recommend doing a search on this topic, but I don't remember anyone actually trying them. It definitely has come up in past before though. Good luck dealing with the mites!

[Spankenstyne]

I've never used Hypoaspis mites myself, so this is all secondhand info... but I have always heard they weren't very effective from folks who tried them. The main problems seem to be they are more fragile than the snake mites they're intended to eliminate. They require deep natural substrates with high humidity to survive and just dry up & die easily in most setups. Some have also mentioned having a hard time keeping them in the enclosure, they tend to escape easily.They seem to be a more useful method for folks keeping exotic bugs that require those deep moist natural dirt & moss type substrates that can sustain them.

[Joey1983]

Hello. When I purchased my merauke in March 2012 he came with a "free gift" from the pet store. MITES! I will be honest I tried the baths, oil baths.. even the natural chemistry repital spray recommended on this site. They all HELPED but certainly were not taking care of the issue at all. He had a pretty bad case. With mites you need to be super aggressive. Also... the reason why I am replying to this thread is because I did buy the hypoaspis mites. I cant say that they helped or not because i kept finding new mites on the paper towels. The only treatment that worked was the following.

1) Buy NIX 2oz bottle and dilute with a full gallon of water. Make sure NIX is mixed well into the water and then place into a spray bottle. Spray the BTS down with the solution from toe nail to head. Don't spray directly into eyes but okay to spray all over head. Let the BTS soak in a bin for a few minutes and then return to a clean new tank. Line the rim with vaseline. This will prevent mites from getting out or in! Also make sure the tank is lined with white paper (paper towels are great)

2) Repeat the above procedure twice more (Once a week) total of 3 weeks 3 treatments. WORKS WONDERS! It is a chemical and could have consequences but I tried everything and I am a very detailed and persistent person and I seemed to not be getting anywhere with these mites until I tried the NIX.

Going forward.. you can use Preventamite spray or even cheaper.... Bed bug spray 2% permetherin when you change out the substrate once a month to prevent any further issues.

Hope this helps.

(again there are a ton of ways to deal with mites. This is just what worked for me)

[Joey1983]

I would also like to add that I cleaned the hospital tank out each day.. with water and bleach and changed the paper and re lined the rim with vaseline.

I also treated the paper towels with a 2% permetherin spray as mentioned above each day (let dry and properly air out before placing BTS back into tank).