Mites

[rhiannon-2]

Hi everyone,

I got my first skink sunday afternoon, his name is Steve He was from a lady who had quite a few reptiles in her house, I had a look at him and he seemed well cared for and happy. We got him home and he was a little nervous, but that's to be expected so we decided to just leave him be as he didn't appreciate it when I went to check on him. He's spent most of his time buried since he got here, but earlier Steve came out and I noticed several mites crawling on him. As he's still quite wary of us I didn't check him over too much, and he's now re buried himself.

My question is, what would my first step be? I know I've somehow got to treat him, I have ordered some treatment from a pet store to pick up later and I know his tank has got to be cleaned of course, should I clean his hides and logs or just throw them away? Should I treat him first or clean his tank first? I wanted to change his tank setup a bit anyway as he doesn't have a basking rock and has too many pieces of wood in my opinion, but as he's nervous I was going to leave him a while. If anyone could give me a hand that would be great.


Rhiannon and Steve

[Linnea]

you have to do both his treatment and cage cleaning to get rid of them. its like the hen and the egg.

No need to throw hides and such away, if you can, bake them in the oven and the mites will die
do not bake plastic items - the gases are toxic to you and your skink. just make sure to wash them properly and leave outside the terrarium for some while (im not sure about the longevity of mite eggs)

substrate.....i would bake that too since you got wood chips. usually but not always, mites come from dirt substrate and such and not the chips, but they kan lay eggs on those too i think. maybe use some soft towels(washable) and paper substrate till hes clean?

one on this forum, reptileking, offers free fecal exams for your skink for the cost of the shipment of it ;D may be a good idea to make use of this opportunity since your skink had mites.


about the actual mite treatment for you skink, wait till the others answer. i have never treated a skink with mites and only know basic hygiene care x.x sorry
if you use a bath treatment then thats a way, then theres some spray (which can also be used in the tank i think). but im not sure.

as long as he has a basking place with good temps it may as well be a log my skink prefers his log hide rather than the nice brick i put in...but he switches sometimes. variety is good and they sure make use of everything your put in their tank sooner or later.

since you just got your skink it is sad you need to treat him directly, but the sooner the easier for him to settle down after that.

[Joey1983]

Hello... I am in the process of treating my guy for Mites as well. It is definietly a hard and long process but with daily care and atack you should be able to clear him.

First thing first: You want to remove your skink and place him into a water bath (luke warm) covering most of his body for 10-15mins (some people advise longer)(wathing him and making sure most of his body is covered) this bath will help drown a large amount of the mites. After a few minutes you will start see little black flecks (some larger than others) floating around and some even suken at the bottom (those are the mites).

After his first bath you will want to dry him off and spray him down with a product called: Reptile Relief by Natural Chemistry. (it is a none toxic spray that is meant o be used irectly on the skink) Spray him liberally but avoid his head and work the spray into his skin and go against the scales so you get the product underneath where the actual mites are! You can use a q-tip or cotton pellet to apply the spray o the top of his head, ear and nostrils. During this time you will want to isolate him and let him hang ou while the spray is drying.

YOU NEED: to 100% treat the cage he was originally in. Throw out all subsrate, and remove all hides rocks etc. They should b soaked in a bath tub submerged for at least a day in hot water with some bleach. The tank if possible.. should be sprayed with bleach and soaked in bath tub underwater.

Your skink will have to be isolated in a new tank for he next two weeks (or more) until you get rid of these mites. It takes time but with proper care you will do it! In the new take you should only provide paper towels (daily) as substrate and fesh water/food of course and heat lighting. Each day you will need to bath your skink for 20mins minutes and use the reptile relief once every 3 days. You may also want to clean the "new Tank" daily as well to remove kill eggs and mites inside the new tank. Every bath should get better and better and eventually the goal is to see no more mites. Once you acheieve this you will want to still contune treatment for anoher week to be sure of total cure.

Afer he is DE-mited... you will wanted to again RE clean his original tanke and hides etc. Th new substrate should be baked (30mins at 300deg) to kill anything off (i don take chances) and you will want to try a product called "prevnta mite" by proproducts. You spray it in the ank (without your skink or food or water) and allow to dry before placing skink and water food back into tank. This spray works for abou 4 weeks to kill any new mites and woks on eggs. Its a great preventative product.

Its a long process... just stay strong... you may also want to daily vaccumm the room his cage is in and invest in a bed bug spray to spray all the carpeting, chairs, beds, linens and curtains in th room because the mites can survive for up to 30-40days and you dont want him to get einfected.

** also wouldent be a bad idea to line the top of the rim of the take with vaseline to prevent the mites from getting out of the tank into he surrounding oom to lay eggs.

Anything further or questions feel free to post. I have learned A LOT since my baby go his mites!

[Richard.C]

id say the mites came from where the skink came from,not nessacarrily the substrate,definatly get the mite spray,u will need to do weekly treatments for a bit to kill off any eggs that hatch,as its hard to get rid of the eggs

probably best to clean substrate and furniture to,bake in oven like linnea mentioned if it wont melt or burn,nice looking skink and welcome to the forum

[rhiannon-2]

Thanks everyone! He would have definately had the mites when he got here, we've left him and his tank exactly as it was as he's so stressed from the move we thought it best to leave him for a while. Now I've seen the mites though he's going to have to have a bath whether he likes it or not, I think he's going to object to being picked up out of his tank but I'll just have to hope he doesn't bite me. Once my partner gets home I'll get him to give me a hand cleaning all of his things and we'll go from there. I didn't expect to be doing this so soon after getting him but can't be helped I suppose, thanks again.

[Fatal_S]

As another option that involves less stress, consider the possibility of no-pest strips. Basically they're a bug-killing strip that you'd hang near the tank. It puts out a chemical that kills any inverts. I've used it with great success for a mite infestation (but it also killed my Tarantulas who were in the next room). There are some dangers, as it's a very powerful chemical. First off, no food/water can be in the tank (the chemicals form a film over everything, you don't want the skink ingesting it). Second I'd only have the strip indoors for a few hours at a time each day, and preferably in a well-ventilated area. When the strip isn't being used store it in a few ziploc bags and put it outside.

[rhiannon-2]

The strips would be a good option, but I have a 7 month old boy so I can't really. I went to pick up the mite treatment I ordered from the pet shop and upon recieving it, read "not suitable for skinks" on the back of the packet, they had helpfully forgotten to mention that bit when I ordered it. I gave him a bath anyway and got a lot off, but there were so many, they were in his ears, under a couple of scales, everywhere. I pretty much binned everything from his tank, bleached it and made him a temporary hide from a box. I'm going to find a vet tomorrow, it's too late here to call so I'll do it first thing, and then perhaps write a not so polite message to the woman I bought him from.

[Richard.C]

is it a reptile based mite spray?odd its not suitable for skinks,baths may help,but you wont get rid of them that way,plus if they have laid eggs more will keep coming back

[Spindown]

I've been hearing of vets starting to give Ivermectin shots to snakes, maybe it would work for blueys? also, you might do some research on Revolution (yes the same stuff used for dogs and cats). My friends vet uses that on his super sensitive BRB's (PAM kills these) and it works great and seems to have no ill effects. I havent done the research on either of these, but have heard of them being used. Might be worth looking into. His ex-gf was a vet tech and HAD done the research on these, I"ll see if i can get it from her.

Something I HAVE used (although only for snakes so far) has been Provent-a-Mite (aka PAM). It works wonders for certain species of snake, but you have to be careful with others.
My friend also uses NIX spray solution (find someone who has done this!) with certain types of NIX and soaks the animal and cleans out the cage with other things, but its a great treatment for snakes, could work for lizards...sorry i have never had mites with any of my skinks. *crossing my fingers it stays that way!*

Whatever you end using, make sure you treat the enclosure for the entire life cycle of the mite (45 days i think). You do NOT want to kill the adults and then have eggs hatch out. X_X
Obviously make sure you talk to a vet who has dealt with blueys before you try any of the snake remedies...just because it works for snakes doesnt mean it will necessarily work for lizards.

[Fatal_S]

I used the dilutted-Nix solution on my first mite infestation. It worked wonders. http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/general- ... mites.html

[Joey1983]

I used the dilutted-Nix solution on my first mite infestation. It worked wonders. http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/general- ... mites.html

Hello can you please elaborat the process of how you did this? This was for your Skink? Mine currently has a prety bad infestation and treatments seem o be working but I have only used.. Baths, Oil baths and reptile releif. I am considering the nix. Its been abou a week and I am still finding these buggers on him.

[Fatal_S]

I used it on over a dozen skinks at the time, ranging in age from around 6m/o to 4y/o. I went with the Nix because I'd lost a skink and had several others in terrible shape, and Reptile Relief was doing absolutely nothing.

Basically you get a little tube of Nix from a pharmacy and a 4L jug of water. Put the Nix into the water and shake it all up. Then put some of that into a spray bottle (dollar store one, you'll throw it out after).

Empty the tank as much as possible, remove food/water, and spray everything (skink included) with the Nix solution. Spray the top and sides of the tank and the walls/floor around the tank too. I repeated the treatment 2 more times (weekly) to make sure everything was totally gone, but I never saw another mite after the first treatment.

Just like with the pest-strips, Nix will kill all nearby inverts and isn't good for anything to ingest.

[Joey1983]

I used it on over a dozen skinks at the time, ranging in age from around 6m/o to 4y/o. I went with the Nix because I'd lost a skink and had several others in terrible shape, and Reptile Relief was doing absolutely nothing.

Basically you get a little tube of Nix from a pharmacy and a 4L jug of water. Put the Nix into the water and shake it all up. Then put some of that into a spray bottle (dollar store one, you'll throw it out after).

Empty the tank as much as possible, remove food/water, and spray everything (skink included) with the Nix solution. Spray the top and sides of the tank and the walls/floor around the tank too. I repeated the treatment 2 more times (weekly) to make sure everything was totally gone, but I never saw another mite after the first treatment.

Just like with the pest-strips, Nix will kill all nearby inverts and isn't good for anything to ingest.

Thanks fatal: 2 questions... did you get the nix on their heads? and how long did you th spray sit on them for? Should I bathe him in regular water after a certain time period to remove the nix residue?

[Fatal_S]

I got it on everything, heads included. And there's no baths afterwards, the residue is toxic too and kills any mites wandering around. I did keep lots of airflow in the tanks and the room itself in case of any nasty fumes.

[Joey1983]

I got it on everything, heads included. And there's no baths afterwards, the residue is toxic too and kills any mites wandering around. I did keep lots of airflow in the tanks and the room itself in case of any nasty fumes.

Okay I am just concerned that it will kill the poor skink.. you sure this is pretty safe to do? wouldent it just be a good idea to put him in a bath of it instead (meaning pour the gallon of solutin into a tupperware container and just submerge the skinks body? and use a q tip to do the head area??

[Fatal_S]

I don't guarantee anything is safe. But I personally experienced no issues when using diluted-Nix, even though my skinks got it on their heads, in their faces, and even tried drinking it. I didn't sit there spraying it into their eyes, but I didn't avoid the head either. You can avoid the head if you want for the first treatment, and see if that works. I needed to kill all the mites right away. And the residue shouldn't be washed off, it stops the mites from recovering and moving back in. Once the Nix dries it's no longer a concern for the skink (as long as the skink isn't eating/drinking anything the Nix was sprayed on).

[Richard.C]

there have been reports in the past of pest strips harming developing babies in gravid females,also if not enough ventilation can harm the lizard being treated to,i used to use them years ago with out issue though

in australia,we get an areosol spray called top of descent,its got a reptile label on it now and the name aludes me,but it is great for mite treatment,and quite safe,a few puffs into the cage and seems to knock the mites out fast,u can spray all over the lizard as well,no need for bathing ect either

[Usersafe]

Use Tweetmint. Totally safe for reptiles and will kill all mites, lice, basically any insect with an exoskeleton. Or you can buy the Lice R Gone but Tweetmint is cheaper and you can also use it to clean anything. www.safesolutionsinc.com. I've been using for 10 years and at one time sold it as a distributor for them.

Steve