The Easy, Fast and Effective Way to Treat Snake Mites

There is a lot of confusion and misinformation about snake mites and how to get rid of them. This 5 minute read will explain the best way to attack the problem.

Overview:

1. Never use no-pest strips
2. There is no reason to soak the animal
3. There is no reason to use Dawn dish soap
4. There is no reason to breakdown your vivarium
5. You should not use oils
6. This method will kill your “clean up crew”, which is OK because the clean up crew thing is a myth. They dont actually do anything (See link to more info about this below)
7. But first: Are you sure you actually have parasitic snake mites and not harmless soil mites?

Let’s cut to the chase: The easiest and most effective way to get rid of snake mites is to use chicken / garden dust containing 0.25% permethrin. You can buy these products online or at the farm or garden stores. Just double check to make sure they contain 0.25% permethrin and not more or less!

This is the same active ingredient in the same concentration as Provent-a-mite at a fraction of the cost. And because it’s a powder, it lasts longer than the sprays once applied.

We will talk about why this works so well and why the other options are either not needed or down right dangerous below. First, lets talk about how to use it.

Simple: Remove the water bowl and turn off any misters, sprinkle the powder over the substrate and on any branches or perches, in the hide boxes, return the water bowl after 24 hours or so. In 10 days repeat. If the infestation is severe you can sprinkle the dust directly on the animal, avoiding its head. 

And thats it! You don’t need to soak the animal, wipe it with oil or otherwise stress it out. The mites will die quickly. 

As an example, I had a large cage – 8x3x3 feet with a 5-6 inch substrate of potting mix, and a layer of “forest litter” leaves and straw on top. The substrate was kept very slightly damp and the cage construction was wood. Some may think that this would be difficult to eradicate mites from, but in fact the simple method I describe here took 10 minutes of my time and about $10 worth of mite dust. The mites were totally eradicated and I had enough dust left over to treat a dozen more cages.

But why does this way work and what’s wrong with the other methods?

Well some of the other methods are harmless but silly. Why on earth do so many people believe that “Dawn” dish soap works better with animals? Its just dish soap people! And dish soap isn’t useful in the treatment of mites. It doesn’t help us.

And some methods are downright dangerous and should *never* be used. No-pest strips are in this category. We used to have to use them long ago when no better, safer options existed. But they are a dangerous neurotoxin that can cause permanent neurological damage to your animals, and WILL have a dangerous impact on you as the keeper. These products are designed to be used in areas that are not occupied by people or animals. They are highly volatile – they seep into every crevice and disrupt normal nerve function. I have been exposed to it. It causes agitation, excitement and nervousness initially, but symptoms get progressively worse from there. There is NEVER any reason to bring these dangerous chemicals – which are banned in Europe – into our homes or collections. 

There is also never any reason to soak our animals or coat them in oil. These stressful practices will not appreciably speed up the eradication of the mites. Mites are very easily drown, so just misting your animal with room temperature water will cause any mites on the surface of the animal to die.

If the mites are numerous on the animal you want them off as soon as possible, so lightly sprinkling the mite dust directly on the animal or spraying with the 2.4% permethrin spray may be called for. The problem of course are the mites burrowed in under the scales and around your snake or lizard’s eyes, may be hard to reach with the dust or spray. If these mites are not killed by the application of the permethrin, they will die as soon as they emerge from feeding, which they must do within 7 – 8 days.

There are other insecticidal treatments for mites as well. These are best left to the professionals. Ivermectin, for example, has been used to treat mites, but it has a number of issues including toxicity to tortoises, so should be avoided by non-professional keepers. (1)

By the way, before you begin treatment for snake mites, make sure your snakes (or lizards) actually have them. Adult snake mites are tiny black dots that you will see crawling around the snake’s body and head. The pre-adult stage snake mites may be lighter brown color, and can resemble soil mites, but they will exist in the presence of the black adult snake mites. If all you see are light brown or whitish tiny bugs crawling on your snake, hold off till you get a positive ID. Soil mites are harmless but their population can quickly explode in vivariums that are too wet, which can annoy the animal and alarm the keeper!

So it’s much easier to treat snake mites if you understand their simple life cycle and what they need to grow and reproduce. This knowledge will help us avoid the ineffective and the dangerous mistakes we see so many keepers make when suggesting mite treatment. 

Snake mites lay their eggs in humid areas. The larvae that hatch out need at least 75% humidity in order to molt into second stage nymphs (protonymphs). Below 75% humidity they desiccate and die. These larvae do not feed before molting into protonymphs, which do parasitize animals.

The protonymphs feed on the snake or lizard hosts:

“Unfed protonymphs often congregate on inanimate objects within the cage and swarm onto any source of disturbance including, cleaning utensils, the caretaker’s hands, or the cage occupant. Upon contacting a suitable reptile host, protonymphs quickly crawl either under scales or around the eyes, attach and commence feeding. Attachment to complete engorgement requires 3 – 7 d at 25°C (77°F). Newly engorged protonymphs drop from the host and congregate on rough surfaces within the cage that are protected from light.” (2)

So its important to understand that these protonymphs feed, then leave the host to digest their meals. When they do they inevitably come in contact with the mite dust we have sprinkled on the substrate and perish. This is one of the reasons we want to use the dust rather than the spray – I believe, but havent seen conclusive evidence – that the dust will remain effective longer than the spray, which *may* breakdown faster in the environment. Of course using both in tandem – with the spray directly on the animal and the dust for the cage – may be advisable with heavy infestations. 

But at any rate, these protonymphs molt into deutonymphs, which dont feed but like the adults crawl all around the cage. Again, it is this exploratory stage that works in our favor since this is when the bugs will come in contact with the permethrin powder and die.

You can keep mites from spreading by simply sprinkling the mite dust around the cage that you see the infestation. But keep in mind the mites may have already migrated to surrounding cages, so be prepared to treat others, or possible all eventually. Consider using the mite dust prophylactically on nearby cages before the mites get established. After 3 or 4 weeks go by with no mites, you can rinse any remaining dust off the substrate, plants or other cage furnishings.

Now, for those of you who have isopods, springtails or other “bugs” in your bioactive vivariums. You will be relieved to know that these bugs actually do no good at all for your vivariums. And yes, I know you have been told otherwise. But they don’t. The natural bacteria that is in and on every substrate is more than sufficient to break down animal waste, and in fact will do so much more quickly than any bugs will. And fungus is not consumed in any noticeable way by springtails. There are side-by-side comparison videos available to prove this in my FB group: naturally Keeping Reptiles and Amphibians.

So feel free to use this method should snake mites infect your animals, and free yourself from the myth of clean up crews too! Its a win-win.

So where did your mites come from? 

As pointed out in Mader, one common source may be live feeder mice from pet stores

“Food items such as live mice have also been incriminated in transferring snake mites into collections. Pet shops often maintain rodent cages near snake cages, and when the snakes have mites, they often get into the rodent cages. Thus, an unsuspecting owner may carry home mites with a live prey item. 

Freezing prekilled rodents appears to eliminate snake mites; however, freezing is not effective for eliminating pathogenic bacteria or protozoans. “ (3)

So to wrap up, it’s really quite simple to get rid of snake mites. Many of the remedies you find online are not helpful, some are dangerous. Dont soak, dont use oils, DO NOT use no-pest strips. Do use 2.5% permethrin chicken / garden dust as described in this article. 

1. Teare JA, Bush M. Toxicity and efficacy of ivermectin in chelonians. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 1983;183(11):1195–1197.
2. Journal of Herpetological Medicine and Surgery, Volume 10, No. 3 and 4, 20000
   The Biology, Clinical Significance and Control of the Common Snake Mite, Ophionyssus natricis, in Captive Reptiles
   Edward J. Wozniak1, DVM, PhD, Dale F. DeNardo2, DVM, PhD
3. Mader’s Reptile and Amphibian Medicine and Surgery. Divers and Stahl, ElSevier 2019