by April Corvino

Created on: January 23, 2010   Last Updated: January 24, 2010

Mites are black little insects that love blood their like ticks in some ways except smaller and can be hard to detect unless you know what you are looking for. Reptiles get mites from a few ways. Wild caught reptiles, pet store or breeder enclosures poor hygiene, the outdoors. There are a few ways to tell if your reptile has mites which I will share in this article since how to get rid of these pests and where you get your pet coincide with one another.

Mites are found usually under the scales of the reptile so all you can usually see is the body. Don’t think you can just spot them too easily since some reptiles coloring can hide them. Yet sometimes if a reptile is heavily infested you can see them moving around on the poor reptile. In snakes they love to stay in the heat pits and stay in there.  They are known to kill a reptile since a reptile in relation to the bird is about the same they cannot lose too much blood.

Reptiles do have a natural defense against these pests which is to shed. The only drawback for them when they are put into an enclosure is that they cannot get away from the affected skin full of mites and subsequently the mites return to the reptile. Pet stores are notorious for mites since most reptiles come either from the wild or an un-reputable breeder. Either way since I have worked at a pet store and I was rehired since the other employee who took my job proved not to understand a clean cage is a healthy reptile as well as food and health care. When I was there I had a routine when a reptile came in he would be checked and cleaned for the pest just in case. When I came back nothing was done and I could quickly tell of the mite problem. I have to here it is hard or takes too much time to prevent to me it takes even more to treat them and get these buggers off the poor pet and out of the cage they reside as well.

Prevention

Before you decide to go to a pet store of flea market be sure to check the reptile and decide if you really want to give those people your money when you could be getting a sick pet. If you do get your pet from where ever you decide depending if you are going to put them in with another reptile or by itself. I would suggest quarantine the pet and check it over for any mites on the body of your pet. Do not buy the wood ornaments since these help mites live in the enclosure and they are hard to clean as well unless you don’t mind throwing these out. Even if you do still clean them with a solution be sure

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