SNAKES? Royal Python has MITES! Help

[BabyDubsEverywhere]

So I wanted a snake for a very long time, researched to death, finally convinced DH we should go for a Royal.

Well, we bought George (5 month old) home on Sunday, saw him feed, he looked nice and bright, active and 'happy' we fed him ourselves yesterday afternoon, all seemed fine, then we noticed the speckled apperance on the kitchen towl in his box, held him and had two mites, one large ish, running on my hand.

Would anyone be kind enough to impart their wisdom here? What is your fail safe way at ensuring mite removal? Its making me crawl just thinking about it. The reptile shop i bought him from, (they breed all their own and are ace with the torty) have advised i use a frontline spray for cats and dogs. I could only get bob martin spray, would this be okay do you think? They said the ones they sell for reptiles are rubbish and not to buy from them. Its not that i dont trust the guys at the shop, but the internet gives such conflicting advice and i wanted a real persons opinion, (thats mumsnet to me lol)

We have other pets, harvest mice, hamsters, degu, rabbits, dog, cat and tortiose. Could they 'catch' the mites? should i treat all the pets/habbitats? do i need to put everything on kitchen towel for example?

TIA

Sorry this is rather late, but there's lots of info here , although for corns.

I'm sure there'll be royal-specific advice here :)

I wouldn't consider using anything other than this; www.surreypetsupplies.co.uk/callington-mite-spray-100g.html

No need for kitchen towel etc just make sure the water bowl is out and leave out for 24 hours. Don't use frontline, it is only affective against the adult mites and you can't put it on the ocular scale where the mites like to hide best.

Take the snake out the viv, and the water bowl, spray, leave till spray settles, and put Royal back in, it kills eggs and mites. If you want to make sure they are all gone you can spray it again two weeks later. Surrey pets is the cheapest place you will get it. Most of the professional snake breeders use this and it works a treat.

Good luck!

So glad i just came back to this, thanks for that, we have been mite free for a few weeks, but looking at the cycles of mites that doesnt mean to much, I will order some of that in ready for next time!

thank you

Callingstons is excellent. I have also used frontline with success, but Callingtons is much easier and better IMO.

Bob Martin mite spray contains pyrethrins; these are toxic to cold-blooded animals due to poor metabolic handling, and would kill reptiles and fish. We would therefore strongly recommend NOT using Bob martin mite spray on your snake.