[d-prime]

Hey everyone,

I haven't been on the forum in a long time, but finally got back into geckos. I recently purchased one male L williamsi from a reptile importer, who claims they are CB from tanzania. Im usually very skeptical when it comes to pet shops, but I couldn't resists this offer. Long story short, I brought home a beautiful, active male, who already accepted banana as food, and is showing signs of health.

Being concerned with mites, I inspected the gecko and noticed a small, redish orange, swollen scale on the specimens abdomen. I tried to remove it with a tooth pick, but hes too quick.

How do I treat for mites, and how do I know this is indeed a mite/parasite?

Thanks!

[hexentanz]

Hi,

If it is mites they will look like this ( different type of gecko I know, but it does help ).

http://www.maureenwinter.de/notatus_1.jpg

You can use frontline on them to get rid of the mites.

Very important notes if you do:

Get the spray kind, and spray it in to a small cap dip a q-tip in. Make sure the frontline is not dripping off the q-tip. Take the q-tip and swab over where the shoulder blades would be on the gecko.

Make sure to give the gecko a drink before treating or he can ingest the frontline.

Switch him out to a paper towel setting until you are positive all mites are gone.

After doing the first treatment repeat it again in one week, then again in two weeks and again in 4. The main mites should fall off by two weeks, but eggs can remain and hatch out, which is why you should do 4 treatments to be safe.

Remove and throw away anything in the tank and wash the tank out good with 10% bleach/water.

[rhachic]

olive oil on a q-tip rubbed over the mite area will kill them just fine. I wouldn't put any major chemicals on the animal. The oil suffocates them, this is also used on cats and dogs when they have ear mites. Worked great for my willimansii anyways.

[hexentanz]

Originally Posted by rhachic

olive oil on a q-tip rubbed over the mite area will kill them just fine. I wouldn't put any major chemicals on the animal. The oil suffocates them, this is also used on cats and dogs when they have ear mites. Worked great for my willimansii anyways.

Olive oil will not kill any mites you cannot see. Baby bloodmites are pretty much microscopic.

Olive oil can suffocate the gecko to death (along with the mites), just as much as any chemical can kill it if done wrong.

Olive oil has killed more geckos than frontline has.

[rhachic]

not sure how it would not kill microscopic ones as it's still on them, and therefore obviously suffocates them...
don't put it on your geckos face, guess i didn't mention that
it worked well for me on 7 of my willimansi, no deaths, no more mites.
olive oil in their water or food won't kill them, frontline in their water or food will, just seems like a safer option to me, and in my experience it worked well.

[hexentanz]

Originally Posted by rhachic

not sure how it would not kill microscopic ones as it's still on them, and therefore obviously suffocates them...
don't put it on your geckos face, guess i didn't mention that
it worked well for me on 7 of my willimansi, no deaths, no more mites.
olive oil in their water or food won't kill them, frontline in their water or food will, just seems like a safer option to me, and in my experience it worked well.

Frontline if done correctly will not kill a gecko.

To kill any baby mites you would have to cover your whole gecko in oil. Doing this will kill it for sure.

Never heard of frontline killing a gecko via its food or water unless people sprayed the whole enclosure and did not clean it properly after or sprayed the whole gecko.

I too was cautious at first and tried oil, did not work at all, as it did not for several friends and their animals as well.

How long did it take to fully rid your geckos of mites?

[rhachic]

I only applied a VERY small amount on a q-tip once every other day for 2 weeks. After applying it I had them walk and wiggle through loose paper towels to get any excess off. The animals were kept in their own individual tanks with paper towels and sterile branches to climb on. I also sterilized the entire tanks every day for the first week, then every other day for the second week. After the first 2 weeks, i kept a close eye on them and kept them in quarantine for an additional month to see if the mites came back. In that amount of time they would have been large visible adults again, but I did not see any more after that. I have had them for a year now and successfully bred them without seeing any mites ever again.
I read your instructions again with the frontline, i can see how that would work as long as the person is very careful and follows your instructions to the letter. I would think even a small amount of the chemicals in frontline would kill a gecko that small if ingested, but do not have evidence to the contrary. I'm sure you've had more experience with small gecko mites than me as my willimansii were the only geckos i've ever gotten with mites, and are the only small geckos i've ever owned (i see you have lots of little ones!).
I'm not sure what kind of mites mine had either, they didn't look like the ones in your photo. They were similar to spider mites in color (very red) and were bumps on top of the scales that were easily scraped off. I'm sure treatment will depend on the type of mite in this situation as well.

[hexentanz]

Originally Posted by rhachic

I only applied a VERY small amount on a q-tip once every other day for 2 weeks. After applying it I had them walk and wiggle through loose paper towels to get any excess off. The animals were kept in their own individual tanks with paper towels and sterile branches to climb on. I also sterilized the entire tanks every day for the first week, then every other day for the second week. After the first 2 weeks, i kept a close eye on them and kept them in quarantine for an additional month to see if the mites came back. In that amount of time they would have been large visible adults again, but I did not see any more after that. I have had them for a year now and successfully bred them without seeing any mites ever again.
I read your instructions again with the frontline, i can see how that would work as long as the person is very careful and follows your instructions to the letter. I would think even a small amount of the chemicals in frontline would kill a gecko that small if ingested, but do not have evidence to the contrary. I'm sure you've had more experience with small gecko mites than me as my willimansii were the only geckos i've ever gotten with mites, and are the only small geckos i've ever owned (i see you have lots of little ones!).
I'm not sure what kind of mites mine had either, they didn't look like the ones in your photo. They were similar to spider mites in color (very red) and were bumps on top of the scales that were easily scraped off. I'm sure treatment will depend on the type of mite in this situation as well.

This was luckily my first time dealing with mites. The mites in my pic look big because I had to use some pretty heavy macro tools because the geckos is as small as a pinky. When looking at it in person I was not even sure it had mites (looked like crushed red pepper) because I have only seen them on williamsi and they were way larger looking on those guys (perhaps full adults?).

This poor gecko was so stressed by the mites that all of his scales were raised up. I got him on the 11th of this month.

Today he is a happy camper with flat scales, zero mites and happy light brown coloring.

[rhachic]

I'm not sure if they are the same kind of mite or not then, mine were very round and red not orange like yours seem. I don't have any pictures of them (go figure i'd like to have them now! haha). I think mine probably would have shown up easily in a picture mainly because the color of the willimansii so contrasting to red that they were super obvious. I guess the point is you can try either method, just be really careful whichever you go with Sterilization is key too.

[hexentanz]

Originally Posted by rhachic

I'm not sure if they are the same kind of mite or not then, mine were very round and red not orange like yours seem. I don't have any pictures of them (go figure i'd like to have them now! haha). I think mine probably would have shown up easily in a picture mainly because the color of the willimansii so contrasting to red that they were super obvious. I guess the point is you can try either method, just be really careful whichever you go with Sterilization is key too.

From research I found that they change color over time as they fill up, much like ticks do. But yes there is quite a few different ones.

Agreed they do look pretty obvious on a willie tho.