Urgent help needed - Small red mites!

[Ken Bartenfeld]

Hi everyone,

I just noticed my male Pachydactylus rugosus has red mites on him! I was wondering why he tended to look quite skinnier than the rest. I need to know how to cure this! Please. These geckos are quite rare and I keep very good care of them and I want to help the guy out!

Please call me at 813.458.1468.

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

Magnifying glass, tweezers and a lot of patience. Make sure to clean anything he's come into contact (enclosure etc) thoroughly as well. You'll want to check all of your other herps now as well for them.

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

Also of course do a search for "red mites" or just "mites". There's a ton of threads and a ton of different ideas on how to get rid of them. Everything from olive oil to iodine and soap. The sooner you get them handled the better as a few mites can turn into an infestation before ya know it. Good luck!

 

[aquapimp]

Ken,

I have had excellent success using a tiny dab of petrolem jelly (vaseline) applied over the mite. It suffocates the 'lil cooties. I'd keep him on paper towels, changed often until he gets a clean bill of health, too.

 

[aquapimp]

I'd also like to add that IMHO, the above technique is a relatively "stress free" method, since you can apply it without much handling of the gecko. Just dab it on the mite, and within hours it'll be gone.:biggrin:

 

[Ken Bartenfeld]

I'd like to share what I did and used. Since my P. rugosus are young and small still. It's not easy to just pluck them off or smear jelly near their eyes. Especially when the mites were next to the eye ball under the skin where it will even hard to get tweezers there.

What I did was buy some spray at the store that kills lice and such. I sprayed it on a 2 inch x 2 inch piece of paper towel and let it completely dry out. I then put the geckos in separate containers with a hide and this sprayed and dried out piece of paper towel in with them and about 4 hours later the mites were all dead. Presto! I was worried at first because I didn't know if it would be lethal or not...and with a pricey and rare group of geckos that I've wanted for YEARS...I didn't want anything bad to happen to them!

I appreciate the responses and I'm just glad the mites are gone!

Here is exactly what I used!