• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

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    Posted 08/15/2025
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    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
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    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Attention Ron Billingsley Customers!

By the way, the biggest wholesaler in my area told me a long time ago that dealers who don't remove the ticks from their imports are fools, idiots, and morons for the same reason as this thread was started.
 
I have been quietly followning this thread, and I sigh a breath of relief as I am sure you do. Thank you for the update.
 
That's great news, Jenna.....thank you so much for letting us know. I hope this serves as a reminder to everyone just how vigilant we do need to be with care and quarantine.
 
That is good news but instead of you apologizing to Ron repeatedly he should be the one to apologize to you and the industry publicly as this episode was after all due to him sending you a snake that had ticks on it, which should not happen for so many reasons, but now for an even bigger one.
 
That's great news Jenna, I'm glad everything came out ok. I also wanted to thank you for the detailed information you were able to provide about what was going on and why. It's always great to see a keeper willing to spend the time and money on proper vet visits and care. This also serves as a reminder to all of us that are used to treating minor things ourselves that what we view as "home treatable", could actually be something we didn't expect.
 
I was waiting for Jenna to make her last remarks before I made my statement.
She purchased a WC female from me at Lee Watson's show on the 4th of March, I did not ship it to her. She inspected it at the show, and decided to purchase it. This was one of the females I held back along with a small number that I was wanting the eggs from. After they laid, I selected out of that group a number to hold and I released the rest to sell. Like she mentioned, I did treat them for external parasites. I use a product that contains Permethrin, which is a very good parasite killer. Almost any brand of spray you buy in the hobby, contains Permethrin.
I am not going to make excuses. It happens. Sometimes animals are sold that have external parasites. I try my best to remove them all, but in this case, this animal was not completely cleared. Does that make me an evil person? I hope not. I was honest with Jenna, I told her it was a WC animal, that I had held it until it dropped it's eggs. She was given all the time she needed to view the animal, and make a decision if she wish to purchase it or not.
The whole thing about it having alien ticks/mites, or unknown ticks/mites, new species of Tick/mites was unfounded. They were common everyday, normal/average ticks that every imported ball python has. Nothing new. It just got carried away. Unknowing, untrained people made a decision, and we will have to live with that result.
I was never contacted by anyone in any agency, county, state, Federal or at any level. No phone call, no email, no fax, no knock on the door, no sirens, no dogs, no IMT guys in suits.
Jenna emailed me and told me she was under quarantine, I assume she meant the snake, and that was the case. Not her house, not her collection, not her city.
She emailed me again when she said would let me know what she finds out. What I did get was her coming back to the Show this Saturday, and telling me it was over.
That there was no case, no alarm, no problems. I'm fine with that. I didn't get angry, I didn't race to the BOI to scream that I was being black balled, singled out, or anyting of that nature. I calmly waited to find out what was going on, and as I expected, it came to a quite ending. Jenna is a very nice person, I never thought she was trying to hurt me or my business, and in the long run, I got alot of free publicity.
Saturday's show went very well, and alot of people wanted to know if they could have some free ticks. I thought that was not very funny..... OK, a little funny.....
I will promise, to do my best, to make sure we are not over run by the alien ticks of third world countries.
Thank you to all that had emailed, called and talked to me over the weekend at the Chicago and Indianapolis shows. Your well wishes meant alot.
 
Oh, I forgot to say, my website is currently down, and I am working hard making a new one. For my Acrylic Business, and the herps that I sell. It should be up, hopefully soon (I know, everyone says that!)
I noticed a few thought it was weird, that my site was down. Sorry, but I am not that great with computers, and I had the hire out......
 
Ron, your professionalism is what will make me a customer. You handled a rather ugly situation with class and that's to be commended.

Griz
 
Griz said:
Ron, your professionalism is what will make me a customer. You handled a rather ugly situation with class and that's to be commended.

Griz
Click to expand...
:iagree:

I'm glad everything worked out ok.
 
Ron,

I don't know you but I can tell from your post that you are a clas act. Thanks for coming here and posting.
 
I say well done too Ron.

Jenna, your attitude was perfectly acceptable as well, as far as I am concerned.

You both handled things professionally and, as Ron said, the free publicity was nice and I would bet it sold a few snakes.

I'd buy from either of you as of now.
 
Time for a Mea Culpa

I had the weekend to think over my involvement in this thread. Even though the rest of you have thankfully moved on from the tempest in a teapot that my comments raised, I feel obligated to to make a final comment.

I stand by my original comments regarding how I would have handled this situation - kill the bugs. I also stand behind the fact that this is exactly what qualified, licensed professional importers do.

Beyond that, I should have said nothing.

Allowing my commentary to degrade into a running arguement to justify how "I" would have handled it (while indirectly criticizing someone else for handling it differently) was not my finest hour. Funny how you can get caught up in a n argument/discussion and not realize how you are presenting yourself until you distance yourself and read it later. Clearly, I was annoying and unhelpful.

For that, I apologize.

Miike Bostic
 
As Michael said, this all turned out to be a tempest in a teapot.

After all is said and done, the lesson of the day is this:

If you import animals, MAKE SURE they are parasite free before you sell them.
 
Griz said:
Ron, your professionalism is what will make me a customer. You handled a rather ugly situation with class and that's to be commended.

Griz
Click to expand...
And that same professionalism is why I am a customer. Ron the fully striped male that I bought and you hand delivered to me at NARBC last September in Anaheim is still doing very well and eating like a champ!
 
Wow, that was a read. Scared the heck out of me until I got to the end there. (!)

I got in a WC snake from Ron on Thursday and it seems perfectly healthy and clean, not even a single mite. :) Nevertheless, reading that first post gave me a bit of a jolt!

I'm so glad to hear that this all turned out well in the end. (Or at least, that it didn't turn out to be a catastrophe!)
 
Im So Glad this all turned out for the both of you Ron and Jenna! You BOTH handled this professionally! You did the right thing in contacting ron and letting him know, and also posting this information for previous customers to know and be aware of.

Ron you were great in waiting for this to all play out. ( not many can resist the temptation to avoid comment on a thread solely about them!) as others have said, you definitely have my business in the future!

a great turnout for this thread. ^_-
 
I am happy it turned out well for all. To me it was a wakeup call to think ahead of time about dealing in a professional way with unforeseen possibilities.
I had never heard of one of the diseases mentioned on the thread 'heartwater' and the discussions here underscored to me how important it is to be careful of observation and care.
 
Glad everything worked out for the both of you. I have done business with Ron several times. He was always great to do business with and very straight forward. No matter how hard you try a mite or a tick will slide by. No biggie.
Thomas Jones
 
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