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What happened to my milk snake?

I wouldn't diss the people who responded just because you didn't like what they had to say. Just because you haven't found mites on your other snakes (YET!!!) does not mean that the individual that died wasn't majorly infested. You need to treat. Short of doing a necropsy, which you haven't even mentioned, you're not going to get more information than that.
 
BlueCrowned said:
I gave up because nobody here has reading comprehension skills....
Click to expand...

Oh really? You are the one who blew it, your anger is misplaced (at us?) & all of our snakes are alive & mite-free, so go figure?

I agree with elena's post above, your other snakes are NOT "out of the woods".
Personally, I'd be treating their cages for mites. Denial might get you more dead snakes...do you feel lucky?
 
Snakes don't die of mites without noticing them way before the snake is dead. Forget the substrate for a second; snake mites feed off the SNAKE. She should have been crawling with them long before she up and died. They do not just disappear into the substrate the moment a cage is opened. I have a tiny and FREQUENTLY handled collection. There is absolutely no possible way i wouldn't have noticed snake mites on a red, albino snake. There is nowhere on a snake like that for them to hide. Last time i had mites on a light colored snake they were EXTREMELY noticeable and she was nowhere near death. To answer an earlier question, one of the things detritivores do is eat dead animal and plant matter. Of course they would be all over her--after her death, because they have no interest in a live snake due to not being parasitic snake mites.
 
I do understand where BlueCrowned is coming from - most accounts of mites I read say they are visible long before it gets to this stage, and as he interacts and handles his snakes frequently, and did not spot these mites until after the snake was dead he's looking for an alternative explanation.

Again, with no experience whatsoever with this, but trying to think outside the box, could it be that the mites were living in the substrate but not on the snake, and yet still feeding on it? If that were possible, it could be that the OP would not have seen them during normal daily routine, but that the snake was still being bitten.

I did find a few discussion of wood mites, but they are described as white, and these are distinctly black.
 
Back to your first post, quote: ..."I did notice her soaking but I know I have a minor humidity problem....so I thought nothing of it.....She appeared to be in shed for a few days before i found her dead.... How could I miss a mite problem until death?"

Soaking is often a sign of mites (you missed that alarm bell) and most of us ignore our snakes for a few days when we know they are in shed. That was enough time for them to explode exponentially, & suck enough blood to cause her death, sadly. It's not as if they have to drain all of her blood either...only enough to cause her heart & circulatory system to fail. I know how bad it feels to realize you missed something but we're all human & we learn from our mistakes. No one is trying to beat you up here but at the same time, we would appreciate the same courtesy from you, ya? The photo showing the mites on her IS severe enough to have killed her and I'm betting you'll be more vigilant in the future. I hope, really & truly hope, that none of your other snakes have mites...but I wouldn't bet on it, not after such an outbreak as that. Mites are tiny, very hard to see at first, & they can hide under scales...but they grow fast & the blood they suck makes them more visible. By then, it can be too late.
 
Don't take our word for it Toby...show that photo (w/ mites) to your reptile vet with all the associated details you gave here & ask him or her if that could have caused the death of your snake. I'm assuming you aren't having a necropsy done, as elena already mentioned, but the whole idea is to never repeat this experience, isn't it?
 
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