Mites are normally very tiny and hard to spot. If you think you've seen some, chances are your snake is infected. Adult mites are black, while red ones are young mites. One way or another, you'll have to get rid of them. The easiest way to spot mites is in the water bowl. Snakes tend to soak for hours when they are infected and some of the mites will drown.

The beauty of using olive oil is:

1) you won't spend money buying chemicals such as Frontline or going to a vet

2) you don't need to worry about killing your snake if you overdo it (it happens quite often with chemicals)

3) you don't need to get paranoid about the water, because oil won cause any harm to the snake

4) it's easy to apply although messy

That's what I do:

1) Preferably, transfer your snake from the viv where he lives to a plastic tub. It's a lot easier to clean and spot mites. You cannot apply oil to disinfect the viv, so ideally you should transfer to a tub you know it's mites free, thoroughly disinfect and wash the old viv, leave it for a few days and disinfect it again just to make sure

2) All decoration should be disinfected and washed with hot water

3) Whatever substrate you're using, throw it away as it's likely to be where the mites came from. I suggest you use kitchen towel, newspaper or turf as a substrate

4) You probably have olive oil at home, but if you want, you can buy in any supermarket a spray of olive oil. You need to spray (or apply with a cloth) olive oil from head (do not put in the eyes or nostrils) to tail. You can use plenty, it won't cause any harm. Keep checking to see if your snake will soak in the water. Every time you see him in the water, it's recommended that you change the water and apply the oil again. Normally if you apply the oil every other day for a week, it should be enough to get rid of the mites.

5) I suggest you keep no decoration in the tub until you eliminate the mites. Only a bowl of water, and preferably a plastic hide (easier to clean and spot mites). And use paper towel as the substrate, so it's easy to replace on a daily basis.

6) After a few days you may notice the mites are gone, make sure you keep cleaning the tub (or viv) on a daily basis to ensure they are really gone.