All of the reptile forums have pretty much moved onto Facebook. (They still have website based forums, but no active members.) Reptile Forums UK is good even though it's European. There are some huge boa-specific groups as well.
Your python can and might have them as well. They are species specific (reptiles only) so are not able eat anything else including the hermits.
The problem with snake mites is that they have a full lifespan of over 40 days - meaning that you can get rid of everything you see and then have them turn around and have them back again. They can also travel distances to find new hosts. A female can only lay eggs after a meal on a reptile, so as long as you break the cycle you can get rid of them.
I had them when I got Peach, the deformed cornsnake. By the time I realized they were there, she was already anemic. What I did to eliminate them and keep my other snake (who was two feet above her) was this:
1. Bought a bottle of this stuff. Between the state Peach was in and the fact I was using it in a room with my scorpions, roaches and some iso'd hermits, I didn't want to use any serious poisons:
http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... le&u=29642
2. Using gloves, sprayed it on Peach and rubbed it all over her til she was foamy. I then left her in a plastic bin for 20 minutes while I cleaned her cage.
3. I gutted the cage. Decorations were soaked submerged in hot soapy water for an hour. Wood was baked. Afterwards, I used papertowels (or regular towels which were taken out and immediately bleached) and only two plastic hides during treatment. The hides were washed with hot soapy water and left to soak submerged for 10 minutes at every cleaning.
4. The cage was washed down with soapy water and wiped dry in place.
5. Taking my time, I used a hair dryer to heat blast all the silicon and the rim. The mites and eggs die at 120 degrees for 10 seconds.
6. Even though it went against directions, I sprayed the inside corners of the tank and the rim with the mite spray and then wiped it down. And then put the tank back together.
7. I wiped Peach off and put her back in.
I did this three days in row and all the mites were gone from her. I switched to every three days for a month, and then weekly for another month. Stan (the other snake) got the gloved wipedown with the mite spray after he ate every 7 days for the full two months. I never found one on him. I did not tear his tank apart or do anything differently.
It was a serious pain, but 60 days later they were completely gone.
This is a great paper on snake mites:
http://denardo.lab.asu.edu/publications ... emites.pdf
except these dang snake mites I keep getting rid of and this is the 3rd time they've come back. I also don't want the python or my HCs to get these dang mites, and when I research I get everything from take the snake to the vet to soak the snake in water for several days (don't worry, I have enough common sense not to do the second one). It's very confusing. Like when I first got hermit crabs and I read conflicting info and was never sure what to do. My H is pretty knowledgeable about snakes, but we're just not shaking these mites with what we've been doing and need to nip this in the bud before she gets sick. 
Hope the surgery goes well and that it helps!