Desert Sand Boa

In the geographic regions Eryx miliaris occupies, the WCH-University of Adelaide describes it being found at "[e]levations up to about 2700 met[ers above mean sea level], mainly in arid and semi-arid sandy regions with bush vegetation" but that it will also "tolerate harder soils and rocky slope terrain". The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) describes it as occupying elevations from sea level to approximately 1200 meters above it. With regard to the IUCN's observed species in Mongolia referred to as E. tataricus—see earlier Reptile Database (RDB) statements on the synonymy of species E. miliaris, E. tataricus, etc.—E. tataricus was observed to occupy elevations from 80 to 1600 meters above sea level; and the IUCN's putative subspecies referred to as E. tataricus vittatus, from 700 to 1400 meters above it. The RDB describes the geographic range of E. miliaris, per se, as being:

throughout Iraq; throughout Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan; in southern Russia, from the Caspian Sea to its border with Kazakhstan; in China, from Xinjiang, through Gansu and Ningxia to Inner Mongolia; and in Mongolia itself. The RDB further presents E. miliaris nogaiorum. a subspecies (alongside E. …

The WCH-University of Adelaide describe E. miliaris as "[t]errestrial and mainly diurnal... with nocturnal tendencies in [its habitat's] hottest months". The IUCN description of the species, which specifically refers to E. miliaris (distinctly, from E. tataricus and E. speciosus), presents it as "nocturnal during the hot part of the year", indicates that it is "common on the surface in spring", and states that it is active from "March to October over most of its range" (and the more proscribed April to September in Kazakhstan and the eastern Ciscaucasia). With regard to its diet and prey, the WCH-University of Adelaide describes E. miliaris as feeding "mainly on rodents and lizards". Elsewhere its prey have been described as including small birds, desert lizards, and other small animals.

The Eryx miliaris species present in Mongolia, referred via the synonym Eryx tataricus, may be the inspiration for a legendary cryptid, the Mongolian death worm. A specimen described as E. tataricus was shown to inhabitants of the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, who claimed to have seen that cryptid, locally referred to as "olgoi-khorkhoi" ("large intestine worm"), and stated it to be the same animal.