Use your own discretion if you try any of this, read labels, follow directions, research their safety, I am not responsible for any action taken in relation to whether someone does what I am doing. This is what I'm doing right now. I've gotten a bit sick from past things I've done and if you get sick from anything, stop right away.
1) Shower before bed and when getting up (after breakfast).
2) After shower, thick vaseline around ankles and in areas that themites like, for me on the inner thighs, pubic area, chest,shoulders. I shave off all body hair and since I'm a guy, my head. Iput the vaseline on after both showers. Once when I tried notputting it on, I got bad bites in those areas.
3) Spray bed with Witch Hazel (by rubbing alcohol in stores)with adribble of tea tree oil and eucalyptus oil before shower so it driesout a bit by the time I get to it, you can buy these in largerquantities at GNC and Vitamin Shoppe etc. Witch Hazel is good fromgeneric brands.
4)I spray myself from head to toe with Cedarcide before bed andsometimes I spray my bed as well. This repels them so well, I eatbreakfast with the stuff on, but because of the smell, I need to washup before I go out of the apartment. Some people have been able toget rid of them completely by fogging their house several times witha trijet fogger using Cedarcide (Joan).
5) I take Garlic and Cayenne Pepper supplements several times a day.I used to take B1 and Vitamin C a lot but I've cut down.
6)Thick layer or Borax on car floor (thanks Rita) and 50 gallon blackgarbage bag over car seat.
7)Synthetic clothing--sports wear (thanks Myrtle Maui). The bugsdon't infest them very easily and they wash easier.
8) Avoid sugar and alcohol.
9)Use foot powder in your shoes. Puff some in there and then shakeit so it spreads inside. Take out the sole of the shoe and do it,then do it again with the sole inside.
10) After wearing shoe, spray inside with Witch Hazel conction(mentioned earlier) and rubbing alcohol.
11) Sarna anti-itch lotion on itchy bites.
12) Hemp lotion seems to repel them--I've largely shifted to hemplotion (from Nature's Gate from Whole Foods) when I used to useCutter repellant that contains Picardin. I still use Picardinrepellant on the outside of clothing when I go to my car.
13) Baby powder can be poofed liberally inside underwear when thebugs start biting or crawling.
14) Rubbing alcohol can be sprayed on crawling areas or biting areas,it kills on contact. Try not to inhale it. I spray the floor andseat of my car with it before going in, but you need to air it outthen.
15) In addition to the Borax etc. in laundry, for drying, I use threeBounce sheets and 4 Arm and Hammer "Essentials" sheets. "Essentials"contain essential oils that seem to help a lot in killing/repellingthe mites. I ran out just recently and it seems I had much moretrouble with clothes that I hadn't treated with "Essentials."Lavender is a good scent with this. I'm now going to experiment withanother.
16) Stromectol brand ivermectin every week. This is a prescription drug. Your doctor would have to be willing to sign off on its use as an off label use. This is a decision that you will have to make in consultation with your doctor. To my knowledge, ivermectin has never been approved for long term use in humans and may have unexpected and possibly dangerous side effects.
19) Shave all body hair and if you can, your head.
20) I wash with Dial Anti-Bacterial Soap the entire body and then with Tea Tree Oil Shampoo. I've used a variety of brands of Tea Tree Shampoo. The American Crew worked well for me but I can't find it now. I've also used Jason, Nature's Gate, and Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap.
I have full spectrum lights in my room, but I don't know how wellthey help. I also have a dehumidifyer, that I believe helps a lot,and an ionic air purifyer that creates small bits of ozone and helpsa bit, I think.I am limited in how well I can treat this. I can't use an ozonegenerator or spray stuff, or put down diatomacious earth or Borax onthe floors, so I can't take care of it as whole sale as I would like to, but these are ideas.
Also, check for birds or rodents in your house or around your house.Put out rodent traps just to see if you catch any and poison to seeif it gets eaten (if you don't have pets). Rodents can get in reallytricky places and they can bring this plague of mites on us. I thinkI may have rodents nearby and they may be making things worse. This all started for me with a dead rat.
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27 comments:
Hi. How long have you been affected? I think I have finally diagnosed myself. With these crawling sensations and oocasional pin prick type bite sensations. Varying times of day, usually later in the day. A bite mark is sometimes seen days later and will take weeks to heal ot just persist.
At first I thought this may be some sort of flee or lice infestation but no creature was visible and it simply didn't fit the pattern of these parasites. All reseach lead to a dead end as I had foolishly discounted mites have read again and again the mantra that mites don't infest humans and only bird mites bite (I had been near no bird nests).
On and off I have been affected for some years. I would peg original infestation to have occurred in a room I onnocently moved into in Edinburgh,UK about 6 yrs ago. I have moved property 4 times or so since - however i'm afraid to say they have stayed with me. Sorry to scare any readers out there. That said the problem has not been persistant. I have had several years of no problems at stages.
I have at many times I come close to questioning whether this is simply in my head. However after stumbling across this blog and the NYC biting mites site, I realised I wasn't the only person affected by this. I would guess the fact that I have been multiply affected in different locations suggests these mites are actually using me as a host! I hadn't really considered this before. In fact I believe I have transported them in my suitcase. Previous measures to escape infestation basically involed rigourous washing and quarantining of clothes, and hoovering. I also hit upon the idea of microwaving clothes which I see you also thought of! (this was when I most feared for my sanity). How does one explain microwaving ones clothes! "Oh the invisible mites are getting me" - um ok.
I have used an aerosol home flea spray. I think it may have helped. I sprayed the whole room and clothes. (not healthy I realise, I left the room shortly afterwards for a couple of hours)
As you describe, they seem to affect me but not people I live with, though I have sometimes worried (as I am now) that people I am with will be infested and am hyper aware of any scratches a person makes.
Unfortunately/fortunely I now have a girlfriend but am terrified I will infest her. Tricky one to break the news to as well. Oh, by the way, i'm a host to invsisible biting mites. It's just not very romantic is it! In fact I probably never would have let her into my life had I realised my problem, but at the time I wasn't having too much trouble. They had gone, and had been gone for almost a year. They have come back this summer, perhaps with the weather. It isn't as bad this time as it has been in the past.
One complicating factor. Pigeons have been roosting on my roof right above me. But I haven't heard them lately. Could it be that randomly, most unfortunately, I have picked up bird mites a second time..?
Is there a cure? Should I tell my flatmate? My girlfriend? I did tell my parents about the biting sensations and essentially they were supportive but slightly sceptical, suspecting potential delusional parasitosis being of a medical background.
Anyway, following this renewed bout of research I have created a spray with tea tree and water. It's not particularly strong, but seems to be helping (only a couple days in). My plan is rigourous washing, hoovering and daily tea tree spraying. When I read the measures you and others have taken it scares me as I can't practically do these without revealing the problem to those close to me. And also it seems you are still afflicted! :/
It's a real pain. If I hadn't moved into that room, I wouldn't have been hit but I guess you can't think like that.
One thing. There is shower gel in the UK called "Original Source: Mint and Tea Tree shower gel". I use it daily and have realised after reading more mite information that this may well be a huge help in controlling the mites. It has a several different essential oils in it. I use it daily and think it may coincide with when I first managed to get the problem under control.
One other last thing. In all this time I have only once seen the mite! On bedsheets late at night. Almost microscopic. It jumped! Mites aren't supposed to do this I know, but then they aren't supposed to do lots of things. I saw one other post on one of these mite sites, can't remember which, where a guy saw the same thing. It went an inch or two. I'd love to know where this mite came from, but better still just be done with this problem so I can leave a happy and worry free life. I'm having great trouble seeing any more though.
Ok, well take care, keep up the work on the site, very useful!
Hi ahopeful,
Thanks for your comment. Yes, I think it is very possible that you can get reinfested from a new host source even once you have moved. The first blog listed in my incident list has a fellow who experienced this, and a friend of mine was first infested by pigeons and northern fowl mites and then soon after by me when I was still much more contagious. I suspect that the ones I have are from rodents--which could even be the chicken mite as it can persist in rodents. It sounds like the pigeons may very well be the new source for you.
I don't tell my flatmates and they don't notice anything, but then again, I'm in one of those luls that you mentioned, where they aren't affecting me a whole lot, but I'm doing a lot to keep them at bay. Plus, I think I may have poisoned a rodent recently as it smelled rotten in the hallway.
I do many "strange" things to keep them at bay, but everyone just thinks I'm a neat freak, have OCD, or am an herbalist hippie.
Yes, the girlfriend issue sounds complicated. I've been feeling rather lonely myself and have wondered if it would ever work to have a girlfriend. I just wish it was over with. Use your best judgment. As you said, if they aren't being contagious to others, I'm not so sure they need to know, but then it would be horrible if a person one cared for deeply was infested and then felt cheated.
Yes, essential oils seem to be key. Last night I had an elderbug die on my pillow. I had sprayed it with cedar oil two days ago, and it was still powerful enough to kill the bug (by overloading its senses). That encouraged me concerning these mites.
These mites can definately be microscopic or almost microscopic, so I don't think you are delusional.
Loviatar:
Have you tried spraying/fogging with the synthetic pyrethroids like cyfluthrin or bifenthrin?
I have bird mites, and they're driving me crazy. The hard part is that I can't sleep because of the biting and creepy crawlies.
They supposedly can't jump, but when they weigh as much as dust, they're going to blow around like dust (as long as their not attached). My problem is that they are in the crawlspace above my apartment so they fall out of the ceiling.
At its worst, I could feel them falling on me like hot embers from a fire. Luckily, that was only one night. The insecticide fog helped with that.
I'm so sick of this! My building manager ignored my complaints about the birds in the crawlspace for so long -- 12 months -- that I should sue!
Have you tried neem oil or cucumber juice? I bought some neem oil from Whole Foods.
They're both natural insecticides. The neem oil works for me, but it doesn't kill them all.
Hi Marc,
Yes, I've used cyfluthrin and bifenthrin. Early on, I used the Raid Deep Foggers that come in orange cannisters. At first they knocked them out really well, but it seems the mites got used to it. We also used Bayer Advanced which seemed to help a little, but because of the way the sprayer worked, it was poor for large areas. We used bifenthrin in Ortho Home Defense. We added Gentrol (an insect growth regulator) to the mix. This helped a lot and almost did them in--but it did not complete the job. It seems since that, they have continued to decrease.
Cedarcide is a good alternative since it is non-toxic to humans and pets, but you may have to soak everything with a trijet fogger every day for some time. I gave up on the Cedarcide as a final solution, but use it at night from head to toe. Someone got rid of their mites with a combination of all the personal things, Cedarciding the whole house, and using an ozone generator in between.
I've never tried neem oil, but it sounds good. My doctor told me that one person who had mite problems had gotten an allergic rash from neem oil, but I'm not sure if it was the oil or the mites. I tried a cucumber lotion from Bath and Body Works and I think it had so little cucumber extract that it did nothing (although it smelled good). I think you would have to make the peel-paste yourself but I haven't tried it.
Marc,
One more thing. Yes, they can be airborn. The guy at Cedarcide said that poultry mites can very well blow around like dust (a lot of their customers who have mite problems are raising chickens). A person on the birdmitesorg yahoo group noticed the same dive bombing from the ceiling phenomenon. She sprayed her entire house and herself with epsom salt and got rid of them (after 2 years of affliction). Also, some of my family noticed that they seemed to just drop on them. In science journal articles, there have been documented cases where bird mites infest a structure by dropping from a tree into the wind and then flying to the house that way.
Hello All,
Thank you for sharing your stories.
I have two girl cats and have noticed them scratching like mad for a couple of weeks. I also have been rathy itchy at home but assumed it was allergies.
To make a long story short, after a few visits to the vet and a few hours online, it appears that my apt has a mite infestation problem. I just realized in the past 48 hours that my burning and itchy, and crawling skin was not because of my allergies. Things really picked up a few days ago and now I am trying to determine what I should do.
Honestly, I'm terrified by everything I have read. Rodents could be a source, as I live in a townhouse in NYC and have heard rodents in my wall occasionally.
Three days into this, I am contemplating just moving without nothing besides my cats...no clothes, furniture or anything. It sounds extreme, but I would be willing to do it in exchange for peace of mind and a normal life.
Have you known anyone to do this and with any success?
Also, the woman in NYC was treated and released. Apparently, her mites were eradicated with a topical ointment. Have any of you tried this?
Thanks
Rachel in NYC
Hi,
loviator - thanks for the feedback and words. Thought I would give a little update on my situation.
I did tell my girlfriend. She did at first think it was in my head. It took some real effort to explain the situation, with the use of some links on the web to convince her to entertain the idea these mites were real. Then she started owrrying a abit and has helped me out loads since.
Have taken further steps. I took all my clothes to the launderetee in one go and left them there for a wash, and in the meantime hooeverd and then sprayed my whole room and contents with a tea tree oil/water emulsion. I also spray myself with that day and night now.
To be honest it is too soon to say if this has worked as it was only 2 days ago when I did this. But symptoms have all but vanished since then. I have had one potential "biting" sensation ealrier this evening though. Which got me a little worried and prompted a tea tree gel shower but i'm still cautisouly optimistic that if I persist with the tea tree spray day and night (myself and whole bedroom) I can have some luck. I would like to use some more essential oils but am not really sure where I can get them.
Still yet to graduate to the hard core products as espoused above, not least because I can't get hold omany of them in the UK as far as I know.
Rachel, sorry to hear your problem, there is another blog about the issue here (http://bitingmites.blogspot.com/) where the writer tried a getaway. It makes fairly bleak reading in fact.
I'd certainly like to know about this ointment used on the quarantined lady if anyone is able to find out. End of the day you could contact the hospital - hey you're in NYC i'm in London.
Rachel, Getaways may have limited effect as you and your cats will likely take the mites with you. I recommend getting a pest control operator involved with the rodents. He will have to trap/poison them, ask him to remove any nests (as these will be sources of mites for months after the actual rodents are gone) and he must do exclusion/abatement in order to prevent the rodents from returning. Rodents are drawn to the scent of their own species' feces, urine, and musk, which means that once you've had rodents living in a house, if the house is not cleaned of their junk, you may have a new batch again very quickly. Sometimes abatement needs to be done several times as rodents find new ways into a building.
I recommend not throwing away everything, although severely infested items may need to be gotten rid of. If you throw away a lot of stuff and get rid of the mites, you may feel poorly about it. You may consider getting rid of the carpet and getting a hard floor (not wood). Ozone generators are good in inhibiting the mites. Join the birdmitesorg yahoo group.
Ahopeful,
I'm glad you've started a successful regimen. I'm also glad your girlfriend has been understanding.
I use witch hazel as the carrier of the essential oils when I spray them. It evaporates quicker and adds an extra punch to the concoction as it is also anti-mite. It should be close to rubbing alcohol in grocery stores/pharmacies and is cheap.
You can usually find essential oils in larger quantities from vitamin and herb shops--health food store type places. If they don't carry it, they will be able to order it for you. I recommend getting bottles of larger quantities as this tends to be cheaper.
Wolf Creek Ranch (on the internet) has the best deals on food/pet grade diatomacious earth. This is a good product to sprinkle around with a rose duster. You can also go to a grocery shop to guy Borax which is usually in the laundry aisle. Borax is deadly to mites and most other crawling anthropods. It should be easier to find than anything else.
Spraying a thick epsom salt mix can also be effective. Get the walls, ceiling, and floor. You can also pour this over yourself and blow-dry yourself and it should help with crawling/biting. It will crust off at first and then leave soft skin under that the mites don't like. It will also help get rid of existing mite related blemishes. One lady got rid of the mites entirely with this technique after two years of suffering.
The news articles about the lady who went to the hospital did not say that she got rid of it with a topical lotion. Elimite may have some effect as can lindane, but these are prescription drugs and can be dangerous if overused (and can have side effects even when used properly). In my experience, I've gotten bites while having these products on me. I doubt the lady was cured with that one hospital visit, the doctors probably just thought she was functioning and not in any grave threat and sent her home.
i have a small cube heater. A car in the summer sunlight with its windows rolled up can easily reach 130 degrees in the sun. If you connect the heater to an extension cord, and plug it in, i bet the interior of the car can reach 140 or 150 degrees, and 30 minutes at 140 degrees is enough to kill any mite in a dryer. just don't use a heater that's too large or you may set the upholstery on fire ...
on the Neem oil,it's pungent,found a Neem bar soap w/essential oils that is much easier to handle (NeemAura, neemauranaturals.com or healthfood store). It is good that you are providing alternatives to the expensive products on-line. Wonder if from time to time it is best to switch off so the body doesn't get used to a product. Alternative to the Borax: On-guard organic bug dust-has Mint, Rosemary and Limestone...safe for animals. naturalginesis.com. Q Based Health systems has mud packs that are very soothing. I left a message over on "Why..." Catdog
I am a health care professional and have been struggling with an infestation by an unknown organism for years. I thought I had mites then lice and on and on. I wondered if I was delusional and was even told by a collegue that I was imaging this infestation. I finally decided to try and identify what was affecting me. After several years of observation (off and on) I have have identified an organism that for all practical purpose is invisible. It has 3-4 different, distinct life stages one of which is surface and airborne. The airborne stage is numerous and almost microscopic. It covers skin and hair and feels gritty. The skin has a "mat" appearance rather than a smooth clear look. A good analogy is the difference between a glossy and a mat photograph.
When I first observed these insects I began to see them everywhere. In and on food, other people and clothing. I now know that they are very prevalent. It seems that some people are just highly sensitive to them.
One life stage has an alarm reaction that results in a hairy, furry defense coat being raised, much like a porcuipine raises its quills. It will raise this coat when attacked or alarmed and when the "hair" is raised the organism is almost impervious to harm. Its size is ten fold larger and visible. When it is grasped with forceps or tweezers it can fold the hair down or drop this defense and literally slip out of the grasp of the instrument.
One thing all stages have is a strong reflection of light when viewed from a correct angle. To view them it helps if they are wet or between a good light source and your eye. If you take the light at 0 degrees and the organism at 180 degrees you need to position your eye at approximately 130-140 degrees to see it. They are clear or translucent unless exposed to a chemical that is caustic like a strong acid or base. Then they take on a whitish or opaque appearance.
These organisms move through skin, tissue, plastics (plastic bags), upholstery and other barriers with ease. If placed in a container they will even move through the space where the top connects or seals exist.
Pesticides seem to knock them back for a few days but they build a resistance very quickly to anything I have used. The major barrier to treating (killing) them is finding something that is toxic to them yet non-toxic to humans (their hosts).
This site is very helpful in that the experiences of other contributors are identical to mine. In fact I no longer accept delusional parasitosis as a valid diagnosis. A much more likely condition is afflicting health care practioners and is called ignorance.
I am in the process of trying to photograph slide mounts of these organisms but finances are a real problem right now.
Thanks to everyone that has commented and if anyone is interested I'll be happy to share the information I have that I can duplicate or repeat. Finally some areas that I have seen evidence of these organisms in great numbers are public restrooms, public or apartment laundry rooms (especially around dryers), restaraunt food, hospital labs, city buses and cabs. Any location used by the public or cleaned infrequently.
One last note. I have observed that drugs, prescription or otherwise affect the behavior of these insects. The chemicals in the hosts blood and tissues either increase their activity making them more aggresive or slow them down. This may be an area to look at for controlling them. It will need to be a drug that can be taken internally and applied to the skin.
Ron's comments of Aug 15th-raise questions - are these bird mites;is the invisible thing just one of the stages, when he sees them on food, people and clothing what do they look like; in the "alarm raction" stage does nothing sprayed kill them?...such as the alcohol w/essential oils. I am back to trying to I.D. what I have...something that was put aside in an effort to overcome them w/good health. But that didn't work. With the onslaught of summer humitidy they got worseThanks, catdog
Hi
Just as an update -
I have solved my problem!
I have killed the lot of them, and I did this with liberal application of a house flea spray containing 0.09% methoprene and 0.58% permethrin. Brand name in the UK - Acclaim.
-All clothes and bed sheets went to the launderette at the same time, and were washed on max temperature with borax.
-I sprayed my the whole bedroom (the only place seemingly infested in my flat) and all surfaces and carpets, walls and ceilings with a can of the stuff.
-I also sprayed my (new) mattress and bed clothes.
At this point I kept my clothes bagged to try and ensure quarantine.
This knocked them back. A week later I repeated the spraying(worried about eggs.) I also started using borax and washing all my clothes at 90 C at home for about a month (some clothes are shrunk oh well).
I continued applying the spray about once a week for a few weeks.
I'm not convinced the launderette was hot enough to kill them in all my clothes. Itching was still felt occassionally.
I also (sorry this bit sounds more insane than most) microwaved all clothes with non metallic elements on max power for 30 seconds when I unpacked my clothes again.
I sprayed clothes I couldn't microwave with the permethrin when unpacking. I also liberally sprayed all cupboards and the chest of drawers also.
So far I have been bug free for several few weeks.
It's worth pointing out I think it takes some days for itching sensations to stop even after you have killed them so be aware of that. This phenomenom is known in scabies also.
I also recommend showering with the Essential oil tea tree shower gel during this process. If you can't get that consider spraying yourself with a tea tree water emulsion spray (I think this repels them and I had tried using this in my room unsuccesfully before stepping up to insecticides)
Also it is obviously easy to get paranoid so try and keep yourself realistic. Eg Rob's post above sounds a bit far gone to me! That said i have never seen these mites but am sure they existed.
Before using the permethrin I had also sprayed my walls with diluted borax and sprinkled the carpet with this also before hoovering. This reduced the problem somewhat but you need to get permethrin or similar involved in my view.
I still use borax in my clothes because it makes for a nice fresh smell.
Overall I have used two cans of this spray - each of which is intended to be appied to a house of four bedrooms. I used them both in a small single room so my advice is don't skimp on it, and use it weekly for some time or they will regain a foothold.
Hopefully this is the last of it.
I did look into cyfluthrin but you can't buy this in the UK. Permethrin really did the job though. While you wouldn't want to breathe huge amounts of it, it isn't generally considered hugely toxic to humans and is used as a topical, body-wide treatment for scabies - also caused by a mite. Thus i felt it was worth exposure to try and solve the problem and certainly don;t regret it.
I suggest you guys try the same method. Overkill is best! I would like to hear if this works for others and if so try and spread the news.
Ps I am still with my girlfriend who, although occasionally questioning my sanity, was happy to support me (especially earlier on when she got bit a couple of times!) and is happier now i'm not worrying about it all the time. I'm lucky. I also gave her a bag of borax to use with her washing - she likes the smell anyway..
Oh yeah, I forgot to say. I concurrently began to take 643mg high strength garlic capusules daily at the time I started. I read it helps repel mites. It's impossible to say how much this helped. I put sucess primarily down to the permethrin/methoprene spray but if they also were put off me by teh garlic at the same time it may have helped shift them.
Garlic has recently been shown to help reduce high blood pressure so I'm happy to continue taking this for some time anyway.
Stay positive!
I am going through this Hitchcockian bird or rodent nightmare as I write. It has been going on since August 6th. After the third extermination over a course of a five week period, the tenants below me on the second and first floor of the apartment building I live in Connecticut told me that they too have been getting bitten for the past 4 weeks but have not told the superintendent of building or the property manager. My town's health department closed the case the day before and insinuated I go to a study for Chemically sensitive people who develop parasitos. My doctor told me to see a psychiatrist. I have had crawling sensations in my ears and eyes for more than a month. I am currently staying in a hotel with my son. I am afraid to bring our book collection and clothes to a new apartment. I am afraid period and need to find a doctor who will believe me.
Ahopeful, Many thanks for your suggestion of the Methoprene/Permethrin combination. I found a fogger in the US with that combo (Zodiac, but I am guessing that there are others), and we fogged the house and then used the spray with the same active ingredients. The effect was immediate. I also used the Epsom's salt and that seemed to help the itching of the bites that are still itching. We are feeling as though our problem is solved. Fingers crossed and thanks again.
'grats - so glad it worked for you too! What a relieve. I would recommend anyone with similar mites problems to seek a hefty methoprene/permethrin solution - i'm still mite free. This does seem to work as opposed to numerous other suggestions - I wish I had simply used this spray on day one! Really happy to hear that it helped you anon. Ciao from the UK.
ahopeful and others...
I am trying the Zodiac spray which I found at a local pet store in CT on my car this evening. I have an older Saab and was only able to empty the front and back seats of bagged clothing and bagged important paperwork..this bagged stuff was stuffed into the trunk area...(my son and I have been living in hotels and out of our car for over a month now and want to move into our new apartment).
We sprayed roof lining, upholstery and rugs liberally and will leave it closed overnight. Pet store clerk said a fogger would destroy the car...
Will let you know how spray only works...
I am also wondering if anyone has some thoughts about what I should and shouldn't take out of my apartment. Yet another starling's nest was just discovered in the attic crawl space above my kitchen by a DEP investigator just two days ago. This makes for the second nest this year. He also found mice droppings, which could account for the urine smell emanating from the third floor walls. This means that we could have been attempting to battle both bird and rodent mites since August 1st. ...
Property manager has yet to treat attic crawl space from first nest removal. He also just hired an exterminator to treat the 1st and 2cd floors only (not my 3rd floor apt.) for so-called "biting dust mites". Who ever heard of biting dust mites?
In any case, the local cooperative extension office director, who just attended a pesticide conference suggested I steam clean every peice of fabric I own before transport. They are finding that 140F steam cleaning is more effective than pesticides in killing bed bugs...so she surmised it would kill a mite as well....
Any suggestions out there regarding transport of clothing, books and paperwork?
And how often should I spray my car with the Zodiac combination to slay these dragons?
Zodiac Spray only does not work for cars. Am ready to just have all the rugs, lining and uphulstery replaced. My car insurance appaiser is coming to look at car tomorrow...
well this is really going strong
How do you get a positive ID on these things? We think we may have caught ours off a rescue kitten who stayed with us for a few days, then passed it off to our two cats. Thought at first it was Sarcoptic mange or Cheyletiella but we're affected above the neck too, which is unusual for the scabies mite (or so I've read).
Is there a "mite trap?"
How do you get a positive ID on these things?
Excellent question. It's difficult because unless they are en masse, they are hard to see and will appear like flat dots--almost two dimensional flat, some pale blonde/light champagne transluscence; some of the older adults are black, from what I have been told. Certain states in the U.S. like Illinois and Texas also seem to have more issues with these.....
There are also chicken mites about that again hang with the starlings and pigeons. Your cats could have stumbled upon an abandoned nest...
Almost miraculously in early August, I found what looked like a transparent one on my wrist, put it on tape and went to a Master Gardeners office to look at it under a high-powered microscope. It was definitely a mite as seen from excellent pictures from the Illinois Dept. of Public Health website with small bits of blood inside and I drove it over to an entomologist at the Agricultural Extension Office. He then looked at it and concurred that it was a mite and said he had to get it off the tape to put in a slide for a higher power microscope, (apparently one of the bird mites and rodent mites look so similiar they can only be identified by hairs on bottom). (in my case we had both starling nests in a wet attic crawl space and urine smell emanating from walls in our 3rd floor apt). Well, he decimated it, and then told the Health Dept. that there was nothing out of the ordinary in my samples. He told me that if it indeed was a mite, I should be able to reproduce it.
I spent copious hours using tape and then coffee filters over vacuum tube as directed, and brought to a different Cooperative Agriculture Ext. Services Office...but the timing was wrong, we hadn't lived there for a week...they had migrated to 2cd and 1st floor apts at that point in time...
The DEP came to my apartment and placed traps which consisted of small tent like paper foldings with lined adhesive bottoms. The timing was a bit late (there was agressive biting in August and traps were put in mid Sept. when I wasn't living there..) but we found many other parasites on these traps pointing to over moist environment, which is another story...I'm not sure where they got them, I would try a pet store. They came three to a sheet--you simpy fold them to form a tent, perhaps flea paper traps?
Depending on where you live, some vets, and many health care professionals are unaware of mites, unless they appear en masse. What also complicates matters is that some fungi and spores and internal parasites can mimic biting sensations to parts of the body...I definitely had intense biting sensations, crawling sensations and red raised marks as did other tenants in building....
Hope this information was helpful..
West Hartford, CT--with useless local Health Dept.
Turning point:
After 7 months and 5 moves, occassional bite feelings to lower legs and buttuck but no discernable red marks on my body at this point in time, I have come to the conclusion that the ongoing tingling feeling in my nose and crawling sensation in my ears is fungal-related and due to my body exceeding an acceptable threshold for neuro toxic molds.
I have yet to receive relief from the traditional medical community and will seek help through a natureopath.
I get relief from my symptoms through epsom salt baths and washing face/body with with tea tree oil body wash from Trader's Joe'sl; I wash all those clothes from the first apt. with bleach or toss.
I urge anyone who believes that they still have mites in their ears or nose to get some blood work done for mold allergies AND to check to see if there is ongoing or historical water damage where they are living.
Hope this helps..
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Good... Keep it up!
Thats really good!
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