Serious mite infestation - help!

[The Snark]

After 5 months of heavy rains we have had a population explosion of some kind of mite. Stepping outside the house without wearing socks and shoes results in hundreds of mite bites within minutes. While I suspect some version of Pyemotes, the bites are noticeable almost immediately as a small pin prick sensation then general localized itching. They don't appear to survive on humans and can be easily washed off. Washing and hosing down the deck and carport with laundry detergent has proven to be completely ineffective. Examining the leaf mold around the house I would guess the present population density to be close to 1 million every square meter.

Any guess as to what we are dealing with?

PS Unlike normal mite bites, taking a shower and scrubbing instantly relieves the itching.

 

[Elytra and Antenna]

Did you try boric acid powder?

 

[The Snark]

Did you try boric acid powder?

Thanks for reminding me. I will try and search out a few tons today.

 

[JODECS]

just wana ask ...are the bite of mites comparable to prickly heat feeling ? as to itchiness ?

 

[The Snark]

just wana ask ...are the bite of mites comparable to prickly heat feeling ? as to itchiness ?

I have been told by a local entomologist that most 'prickly heat' sensations are in fact mite infestations. Whether that is true or not, the tendency to blame prickly heat instead of checking for mites is ubiquitous. On every occasion that I have felt prickly heat, and while working as a health care provider in the outlying areas of northern Thailand, virtually every instance of skin itch was parasitic organism suspect or proven. This is contributed by the fact that nearly all mite bites don't start itching until some time after the mite has fed and left the scene. Very few mite species consider humans a continuous host.

If in doubt, execute the test. Lay out swaths of tape, sticky side up, close to or on top of locations where itch victims sit or sleep. For mites, the test should be done overnight. You might be surprised what turns up.

Mite oddities
-People don't have mites as a rule, their clothing and bedding has them. Mites commonly only spend a few minutes on transient or interim hosts.
-It is suspected that most of the mite tribe has yet to be identified.
-Mites are predators and many are classified as beneficial. Their primary target hosts are other insects. Humans are generally not on their menu and are considered convenient interim hosts.
-Using insecticides to kill mites is a complete waste of time and introduces toxins into your environment much more hazardous than the mite. Barrier protection as the aforementioned boric acid and DEET is much safer. Even if insecticides destroy 99% of the mite population, they reproduce at astounding rates. Some species of Pyemotes can produce up to a half million viable pregnant offspring every 30 days.

 

[Peter_Parker]

Resurrection

The lab has become overrun with mites! Ahhhhh!!!! I remembered seeing this thread a couple months ago so I decided to post this on it rather than start a new one since it was relatively recent... Anyway, our lab is host to these really small, white mites that have taken up residence on one of the benches... just one bench. I haven't seen them anywhere else in the room, yet... I thought someone had moved something on the above shelf and it was just a bunch of dust, until I noticed the dust specks were moving around!!! There's thousands of them on there, and our lab deals with spiders, not mites, so we have no clue what they are, where they came from, or what they're doing here... anybody heard of this? I'm trying to get one under the scope to take a picture, but they move around too fast! Here's a macroscopic view:

 

[Peter_Parker]

More pics

A (crappy) pic from under the dissecting scope...

 

[The Snark]

I'm ?????????? about mites. Seems to be a huge gap in the knowledge base. Population explosions like this are apparently common yet nobody I've talked to has a clue as to what or why. Your mite infestation seems to blow holes in one theory that abundant food becomes available as a lab would be too clean. Puzzled.

 

[Galapoheros]

Yeah I've seen that before. imo, it's a common grain mite that herp and arthro hobbyist have a problem with. A very common food source for those things(if my assumption is correct) has to do with where meal worms are kept. The meal worms, and other feeders as well, feed on the same stuff those mites feed, then there goes the mite population explosions. Some feeders die, and other than feeding on grains and veg matter, the mites love to feed on dead arthropods, like meal worms, crickets, anything. They are hard to get rid of, google "hypopus" and "mites" to read more.

 

[Galapoheros]

Too late to edit but wanted to add a link http://www.be.sgs.com/fumigationnew...cus_on_grain_mite_newletter_fumigation_be.htm

 

[John Apple]

looks like a good place to try predatory mites....maybe from the suborder mesostigmata these could be...the hair and what looks like a tufted claw on the palps is making me think this but then I could also be wwwaaaayyyyy off base here....this sub of mites feeds on everything.... to be predatory to being even being a scavenger that eats everything to the 'organic' foam or leathers in some chairs [hint hint] and benches to leaf litter

 

[Peter_Parker]

Well we only have the hard rolling chairs in our room - no foam; the only accessible "bio matter" is paper towel, printer paper and lab coats, but they weren't around those; we found out the culprit was my proff, who accidentally left a bag of waxworm diet on the bench overnight; normally we store that stuff in -80 freezer exactly because mites LOVE it.. turns out they were the herbivorous Hypopus after all... I collected a couple hundred (lol) so maybe I'll look for a mite expert and see if they can get it to species

---------- Post added 12-03-2011 at 02:20 PM ----------

Update: beaten to it by genetics proff nextdoor, said they are the flour mites (Acarus) and he's glad we got rid of them because they lay waste to fruit fly colonies, too

 

[Galapoheros]

I thought there mite(lol) be a container of something like that around, I was guessing Acarus siro. I think it's 'usually' the mite you hear people post and say, "Oh no, I think I have mites!". And there's the pic of hypopus stage mites on their arthropod.

 

[The Snark]

Thanks for the heads up, folks!!! I wondered why leaving any nuts or seeds in an unsealed container in our house instantly gets infested with something. (And I mean, instantly. Like in an hour or two).