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I know this is a bedbug forum, but the bird mite forum is freaking me out.
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buggymoncton
newbite
Joined: Aug '11
Posts: 7offline
Posted 1 year ago
Mon Aug 22 2011 15:16:26
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Hi Everyone,
I realize that this is a bedbug site, but so many people here seem to know a thing or two and there isn't the hysteria that I've seen on other sites. I hope someone can offer advice.
About a week ago I discovered that I have bird mites - At least I believe so - they're being identified today. I had a robin's nest over my front door and a day after the babies left, my head started crawling, so it seems pretty logical.
I was feeling 'crawling' sensations on my scalp for a couple of days and didn't know what to make of it. Luckily (?) I felt the sensation on my arm one day and looked down to see a tiny dark speck there. I went to the Internet and found a site devoted to bird mites and read loads of posts, some of which made sense, many which seemed downright dangerous.
The PCO who came advised me to run all of my clothes through the dryer on high heat for one cycle. Well, I didn't run ALL my clothes through the dryer, but the ones that had been worn in the last week, as well as all of my bedding (sheets, pillows, blankets, etc.). He also said to vacuum the mattress and soft furnishings. I put tea tree oil in my hair before washing it, put on clean clothes, and left the house while the PCO sprayed. He said that spraying around the baseboards and in crevices with a mixture of chemicals would kill the existing bugs and prevent the newly-hatched ones from reproducing.
I felt a couple of tickles that day while I was out of the house, a couple again that evening, and the next day my head was as crawly as ever. If the bugs (at least some of them) are on me, how are the chemicals going to kill them? The PCO insists that they are more active at night, that they feed on the host, then drop off. I haven't been bitten that I know of, or at least not much, and these things are definitely active during the day; they may be active at night too, but I'm not aware of it if they are.
On another site I found a recipe for treating the body, which involved soaking in a tub with borax, hydrogen peroxide, and epsom salts, and dousing everything above the water line in olive oil and neem oil. I did this yesterday morning, and had a relatively crawly-free day. Today they're back. There aren't as many as before, but still definitely present.
He's coming back tomorrow to do a re-spray, and suggesting mite-proof coverings for my mattress, box spring, and pillows, which sounds reasonable.
I saw in one of FreakedOutMommy's posts that she was advised that bagging clothes was not necessary, nor was worrying about the mattress....? She hasn't posted for several weeks, so I don't know how her situation turned out.
AAAUUGH! There's just sooooo much conflicting information and so many suggestions that I get overwhelmed just thinking about it. And I REALLY wish I'd never seen that bird mite site. Help and suggestions would be most welcome.
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Koebner
senior member
Joined: Aug '10
Posts: 665offline
Posted 1 year ago
Mon Aug 22 2011 15:45:17
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As you say, this isn't a BM forum, they're not something I know about, are an awkward pest to treat & require a very specific approach.
Sounds like you've found the Dark Side of pest control advice though. Remember, forums are like talking to people in a bar - unless you pick your bar & your conversation partners carefully you could find yourself following the advice of the tinfoil hat brigade.
This may help; http://www.bed-bugs.co.uk/birdmites.html
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oldtimer
Joined: Apr '07
Posts: 6,827offline
Posted 1 year ago
Mon Aug 22 2011 16:55:38
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Hi,
Here are a few simple steps:
- Dont attempt to kill anything / treat till you confirm what is causing the problem - if you dont know what it is when do you know its dead
- Get the best help you can and that means experience and approach rather than well known name
With this in mind I hate to say you need a PCO who knows what they are doing. If it is in fact bird mites (they are visible so you can look for them) then they have missed the basics. You start of by removing the source and then treating back to the ingress point and then sparingly treat inside the home. It sounds like you PCO started inside and did not make it to the outside which is a rookie mistake.
As a general rule you don't need to bag and wash and do through that rigmarole with bird mites as they tend not to remain in the property but pass between the normal source of food (birds) and the secondary source (you).
I personally would stop all of what you are doing until you can confirm what is actually going on because my gut instinct is that you are doing to find out eventually that this issue is not insect related.
Hope that advice and link that Koebner posted are of help.
David Cain
Bed Bugs Limited -
buggymoncton
newbite
Joined: Aug '11
Posts: 7offline
Posted 1 year ago
Mon Aug 22 2011 17:08:27
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Hi Bed-bugscouk,
Thanks for your response and advice. I haven't actually done a lot of cleaning/spraying, etc. I do a little, then get overwhelmed thinking about how big the job would be if I really did it, then quit. I must say though, that the olive/neem oil and epsom salt bath really made a huge difference, so I'll probably give that another go.
I neglected to mention that the first thing the PCO did was to remove the nest and treat around the area before going into the house, and he did treat sparingly.
I'm not sure what you mean by 'not insect related'? There are definitely insects - I've seen them and captured them. I should have a positive ID very soon.
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oldtimer
Joined: Apr '07
Posts: 6,827offline
Posted 1 year ago
Mon Aug 22 2011 17:35:26
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Hi,
OK thanks for adding a vital piece of information in that they did start outside and that things have actually been found it actually completely changes what you wrote the first time and all we can go on is the facts you share when you share them.
The bath helps because it moisturizes your skin which means its less prone to irritation not because its a magic formula.
Unfortunately we get a few people who roll in from other sites and many don't actually have insect relates issues despite convincing themselves that they have all of the conditions listed below:
Morgellans
Suckling mites
Bird mites
rat mites
mice mites
scabies
contagious delusional parasitosis (usually because their friend in Canada told them about it on skype and it made they itch)I am however never going to be convinced that mite covers will help with bird mites because they don't hang out on your bed, I think that ones an add on sale scam.
David
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cilecto
oldtimer
Joined: Aug '08
Posts: 3,869offline
Posted 1 year ago
Mon Aug 22 2011 18:05:02
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> contagious delusional parasitosis (usually because their friend in Canada told them about it on skype and it made they itch)
The Canadians allow Skype?
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oldtimer
Joined: Apr '07
Posts: 6,827offline
Posted 1 year ago
Mon Aug 22 2011 18:14:04
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cilecto - 7 minutes ago »
The Canadians allow Skype?Only for those who don't have webbed fingers and I hear the closet from Mr James is actually a secret skype portal to an alternative reality.
David
PS For the avoidance of doubt if you don't "get" or understand my sense of humour or if it offends you please do 8 years of bedbug control and then get back to me with your objections.
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buggymoncton
newbite
Joined: Aug '11
Posts: 7offline
Posted 1 year ago
Mon Aug 22 2011 18:42:53
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Hi David. It's so nice to talk to somebody SANE about this.
I don't think the bugs are hanging out in my bed - they're hanging out in my head! I have thick dark hair - could this just be the warm moist environment they're looking for? In any case, I reckon the olive oil slathered on my head yesterday suffocated most of them. As for the rest of my body, there are very few, and if they're biting, I'm not aware of it and there are no signs. Most of the samples I've gathered were from my head.
The PCO I'm dealing with seems a reasonable guy; he guarantees his work, and this second spraying is coming out of his pocket, not mine. If he had gotten to me before I got to the birdmites site, I wouldn't have read all those horror stories or spent the last week trying to stay calm and not panic. I'm sure the stress can NOT be helping! Also, when he suggested such simple remedies, I was skeptical - surely it can't be that easy if all those posters on birmites had such extreme infestations for so long? As I said, I wish he'd gotten to me first. And I'm wondering, if they don't like humans so much, won't they just die off eventually anyway, treatment or no?
In our initial conversation, the PCO mentioned heat treatments, fumigation, mite covers, etc., as options to try if the spraying didn't work; he was by no means suggesting these as a first line of defense. And he's not pushing the mite covers either, it's more my own desire to see these things gone NOW!
Maureen
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buggymoncton
newbite
Joined: Aug '11
Posts: 7offline
Posted 1 year ago
Mon Aug 22 2011 18:47:56
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Only for those who don't have webbed fingers and I hear the closet from Mr James is actually a secret skype portal to an alternative reality.
David
PS For the avoidance of doubt if you don't "get" or understand my sense of humour or if it offends you please do 8 years of bedbug control and then get back to me with your objections.I'm so glad I'm one of the ones without webbed fingers!
Maureen
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buggymoncton
newbite
Joined: Aug '11
Posts: 7offline
Posted 1 year ago
Tue Aug 23 2011 6:43:48
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Having read loads and loads of posts about what people have done, I'm still left with the question: What, exactly, should I be doing? Where do these critters hang out, if not in the bed and places where people are active? In my head I'm picturing relying on the bugs to walk across someplace that's been sprayed. I'm sure there's more to it than that!
I'd sure appreciate some help from someone experienced with these things, please?
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