Mites won't die, all over my house now - new question #55=grain mites?

[arch_cpj]

Ive been watching this theread for awhile and Im going to pop in heres the way this needs to be handled first thing you are one way or the other going to have to fumigate that house so it means the animals need to move to temp quarters... If this were me heres how Id handle the situation first Id open up all my closets and take all the linens off the bed Id pull the matress and place it on its side open up all cupboards save those with food in them... I would get one bug bomb per room and look for those specifically for mites / fleas and with a long residual... Id close the windows shut off any open flames and water heater if gas and bomb that place... While the bombs were going off I need to be outta the house 2 - 3 hours anyhew so I would flea and tick dip all my animals again with a dip that has a residual... I would then invest in a bio spot or frontline for the mammals and sevin dust for the birds.. That probably killed 2 hours ish I would go to town and get me a gallon or 2 or ORTHO HOME DEFENSE SPRAY Id use it outside on my foundation and any openings near the house also on the door sill and window sills... Ive probably burned another hour so go in and open that house up look at the mites they all ought to be dead... get a shop vac and buy the bags for it vacc them mites up and pitch the bag in a hole aor double plastic bag and right to the curb with it!!!... take that ortho home defense and spray any cubby holes or covered areas the mites may have hidden from the bomb also do along all the walls where they meet the floor and do the basement sill and along the walls... Go to walmart and get a bleach all purpose spray cleaner open the food cupboards and pull out the food and bleach them cupboards out allow to air dry... Id vaccume that house 2 times and throw the bag out with the shop vac bag.. Dont forget to spray the ortho under couch cushions etc... ortho has a 6 month residual the bombs likely 3 month if you do all this your mite situation should be well taken care of and for less than 100 bucks...

 

[spikennipper]

These sound and look like grain/flour mites that frequently infest mealworm bins and open bags of corn etc they thrive in high humidity areas and as far as I am aware they are harmless to us and chickens and do not suck blood, it is far better to get rid of the source rather than treating with chemical means i.e ditch the mealworms and any open bags of feed stuff, flour etc that may be infested then I would do a thorough hoover to suck up as many of the mites as possible and dry the room up, they cannot survive in a room if the humidity level goes below 50%

 

[Miss Lydia]

yep! where are you scg? we are worried.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Yup... Still at work

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Does anyone else think this could be grain mites? After that post I thought about it, and I did have a bad batch of Purina Flock Raiser a few months ago. It was really really crumbly and I stopped feeding it to my outdoor birds cause it clogged the feeder but figured it would be good to feed to the small babies in the basement, I started on 08.15. I'm not sure how it got upstairs to my mealworms, except that I fed the downstairs babies with the mealworms upstairs, but shouldn't have contaminated them?? Maybe now that I think about it I might have thrown some of that feed in with the meal worms, I don't know it was so long ago.
Or do these look like regular chicken mites that suck blood?

Anyway I never saw these mite things on the Purina bag, but here's the picture:

versus regular feed:

 

[BayouPoules]

Quote:
Glad to hear it! Looking forward to you getting past this mite mess!
Wish I was there to help,.. keep us posted when ya can!

 

[Brahma Mamma]

Try spreading wood ash. Mites DIE in wood ash

 

[Miss Lydia]

I don't know about that grain but looks like something is wrong with it for sure. I bought a bag of flock raiser last year put it in my car then went to the grocery store, when I came out and got into my car there was bugs everywhere coming from the inside of the bag and it hadn't even been opened. Needless to say right back to the feed store for a replacement bag. I never saw what the grain looked like, but these bugs were bigger than the mites that were on my birds recently. Tomorrow I retreat everything again hoping this will take care of our mite problem. Also do you put the wood ashes in the chicken house or just where they dust bathe?

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote:
I think this person is bringing up a very good point. Have you positively identified the bug via pictures on internet? Are you certain of what you are dealing with?

ETA: the poisons you are about to unleash on your home are not trivial!!! I worry about you!

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Most of the pictures on the internet are very magnified pictures.

I was going to try and schmooze the lab personnel at work today to identify it, then I thought how mad my boss would be if I brought blood sucking mites to work that infected the whole hospital.

Would there be mite bites on the birds, especially if it was that severe of an infestation? How about now if I Sevin dusted them on Monday, would they have healed? Where are mite bites most prevalent, vent or breast or neck?

I also want to reiterate how wonderfully helpful and supportive this board has been. I don't want to unleash more pesticides all over if I don't have to.