harvest mites PLEASE HELP!

I have very nasty reactions to harvest mites- and i am being eaten alive at moment. look like I have some hidious spotty disease. It has now dawned on me where the damn things are comming from. Its come in with my rabbit hay -and every single time I gather a load to give my rabbits they are jumping ship and getting me.

thankfully the rabbits appear utterly uneffected by the horrible creatures but I am getting desperate. I have covered myself in insect repellent and they are still jumping on me. it itches like fury and when i woke up this moring i had scratched in my sleep and was bleeding in multiple places.

please -can anyone tell me how do I make them leave me alone? the jungle formular insect repellent with deet they laugh at.

I'm not sure how you would get rid of them, sorry

Have you tried calamine lotion for the itching? I've used this before for insect bites along with taking antihistamines and it stopped most of the itching/irritation.

The only way to get rid of and stop them in cats is a steroid injection.....maybe see your doctor about it? They are rife where we live and our cats have problems with them but never had a problem with them myself.

Sorry I can't be more help!

I've just been reading through a lecture about harvest mites and it doesn't look like there's that much you can do about them they shouldn't be around for too much longer though I think - they normally disappear once summers finished

I would definitely try taking an antihistamine every day and see if you can get some cream from the docs for the itching - eczema steroid type cream might help?

I'll have a read through my notes and see if there's official treatment!

I just checked my notes...

- seasonally affected from June to September
- self limiting problem
- no proper treatments apart from systemic/injection of steroids (in animals) if they need it for the itching


I'd see if the doctors can give you anything just to stop the itching - bites are the worst!

I feel your pain! I've been wrestling with the blighters for almost a month now. I only just got a new hay that the buns will eat so I can toss out the offending bales (bonfire time!) Despite taking daily showers and cleaning everything like a madwoman I'm having little success. The mites must be finding something to eat because they won't leave! (We've had a really buggy summer in general here and this has made it worse.)

The only thing I've found that helps is either hitting the welts with generous doses of hydrogen peroxide or using tea tree soaps and washes...but as of today I've found that I'm possibly allergic to the tea tree. It burns my skin (not visibly, just the sensation) and I wake up all nauseated, headachy and shaking after showering with it the night before. So angry because it really takes the sting out of the bites and is healing the scars and now I can't use it. Probably just as well because I've read the oil (full strength) can be toxic to pets but then why there are tea tree pet shampoos is a mystery. :? (Not that I was thinking of using any on mine but my Yorkie likes to wash my arms before bed and I've been afraid to let her lick them while I'm using this stuff.)

Holhol, I'm glad to hear these things should be gone by September. I keep my hay in my house though since my rabbits aren't outside...is there anything I need to do to give the bugs the boot other that bunging the hay out the door?

I have a steroid skin cream for another skin issue and i think I'll try that but there must be 50+ angry lumps I suspect I am not meant to whallop that kind of quantity of cream on.. but if i at least shove it on the most painful any relief is good. Have sprayed the furnature and bed in insecticide (strong household flea killer) in case the horrible little things are in there. the jungle repellant stuff... my poor dog came to see me after I'd used it-had a sneezing fit and ran away from me so i can kind of see how that works-any animal likely to be carrying bugs will run away from you!
Have been up chemist and got antihistamin tablets now so I am hoping it might start working at some point.

thank you all- I still itch but feel better for a whinge! lol
I am just so glad dog and rabbits don't seem itchy-bad enough for me -really couldn't deal with it in them at same time.

MimzMum said:

I feel your pain! I've been wrestling with the blighters for almost a month now. I only just got a new hay that the buns will eat so I can toss out the offending bales (bonfire time!) Despite taking daily showers and cleaning everything like a madwoman I'm having little success. The mites must be finding something to eat because they won't leave! (We've had a really buggy summer in general here and this has made it worse.)

The only thing I've found that helps is either hitting the welts with generous doses of hydrogen peroxide or using tea tree soaps and washes...but as of today I've found that I'm possibly allergic to the tea tree. It burns my skin (not visibly, just the sensation) and I wake up all nauseated, headachy and shaking after showering with it the night before. So angry because it really takes the sting out of the bites and is healing the scars and now I can't use it. Probably just as well because I've read the oil (full strength) can be toxic to pets but then why there are tea tree pet shampoos is a mystery. :? (Not that I was thinking of using any on mine but my Yorkie likes to wash my arms before bed and I've been afraid to let her lick them while I'm using this stuff.)

Holhol, I'm glad to hear these things should be gone by September. I keep my hay in my house though since my rabbits aren't outside...is there anything I need to do to give the bugs the boot other that bunging the hay out the door?

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I'm pretty certain they can't survive very well in the house for more than a couple of days but I'm not 100% on this... I'm sure I remember something saying they basically crawl on you, bite you a bit them get off - they're horrid!
Hoovering everywhere will probably get rid of them and maybe washing hay contact stuff! There was something about potentially using flea spray type things but I think that's optional!

Hopefully you'll only have another month of them!

Holhol said:

I'm pretty certain they can't survive very well in the house for more than a couple of days but I'm not 100% on this... I'm sure I remember something saying they basically crawl on you, bite you a bit them get off - they're horrid!
Hoovering everywhere will probably get rid of them and maybe washing hay contact stuff! There was something about potentially using flea spray type things but I think that's optional!

Hopefully you'll only have another month of them!

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Thanks! Breaking out the shop vac today and really tearing the place down. Another day with them is too much! My poor daughter has phobias about all sorts of insects and after this epidode I'm developing a few of my own!
BTW, do they ever morph into anything that flies? I'm also seeing gnat like bugs from time to time and I think those showed up about the same time as the mites. They might be what the mites are feeding on I guess but I only see about three or so of the gnats a day to every other day...doesn't seem like a huge food supply. That's why I thought it might be an adult mite.

Belgian2, I think these bugs got to one of my rabbits and my Yorkie because I did see a few bites in their ears that sort of resembled mine. But they're not scratching like I was. I seem to be the target of choice and since I 'm the only one handling hay that's likely why.
I can't spray my place with repellant or fogger because I fear harming the pets with it. Jenna is particularly sensitive so you can imagine how mozzie season has been! :shock: In fact that's what I thought these were at first until the blisters formed. Never had the like and don't ever want it again!

MimzMum said:

Thanks! Breaking out the shop vac today and really tearing the place down. Another day with them is too much! My poor daughter has phobias about all sorts of insects and after this epidode I'm developing a few of my own!
BTW, do they ever morph into anything that flies? I'm also seeing gnat like bugs from time to time and I think those showed up about the same time as the mites. They might be what the mites are feeding on I guess but I only see about three or so of the gnats a day to every other day...doesn't seem like a huge food supply. That's why I thought it might be an adult mite.

Belgian2, I think these bugs got to one of my rabbits and my Yorkie because I did see a few bites in their ears that sort of resembled mine. But they're not scratching like I was. I seem to be the target of choice and since I 'm the only one handling hay that's likely why.
I can't spray my place with repellant or fogger because I fear harming the pets with it. Jenna is particularly sensitive so you can imagine how mozzie season has been! :shock: In fact that's what I thought these were at first until the blisters formed. Never had the like and don't ever want it again!

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Yeah I'm not keen on bugs... Mites and ticks and fleas make me itchy!
Don't think so - think they just stay as gross little mites! Blegh!

i look diseased i'm so covered in bites. they just like the taste of me for some reason :evil: i take anti-histamines everyday and put steroid cream on the worst ones. it is annoying though

omg i just looked the horrible things up on wikipedia. larve in your skin? blughhhhhh i seriously NOT happy.

on good news front the steroid cream does seem to tackle the itch pretty well- can't do all of them as would be seriously overdosing on cream but at least can get the real vulcanic ones that send me to screaming pitch

biscandmatt1 said:

i look diseased i'm so covered in bites. they just like the taste of me for some reason :evil: i take anti-histamines everyday and put steroid cream on the worst ones. it is annoying though

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Oh you poor thing, I have loads of sympathy for you. My cat is horribly allergic to any insects and he has the steroid shots during summer. He's particularly bad at the moment so maybe its just a really bad bug year? I was washing his feet with hibiscrub this morning cos he has been so itchy

I just got all the large boxes of hay and minibales out into the back yard yesterday so they can be added to the winter burn pile. Wish we could light them now but it's not allowed till snow falls. I have a feeling there's going to be a bit of a population explosion in the meantime but it's a part of the yard we never use nor frequent and it's far from the house. Doubt any offspring would survive our forty below winters at any rate.
Hoovered as much as I could but I fear I've missed some spots. We have so many nooks and crannies it's going to take awhile to get everything.
Meanwhile I am covered in more bites and get those 'crawly' sensations every once in awhile but I have to wonder if that's psychological. The bites seem to disperse an itchy feel over a wide area of the skin despite the original bite only being from the size of a pencil eraser to (in some spots for me) the size of a quarter. I also feel pretty feverish, nauseous and achy everywhere but that could be from too little sleep over the last month, lack of proper hydration or bathing in our nasty well water excessively of late. (Lots of iron content...not good for the system.)
My understanding is they bite when you touch hay products...then fall off (they can't complete their life cycle on a human host) and you won't feel the bite (not sure about that) and the welt can take 10-24 hours to appear...so you have little chance to react and try to brush off the things.
Considering that I can get terrible reactions from most insect bites though I wouldn't be surprised to learn I have a sensitivity to this particular pest. I do wish they'd just get lost already!
Does anyone know if sprinkling carpets with a baking soda deodorizer before vacuuming will help get rid of them quicker? And of course Fiver lives next to my bed (nowhere else for him to go, sadly I don't dare move Pip back in from the kitchen either although she is happier in here) so is there something non toxic I could spray on my bedding to discourage the little devils from making comfy in it? I have no washing machine or dryer currently and am going broke taking things to the laundromat.

Ugh...my head hurts. Really did not need the extra stress of this with everything else going pear shaped in my life right now. :roll:

biscandmatt1, I completely sympathize...so far I am the only one getting bitten but for maybe one bite my daughter got early on in this war. Plus the few bites I think Fiver and Jenna seemed to have. Don't see any on the other two even though they all ate the same hay and now I've switched to orchard grass there seem to be no new welts on Fiver (holding breath) and the only happy outcome being reduced cecal dysbiosis in all but Mimzy.

So either there's a wide range of reactions to these insects or they're mostly concentrating in my bedroom. (Joy! :roll: ) Either way I've got month old scars that make me look like I've had chicken pox again!

i have felt ill with it too. feverish, headachy, faint. not sure if its partly down to lack of sleep with itching though.
I'm afraid I have gone for the sod the envirament option - evicted my animals outside for a couple of hours and sprayed entire house with strong flea spray- that does definatly kill them-and more to point keeps killing them. gave house a good blow through with doors and windows open after so pets didn't come back in till aired.

My sisters cat has them at the moment. Horrible wee things.

belgian2 said:

i have felt ill with it too. feverish, headachy, faint. not sure if its partly down to lack of sleep with itching though.
I'm afraid I have gone for the sod the envirament option - evicted my animals outside for a couple of hours and sprayed entire house with strong flea spray- that does definatly kill them-and more to point keeps killing them. gave house a good blow through with doors and windows open after so pets didn't come back in till aired.

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I wish I could do this but I'm heavily affected by toxins myself. Even repellant with DEET makes me very ill yet I had no choice but to use some yesterday while I shuffled boxes outside because I'd hoped it would keep the mites away or at least the mosquitoes. It's pretty weak stuff and didn't greatly help but it's probably part of the reason I feel so icky.
My pets have nowhere to go out of doors where they'd be safe for hours. No fencing on our property (pretty much no one does here for fear of the moose knocking it down or getting tangled in the wire ones) and carriers would seriously stress the cats and bunnies. We'll find a way to shift these things before I have to start keeping the windows closed (not that many of those open in the first place.)

And of course this makes it doubly important that I finish sorting our clutter. God forbid they take up residence in any of that! (Though from what I've read their mainstay is only hay filled areas and the surrounding flooring but why take the chance?)
My biggest concern is that they not reach the stored spruce for the woodstove. We've had that in our back room since we got here 20 years ago (the room was the garage and OH converted it) and it would be a major project to have to get it all back outside. Since that's a closed off room from the rest of the pets I suppose it's not necessarily where they are coming from. My son's room branches off from it and he's had no trouble with them. And even I was only getting one or two bites a day for the last few days until I hauled all that hay outside. I must have at least ten new lesions today. I had to have my daughter take six inches off the ends of my hair last night because it's been a nightmare having to wash it all when it was down past my shoulders. I actually briefly thought of shaving my head! :lol:

Ugh...bugs! What are they good for?? :evil: