Grain mites again!

[Folly's place]

I wonder if you all check the mill date on each bag of feed, and only buy what you can use within about eight weeks of milling. Is it older feed?
I buy Flock Raiser crumble, fresh, and store it in the original bags in metal garbage cans. Either I'm blind, or I haven't had grain mite issues.
It does sound disgusting!
Mary

 

[Mybackyardpeepers]

I wonder if you all check the mill date on each bag of feed, and only buy what you can use within about eight weeks of milling. Is it older feed?
I buy Flock Raiser crumble, fresh, and store it in the original bags in metal garbage cans. Either I'm blind, or I haven't had grain mite issues.
It does sound disgusting!
Mary

It really doesn't matter the date on bag. They get another supply in and soon as the bags touch it transfers them. I had 2 and a half bags go bad cause of one bad bag.

 

[kerbotx]

I wonder if you all check the mill date on each bag of feed, and only buy what you can use within about eight weeks of milling. Is it older feed?
I buy Flock Raiser crumble, fresh, and store it in the original bags in metal garbage cans. Either I'm blind, or I haven't had grain mite issues.
It does sound disgusting!
Mary

Def agree that age of the feed can be an issue, I've had to be vigilant about that both at the feed mill & TSC. Along with that information encoded on the bag is the mill it was produced at - if we could compare notes on that, we could figure out which mill has problems, and maybe avoid it going forward?

 

[aart]

They are pretty ubiquitous in the summer, and don't cause that much of a problem other than the creepout factor, tho you don't want them getting into your kitchen!! Flipped me out at first, but have learned to live with it.
Here's from when I first found them, with video and pics.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/grain-mites.981212/

Does anyone else feel that this may be an issue with Purina/Nutrena?

Yep, see it in the Purina FR almost every summer, this year was pretty bad. One year they started adding DE to the feed and it took care of it. I bring bag home and set it on a large dog crate tray, then transfer to clean container while mixing in copious amounts of DE, takes a couple day to kill them all.

Brand new bag of Purina flock raiser was bought and when opened it was 40% powder with mites present!

'Brand new' in that you just bought it, but what was the mfg date?
Older the feed, the more the grain mites proliferate in there.
If you call Purina with mfg code they'll send you coupons.

Just wipe the bag down with cleaner.

That doesn't do squat, TSC wipes them with a pretty strong percentage pyrethrin, asked them to do it so saw it first hand, next day bag was again covered. The grain mites are inside the bag and residual insecticide doesn't seem to kill the,.

The guy at FFH said you bring them home on the bag unnoticed, sometimes they get inside the bag. You open the bag and heat along with humidity makes them multiply. Like you said it's absolutely nothing they did to cause it.

They come from inside the bags, but yes, can transfer to other bags.
TSC manager told me that Purina told him they were 'bag mites that ate the paper'.
Not correct of course. ETA...I told him 'those bags are plastic' and the light went on.

 

[Mybackyardpeepers]

They are pretty ubiquitous in the summer, and don't cause that much of a problem other than the creepout factor, tho you don't want them getting into your kitchen!! Flipped me out at first, but have learned to live with it.
Here's from when I first found them, with video and pics.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/grain-mites.981212/


Yep, see it in the Purina FR almost every summer, this year was pretty bad. One year they started adding DE to the feed and it took care of it. I bring bag home and set it on a large dog crate tray, then transfer to clean container while mixing in copious amounts of DE, takes a couple day to kill them all.

'Brand new' in that you just bought it, but what was the mfg date?
Older the feed, the more the grain mites proliferate in there.
If you call Purina with mfg code they'll send you coupons.

That doesn't do squat, TSC wipes them with a pretty strong percentage pyrethrin, asked them to do it so saw it first hand, next day bag was again covered. The grain mites are inside the bag and residual insecticide doesn't seem to kill the,.

They come from inside the bags, but yes, can transfer to other bags.
TSC manager told me that Purina told him they were 'bag mites that ate the paper'.
Not correct of course.

Yeah definitely don't eat the paper lol. People need to be diligent, as I use a storage container in my home. These feed mites can and will spread to human foods!

 

[Onehappykat]

They are pretty ubiquitous in the summer, and don't cause that much of a problem other than the creepout factor, tho you don't want them getting into your kitchen!! Flipped me out at first, but have learned to live with it.
Here's from when I first found them, with video and pics.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/grain-mites.981212/


Yep, see it in the Purina FR almost every summer, this year was pretty bad. One year they started adding DE to the feed and it took care of it. I bring bag home and set it on a large dog crate tray, then transfer to clean container while mixing in copious amounts of DE, takes a couple day to kill them all.

'Brand new' in that you just bought it, but what was the mfg date?
Older the feed, the more the grain mites proliferate in there.
If you call Purina with mfg code they'll send you coupons.

That doesn't do squat, TSC wipes them with a pretty strong percentage pyrethrin, asked them to do it so saw it first hand, next day bag was again covered. The grain mites are inside the bag and residual insecticide doesn't seem to kill the,.

They come from inside the bags, but yes, can transfer to other bags.
TSC manager told me that Purina told him they were 'bag mites that ate the paper'.
Not correct of course. ETA...I told him 'those bags are plastic' and the light went on.

I guess the manufacturing date didn’t cross my mind. If everything was stored together they cross contaminate so if new product is stored with old product, it’s still going to be contaminated. And that was where we were running into the problem. People at tractor supply told us that it was common in the sweet feed that they carry for horses and cattle but that it never migrated to dog or cat or chicken. Well anyone with common sense would know that all of that food is a grain anyway and at some point if one bags infected they’re all going to be infected. They do not live on the outside of the bag. If they are infested they will be crawling on the outside of the bag but normally you won’t see them until you open up the bag. Now that I’ve had the scare I look at all the feed even the crumble and anything that has powder presence to a certain extent I check. Normal wear crumble from sitting or being handled is normal but when you open up a bag and the whole top of the bag is pretty much nothing but powder and it supposed to be pellets, you know you have an issue. What got me was the assistant manager at runnings treated me like I was a liar and kept reiterating that his store doesn’t have mites. I told him he was probably right, his store didn’t have mites but if he waited and hesitated on doing something about it his store was going to have mites. They let me bring back the bag but they acted like there was no issue. They just set the bag on the counter left it open and that was where it was sitting when I left the store. It’s a shame that people like us who are knowledgeable now or have become knowledgeable about the issue are the only ones that are willing to do something about it. Now I understand that mites Are probably inevitable but my family has had a farm for numerous numerous years and we have never seen mites like we did this past summer or for that matter at all. It would just be nice for people that are knowledgeable or that have experienced it like tractor supply, to inform the public that mites are in their grains and to take caution. A family member of mine got really sick from having the mites in the house. And people argue with you about how the mites don’t affect people but that’s not true. For people that are ill or that have weak immune system‘s, the mites will bite and they will wreck havoc. The people will have an allergic response to these mites and they will become very sick. As soon as we got the mites under control and gone my mother got better. And sadly it was the same situation as you. We had a bag of crumble sitting in the kitchen next to a bag of cat food and dog food and the only reason that I knew that the mites were in the house is because I reach down in the bag and the whole one side of my arm looked like sawdust and it was all moving. I then examined the rest of the counter where the bag of food was and they were all over the island and all over the dishes and the Pepsi bottles. Everything was covered. I spent hours that night taking every possible thing out of the house scrubbing everything down and spraying the entire house. Now I tried something that I thought of because I work in a veterinary office, I went and bought advantage premise spray because it does mites and it safe for the pets since we have cats and dogs. It actually did control the mites in the house and did get rid of them but for the ones outside it was day after day of consistently spraying everything down with permethrin washing and scrubbing everything in hot water and dish soap and using diatomaceous earth on everything. We put it in the sawdust, we put it in the Food and we sprinkled it all over the coops. There are chemicals out there that you can use that will kill them but a lot of those chemicals are toxic to the birds and will cause them to have upper respiratory problems so if anyone is dealing with mites please double check your product on what you’re using and make sure that it’s not a problem for birds. We first tried cedarside and it caused a lot of upper respiratory problems. Everybody is good now but it made me sick seeing those mites in that bag! And to be treated the way I was treated from that company. It made me feel like a piece of dirt and that all I was doing was trying to get free product when in fact he had no idea what I had personally been through.

 

[Onehappykat]

I wonder if you all check the mill date on each bag of feed, and only buy what you can use within about eight weeks of milling. Is it older feed?
I buy Flock Raiser crumble, fresh, and store it in the original bags in metal garbage cans. Either I'm blind, or I haven't had grain mite issues.
It does sound disgusting!
Mary

You’re lucky! You don’t want any issues. The Millfields don’t tend to have too much of a problem. It’s honestly been through local feed stores that have had the issue and stuff that stored together in back rooms. We have tried mill feed but our chickens and geese do not like it. They really enjoy the Nutrena nature wise all flock and we’ve had really good results with feeding that Aside from the mites. But again I really think it has to do with the manufacturer and shipping them out. I agree with you but if it’s a fresh bag of feed you probably won’t have an issue. We only buy a bag at a time. We never have a bag sitting around and any bag that we do buy goes directly into a tote or a galvanized can.

 

[aart]

Deep Breaths.
There are many kinds of mites....I doubt it was grain mites are what made your family member ill.

I agree with you but if it’s a fresh bag of feed you probably won’t have an issue. We only buy a bag at a time. We never have a bag sitting around and any bag that we do buy goes directly into a tote or a galvanized can.

Even fresher bags can have them.
That's why I isolate bag from store on a crate tray for 24 hours,
then transfer while mixing in DE.

 

[Onehappykat]

Deep Breaths.
There are many kinds of mites....I doubt it was grain mites are what made your family member ill.

Even fresher bags can have them.
That's why I isolate bag from store on a crate tray for 24 hours,
then transfer while mixing in DE.

I’m well aware there are many kinds of mites. I work in the medical field. I took samples and it was confirmed. It was not just coincidence. She was sick for several weeks before we discovered the problem. Once we eliminated them, she got better and lesions healed. So yes it was the grain mites

 

[2 many chickens]

I’m well aware there are many kinds of mites. I work in the medical field. I took samples and it was confirmed. It was not just coincidence. She was sick for several weeks before we discovered the problem. Once we eliminated them, she got better and lesions healed. So yes it was the grain mites

I feel your pain. It has taken so long to eliminate these little monsters. My buttons are in my house, so seeing these things crawling out of the enclosures and on my walls, objects, etc sent me over the edge. It was millions of them. I had no idea. I just thought it was dust.
I cleaned, washed everything over and over. It took a couple of weeks to finally get rid of them. I always freeze my feed now and put DE in it. Everytime I go to tsc I say something but they act like I'm nuts. The guys like "this lady says the dust is not dust and it moves"
:/