Mite bites on me - are they in my house?

[pitsandchicks]

Once you have this under control with the insecticide you might try mite predators as a preventative which eat a number of species.

I did read about mite predators and my partner was fascinated by this idea. He’s growing soldier flies now so he’s really into good pests. Have you tried it?

 

[pitsandchicks]

If your going to handle the chickens and dealing with mites, if you have to take some extra clothes . Change outside, garage, where ever. Mini wash up, 5 gallon pale whatever, garden hose.
Mites are very hard to see.
Put clothes in plastic bag, or straight to washer whatever.
I had a lot of bites last spring of course the mind starts think the worse things possible. I will have to fumigate the house type stuff ohh gosh going to cost thousands.. Then I started to do research.
I also keep hand cleaner with the alcohol by where I keep chickens. Anytime I collect eggs, new straw in nesting boxes, etc. I use the hand gel Or go out to hydrant and wash up quick.
Every year at fairs or exhibits with animals around the country there always seems to be some kids which get salmonella.

Also to be honest I would not want to handle anyones else chickens if I did not have extra clothes. I do not handle my own without changing clothes.

Exactly! My mind went straight to thinking I was going to have to clean the whole house, call an exterminator, and live the next X number of weeks battling some kind of infestation! Luckily I haven’t gotten new bites (aside from some mosquitos, but I feel those immediately) in several days. I learned my lesson about thinking I can grab a hen from the nesting box and then go about my day. I also am not one of those people who usually handles my chickens — my neighbor used to cuddle hers all the time and I’m amazed she wasn’t itchy. She also wore her coop shoes in the house. Yuck yuck yuck.

 

[pitsandchicks]

I've found NFM on me after handling birds or their bedding. Wear a white tee shirt so you can see them. Sometimes I don't see them but feel them. Other times they are just imagined. A bit of bleach in the washing machine or the bath tub seems to take care of both the real and imaginary mites..

Thanks! I didn’t see many (maybe not any?) mites when I was cleaning the coop, so I don’t think I had many… but I guess it only takes a few from the bedding to chew you up.

And I laughed out loud at the imagined mites… I have felt like my skin is crawling so much these last few days. We definitely had scaly leg mites on our rooster, so we dunked all their legs in elector, but even when I was rubbing it into his leg, I just felt itchy!

 

[AGeese]

I did read about mite predators and my partner was fascinated by this idea. He’s growing soldier flies now so he’s really into good pests. Have you tried it?

I bought them and put them out, but I couldn't tell you since I wasn't treating an infestation. I may keep doing it, but right now they're just too pricey as preventatives.

 

[Rowena Matthews]

This past weekend, I interacted with the coop/hens in two ways I usually don’t:

1. I picked up a broody hen from the nesting box, held her against my body to carry her to around the coop and into the run;

2. I was spraying a waterproofing on the nesting boxes so I got inside the coop, which has several inches of wood shavings (start of deep litter)

Monday, I was at the store and noticed about 8-10 little bite bumps on my hands and arms. Pretty itchy — thought it was hives. But then I started noticing more, and some on my ankles. So far, all bumps seem to be ankles and arms/hands. The bumps are smaller and less itchy than chiggers, which I’ve had a few times before. I didn’t associate it with chickens because of the delayed reaction

I later considered the hens when a few more bumps appeared so I started looking up hen bugs. Learned about mites and realized that the Brahma rooster has has scaly leg mites since we took him (neighbor had to move in a rush so that’s how we got chickens in March). They’re now clearly bad, but these don’t seem to be what’s biting me.

I found grain beetles. Couldn’t find any specific mites (I have bad vision and am trying to do this by myself), but a couple hens look a little disheveled, like their feathers are just sad and bodiless. One hen hasn’t laid an egg in a while, and another has reduced production.

I decided to assume I have mites and am deep cleaning the coop, spraying elector psp in every crevice, dipping the chickens that seem to have scaly leg mites (at least two definitely do), and spraying the others down really good. From what I’ve read, this should eliminate coop/chicken mites.

So my question then… for anyone who has been bit my mites, does it sound like that’s what happened to me? Some of the bumps didn’t appear until a few days after I was holding hen / standing in the bedding. I’m bad at changing my clothes after i handle chickens, so I have a feeling those clothes touched the couch and went into a clothes basket with other clothes and sat for a few days.

Am I going to have a mite infestation in my house?? I am seeing conflicting info online. I’m trying to tell myself that if mites infested homes that easily, most chickenkeepers would have bedbug-like infestations in their homes, but then I found some scary stuff online saying that bird mites are nearly impossible To get out of your house once you’ve got them, so people like… move or get rid of all their stuff.

Anyway, my anxiety is on high. I think I’m solving the problem at the bird level, but what about the humans/house? (Also — dog doesn’t seem to have any bites)

Omg I'm dealing with mites right now. Oooh they bite alright, in all the hot spots! Under arm pits, under breast's, and they're so tiny! I had totally cleaned out the chook house cause when I picked her up she was covered in them! Boy I water blasted everywhere. All the bedding etc went in the bin, which was two weeks ago. That bin was emptied still the bin is covered so I've just sprayed it with flyspray. I was NOT about to touch the handle again! Anyway at the time I washed chooky with Epsom salts and vinegar then used mite powder from the pet store. She was so grateful

 

[Altairsky]

I've been in contact with birds my whole life, and never paid attention to even the most basic rules of hygiene, and the only animal pest that bit me were ticks, and fleas. *From dogs*.
I rescued wild birds, and got mites crawl from my hand all the way up to my neck, and never had a single bite from them.
I'd think about some sort of allergy/immune reaction to mite bite.