Bird mites everywhere

[Rough Edge racing]

 As in our house.....We live in the woods ,our house  all cedar inside and out....There was a fly catcher nest on the upper deck. We remove nests but missed this one and by the time we saw it there were freshly hatched birds in it. Being that  they are insect eaters we let it be...Mistake!
 The birds leave the nest and like all birds they have mites. The mites had no more free lunch so they got inside our home looking for a meal. They can't survive on humans and cats and dogs but they continue to bite and sample until they dies after a week or so...
 We have a lot itchy mite bites and the two mostly outside cats also have them. "Revolution " flea mite killer from the vet took care of the cats....But nothing like that for us.
 Everyday my wife vacuums the whole house, wipe down with alcohol and ammonia but the all wood construction has many places for these evil tiny bugs to hide. Strip the bed every day and wipe down the mattress cover. Wipe ourselves with alcohol several times a day.....I have greased the bed frame legs with Vaseline so the bugs can't climb up, they don't fly or jump, just crawl.
 And to make it more miserable constant rain for the last week has brought on swarms of mosquitoes.....
 We are winning the battle but it's slow going...

[mtiberio]

what particular hellish corner of the universe do you occupy? I just want to know so I don't go there...

[slowmover]

Bedbugs will eat them.Try and get some.

[Rough Edge racing]

what particular hellish corner of the universe do you occupy? I just want to know so I don't go there...

Western NY state near Lake Ontario.....Normall y bugs are not a problem here but as mentioned the wet weather  makes it worse

[O]

The best intentions...

Sounds horrendous.  Hope they all die off soon.  Just be sure and keep 'em off the Guzzi Eagle!

[donn]

We had something like this going on when a rat died in the wall.  The lady of the house was convinced that we had bedbugs and ordered a set of "interceptor" pans for the bedposts.  "Climbup" or similar.  These things don't claim to be able to control bedbugs, they're just supposed to catch some so you can see you have them.  After the pans were installed, the mites stopped coming, evidently because they had been climbing up the bed posts.  Or it was just coincidence and we were running out of mites anyway.

[Cam Lay]

Oh boy! An entomological question!

You are doing what you are supposed to be doing for these guys. The good news is that they are probably northern fowl mites or something closely related. They can't survive on humans, and they normally don't live much more than a week without a bird to feed on. Usually vacuuming is sufficient to control them.

Pesticides aren't normally recommended, and often make things worse. Almost all of the over-the-counter products are synthetic pyrethrins (the active ingredient will be something that ends in "-thrin," like cyhalothrin, resmethrin, cyfluthrin...) The most common symptom of pyretrin exposure is skin sensitization and itching.

Be aware, too, that it's not uncommon after having an infestation like this for everything from air currents to nothing at all to make your brain say "bug on you!" We humans are exceptionally easy to train, and very good at seeing patterns (whether they're actually present or not). I spend the day itching and scratching every time somebody brings me mites or bedbugs or ticks or anything else, even if they're pickled in alcohol.

If things persist more than a week or so (unlikely, given the situation you describe) send a sample to your local Extension office and see what the heck it is. Or me - I'm easy to find.

Good luck,
C

[Rough Edge racing]

 Yes northern fowl mites. My wife has a microscope and had a look at them. We also have chickens but they are not infested with these mites.
 You talk about getting spooked... My wife feels the slightest thing and freaks out. It's surprising because my wife is knows all the backwoods skills and is not afraid of animals and insects, dead or alive.....She says the damn mites are like intruders who violate her being...

[trippah]

Are they like the little micro red "spiders" we have all over the deck and various outdoor walls this year (here in almost Hellish Central Mass)?   

[donn]

If it's large enough to see easily, really red, and moves pretty fast, then I think that's a red velvet mite.  More beneficial than harmful, as far as I know, and at any rate not a parasite of humans or any other vertebrate.

[Rough Edge racing]

Are they like the little micro red "spiders" we have all over the deck and various outdoor walls this year (here in almost Hellish Central Mass)?   

 Very tiny like specks of dirt to the naked eye.. Their "sample" bite is nasty like a spider bite and not like a mosquito bite that heals up in a few hours.
 My wife won't admit it but like all chickens ,ours do have mites that are normally keep under control.. But they may have gotten on her and brought into the house. But the birds nest most likely contributed...

[Steve Scott]

We had the same issue in our WV house a dozen years ago after I cleared the blackbirds out of the attic. Fortunately, I was the only one in the house at the time and the whole mess ran its course in a few weeks. It did give me a primer on tiny blood-sucking devil-bug control so I was a little better prepared for our bedbug infestation a few years ago...

... now THAT"S hell!