Bird Mites – What I have Learned & Questions

[NewJersey201]

First & foremost, I want to thank the creators of this forum, it has been lifesaving. I also want to thank everyone for their stories and feedback. This information was been invaluable to me ask I navigate this awful situation.

I have been living with (based on Terminix) bird mites for the last 2 months and it has been a living hell. I think I had them longer than that cause they were touching in my bed in my sleep (which was gross) but that is when the issue was diagnosed.

2 months ago Terminix assessed my issue as bird mites but they don’t treat them in my area so I informed my landlord who hired Orkin. Orkin came in to treat my apt. but treated it like I had mice or roaches twice in 3 days. After doing extensive research and living in hell, I shared this issue with my landlord (the site and premo.com with my landlord) to let them know that Orkin did not treat the apt. for bird mites and the issue still persisted. At which time my landlord stop responding to me. I asked if Orkin has another assessment of the issue but didn’t get a response. So, I began my own treatment.

Through all of this, I began feeling extremely sick with diarrhea, stomach pain, and vomiting. before this happened I had been on short-term disability but with none of these symptoms, so all of this just exacerbated everything I was going through and my not feeling well.

I wanted to share my experience and ask some questions:

SHARE:

– This site is invaluable
– Premo.com products work but probably need to be swapped out every other treatment, as the mites become immune
– Bird mites get into everything including toilet paper, tissues, paper towels, towels, sheets, clothing, air mattress tops, everything soft but also on walls, nightlights, shower curtains, esp tops,
– Be careful, don’t rub up on walls, etc. when walking by. The mites will jump on you
– When washing clothes, wash in small loads to let products and heat impact the clothes. When I wash in large loads, the heat and products didn’t reach all of the items
– When washing at home boil your clothes vs using boiling water. The latter doesn’t work that great.
– If you can wash your clothes at home, God Bless. Use the longest wash cycle with the hottest water along with Premo’s laundry product one was, Pine Sol & Borax the next.
– If you wash at a laundromat as I do, use the longest cycle, add Premo.com/pine sol, and/or borax
– Wipe surfaces down, especially if you have to wash outside of your home
– Dry items as long as possible to help kill the mites and use bounce
– Buy A LOT of Ziploc and plastic bags and secure clothes in them
– Don’t use the previous bags and Ziplocs as the mites can fall into a clean previously use bag
– Once you use a bag, don’t reuse it unless you’ve sterilized them
– I did have to discard my bed, box spring, couch, and almost all my soft items (housing and personal)
Essential oils don’t work very week unless you add tea tree or oil of oregano however you feel like you are on fire when you use them
– You are dealing with bird mites, don’t let anyone (dr. or exterminator) just treat you for mites
– I have heard people say that they were socks on their feet but when I did, the mites always jumped on – So no socks for me
– Vaseline, Cod liver oil. etc. does work but it feels awful to feel them get stuck in the oil on your body
– They live in air mattress tops. They look like lint and then they grow the bottom line of an air mattress
– If you have allergies mostly likely they will be kicked up with this
– Protect your punami, butt, ears, hair, and eye ducts. When I go to the restroom, I often find them coming off of me when I wipe myself. I have shaved all hair using sulfur soap, alcohol, and tons of vaseline
– This issue can and will wreck your life, finances, relationship, etc. Stay strong… They are just bird mites. Reach out if you need/want to chat. I am available.
– I’ve been to the urgent care twice, ER twice, and with a “follow-up” doctor None of them knew about bird mites and did very little to make me feel heard, don’t worry. You are not going crazy
– For most of June, I felt like something was touching me. I don’t discount the mental issue that may lead to this problem but want to HIGHLIGHT given all going on in the world… We are more right than wrong and doctors, inspectors, landlords, etc. need to get educated.
– When your landlord does not identify the source the issue may go on way longer than needed
–

QUESTIONS:
– Once I wash or dry clean clothes if I put them in a plastic bin will they be safe?
– Has anyone moved items to storage and not had this issue once they retrieved their items?
– Has anyone else sued their landlord? Dues to their negligence and lack of interest to resolve the issue, and all of the anguish, I plan to. I will keep you posted.
– Has anyone else had severe stomach issues?
– Have you found that air purifiers help?
– Do bird mites get into fruits and vegetables on the counter?
– Do they get into other food, oven, air fryer, etc? How to clean and protect the kitchen?
– Do you cook in your kitchen? Can they get into food? Are you concerned?
– Do I have to wash and dry clean every article of clothing in the apartment?
– What do dryer sheets do, as I sit on them right now?

I have so many thoughts and questions but not to overwhelm us, I will stop here. Wishing you all a peaceful and uncomplicated evening.

Thank you

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[NewJersey201]

Hello Bird Mite Forum,

I am checking back to see if anyone has any feedback for me. I posted the above in early August and am still dealing with this issue. I don’t know what is safe to try to salvage. Any thoughts on the below questions would be helpful.

*****************************
How long have your bird mites lived in your home without their original host?

How long have your bird mites lived in your home and/or on you while trying to feed on you once the original host has been removed?

How long have you found that bird mites remained in your furniture, clothes, and other items once moved from the home (ie. to storage or new home)?

Has anyone stored clothes or furniture and found that the bird mites were gone after a while?

Do bird mites live in books and/or paper?

What is salvageable in my home or is everything a “wash”?

What has been your experience with getting bird mites if you live in an apartment?
***************

Thank you in advance for any responses. I really appreciate the opportunity to be in this forum.

[milly]

Hi NewJersey201
I think all of us on here have a similar story.My heart goes out to you.

I’m not sure if there is one answer to any single question I wish there was because it would make things simple. One thing I’ve noticed is that the symptoms with everyone are very close to the same. Research can be very stressful, even though that’s what I’ve done from the beginning. I expect you have read most of the posts on here, (that’s exactly what I did too). I believe this site to be one of the very best for sensible down to earth facts and advice.
I;m guessing you are in the USA so therefore you can buy Kleen Green. I can’t buy it here, so haven’t used it, but believe my journey would have been shorter if I had. I’m in touch with another user on here, (we both seem to be at the same stage – hopefully the tail end of a nightmare). Difference is this user can buy Kleen Green. I wish I’d known this from the beginning.
I would have sprayed the heck out of everthing, sealed and packed it all and put it in storage – maybe for a whole year or so. The cost would be no more than doing as I did: i.e. bought dehumidifiers, air purifiers and too many products for home and health to even begin to count. None of that worked. I guess, for me, the biggest question is; where did they come from? I have no pets and no birds. I’ve never found a bird’s nest, although we are surrounded by trees and wild birds, but I don’t know that any of our neighbours have this mite problem.
I have even re-painted walls and ceilings, if only to try to discover where they orginated from. I@ve sealed every single tiny crack they might have infilterated, all to no avail.
I just want to give you hope: I’m convincd there will be an end to it – for me cleaning and cleaning, every single square inch of the home and outside. Diateamous earth puffed and sprinkled everywhere (I bought a puffer, but ended up with a small fine seive because it was easier to spread that way, tea tree oil for your body and spray eveywhere else. (Neem oil works for me on body, but have heard it doesn’t work for everyone.) Bleach for cleaning everything – I emptied chests of drawers, took them outside and scrubbed with strong bleach solution. Let them dry in direct sun if possible. There probably will be no let up with the cleaning for some time, but even if you’re storing stuff, I’d still make sure that everything is cleaned before packed. These four products are the ones I found most helpful i.e. bleach, diateamous earth, tea tree oil and neem oil for body.
Also, buy the Kleen Green, you can use it on yourself as well as everything else. I hope to get that too when I’m next in the UK.
I wish you well, and as most of us will, really feel for what you’re going through.
It’s hell, I know, but try to keep as calm as possible to prevent further health issues. I think we’re all trying to help each other.

[NewJersey201]

Hi Milly,

And thanks for your response. I really, really appreciate it. I have tried bleach, tea tree oil, and Diateamous earth. They worked at first but eventually didn’t work so well for me. I am in the US so I will look into the Kleen Green. I have read that many people have had great success. Thanks for the suggestion.

I am sorry you are going through this too!! It has been a total nightmare. I want my things but I never want to have bird mites on my body ever again. So, I am still on the fence about keeping anything. I will make my final decision in the next week or two.

I am keeping you in my thoughts and prayers. Thanks again for taking the time to reply.

[milly]

Hi again NJ201
I think in the beginning swapping products around is probably better.
Also, the best advice I could give now is to take care of yourself first, before you start the manic cleaning. Yes, it has to be done, but had I known what I know now, I would definitely started with protecting my sanity, my health and my skin and hair.
Now, I take care of my body and my mind first, Perhaps trying to makey our body unattractive to the mites starts with really strict use of no sugar (I also stopped eating meat). I hate the nightly routine of mixing up coconut oil, or even any old body cream with tea tree oil, (*again, I swap every now again with neem) and covering my body, literally head to toe in this stuff, but for me it has changed things around. The other item I still use is a lint roller. I use it on everything.
I’m not bothered by things during the day, only as dusk falls. So I’m prepared before that. I stopped using the DEarth after a few weeks at the start because I also thought is wasn’t working, but I like to think it perhaps discouraged a bigger infestation than I ended up with. I am back to using it again to help zAp what I am hoping are the stragglers.
Thank you for your thoughts NJ – I really wish you well. I know there has to be answer, maybe the answer is different for eveyone, trial and error. The protocol on here written by the site owner is a good one to start off with. It might be a long journey but we’ll all learn something from it. Most important, take care of yourself.

[Author]

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