HEAT only way

[Texigurl]

We haven’t been dealing with it as long as some but I AM IMMUNO COMPROMISED and these little devils see me as a sick bird. I’m covered in bites. I have EHLERS Danlos syndrome so I have very thin skin. My husband doesn’t feel the bites and my dogs haven’t been scratching and have always had Seresto collars on which do seem to help. I was forced from the house many nights because I was being swarmed. My adjustable bed is on the curb along with my ripped out carpeting and the dogs chaise. My room was ground zero. One little nest in my climbing roses under my A C unit. That’s all it took to totally infest a three bedroom Bi level home. Yesterday ORKIN came out to heat treat our home. They heat treated it to 150 degrees. They started at 7 am and even by 10 pm last night the house was a sauna. I spent two nights with the dogs in a hotel washing them and myself repeatedly. A friend took our cat that had been scrubbed multiple times as well. Got my first good nights sleep last night. I still feel a few bites here and there and that’s because they are on me. I don’t give a rats azz what research says THESE THINGS DO HATCH on skin. I scratch one of the tiny bites and a small egg came out. Wish I had a sauna I could sit in I would. This is the worst thing to ever happen to us and me. I will be cleaning like crazy. Already bagged all the clothing. We were advised to go to a laundromat because the commercial machines get hotter that the normal residential appliances. I tried oils, spray bottles of alcohol, eucalyptus etc. nothing worked. Got so desperate the other night I tried to sleep on my kitchen table. These bugs are wicked. They sense heat movement and blood. 7 pm is the bewitching hour. Till 7 am. They bite and assault. Climb in unmentionable places. They love the anal area. Constantly felt like I was sitting on pebbles. A lint roller was my best friend. I have gone through at least twenty of them in three days. This is a flea infestation on steroids magnified x’s 500. We are now 7k in debt because of these bugs and I just Thank god I didn’t take my immuno suppressing monthly shot before we discovered what they were because they are parasitic and I would be in a hospital by now. I could not wish this problem on my worst enemy. At first no one believed me but I used clear tape on my bed and then magnified the pictures of the ones I caught on the tape. Also CHECK THE BRUSHES ON YOUR VACUUM. When the ORKIN guy first came he insisted it was bed begs. THAT IS UNTIL I SHOWED HIM THE PICTURE OF MY VACUUM BRUSH. He said these infestations are rare but do happen. They don’t see many of them so it’s important for you to prove it to them. In short I’m still feeling a few but nothing like what was happening to me. Now the playing field is even and I know I can rid us of what’s left. I pray for anyone dealing with this. It’s brutal. A horrendous health threatening, dignity depriving, monstrous invasion.

[ForeverMiteWar]

As another data point, I recently have also had some very noticeable success with heat treatment.

Heat is by far the most effective thing I have tried in the last 1.5 years of fighting this. Unlike the OP I haven’t been able to find a pest control company to do the work to heat my entire house (including Orkin) despite having captured mite samples identified by multiple scientists and these companies having no other solutions to suggest.

I bought a 300 sqft 20,000 BTU single room heating unit and have been running it in cycles throughout different rooms my house. After a room heat cycle and a thorough shower I am able to finally sit in peace and sleep undisturbed. However, after a few days the mite activity picks back up again requiring another treatment. I’m looking into solutions that can treat larger areas and am also using a parcel bed bug heating unit to treat clothes and bedding. The hope is if I stay vigilant with the heat cycles to keep knocking down the numbers I can eventually get them to stop reproducing and eliminate them completely.

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