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Dear NJ201 – have you had a positive identification of bird mites? I ask because I think there are many who can’t be sure. I’m one of them. Although my symptoms are the same as most people on here, I can’t be positive because I’ve never actually trapped one for id purposes. I’ve done so much reading and research on this but I guess you need an id before you can solve the puzzle. I’ve been looking at the life cycle of birmites recently, then more recently the life sycle of sandflies – both seem to live a long time and both have slow life cycles, (depending a bit on weather and humidity. Reading the story of the owner of this site, himself a well informed man he appears to be certain that in his case it is bird mites, If you haven’t read it yet, it’s interesting reading and so similar to all the other stories, but it still makes me wonder, unless you’ve actually caught one and had it identified, how certain can you be. Perhaps it doesn’t even matter, it appears that the treaatment is almost the same. Permethrin, apparently kills mites. Not many want to go that route, and neither do I, but as I don’t have any pets or children here, I might use it as a last resort. I could stay away from home for a few nights afterwards. Just myself and my husband live in our apartment and he is not affected at all. Only me. I’m hell bent on finding a solution to this, It’s been 4 years so far, and I’ve followed the do’s and don’ts (well, perhaps not so much the don’ts), and nothing much has made a lasting difference. It’s better than it was in beginning,and slowly slowly getting even better. One of the reasons why I think it has gone on for long 9for me, anyway0 is because I was at a complete loss in the beginning as to know what it was and what to do. I am far more informed now and in every case, I think it’s a slow process. By the time you know you have a problem, the problem has already got out of hand. I’m using a spray filled with ammonia at the moment, spraying everything from drapes to ceilings anad floors. The same ceilings and floors that have been washed and steam cleaned a million times and the same drapes that have been laundered countless times. The ammonia is obviously no good healthwise, (I do wear a mask whilst spraying, but it has cut right down the number of bites and the hours I didn’t sleep,
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.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.Your story could be mine – I am also three, almost four years with this nightmare, and I can’t buy Kleen Green here! But tea tree oil has been a saviour. Over the last three months the problem has graduallly got better. I am still getting the odd bite, and didn’t suffer with them in my hands or feet, just everywhere else! I bought a couple of pairs of exfoliating gloves a while back and scrub every part of me with them daily – no special soap, although for a while I was using Head & Shoulders for my hair and as a body wash. I had to narrow things down, as my bathroom began to look like an operating theatre. I even bought surgeon’s scrub – it didn’t do anything more for me than ordinary shower gel. Neem oil around my hairline at night also helped enormously. Silver MSM cream seems to have left me unmarked on my face. My guess is that they got into my sinuses, nose still itches on and off, but nothing like it was six months ago.
Interestingly, I am now being treated for hyperthyroidism. I lost a ton of weight that I didn’t have to lose in the first place, and consulted an endocrinologist. Not sure yet if I will need surgery to remove thyroid which has a solid mass on one side and many nodules. Doctors and dermatologist did not believe it was a mite problem. I haven’t even mentioned it to the endocrinologist, I’m waiting for results of Gammography, biopsy and blood tests which I’ll get on 22nd of Sept. (Thursday this week). This is not the first time I have heard of the thyroid gland being connected to a mite problem. I still think these things are bird mites, even though I have no real proof.
For anyone else with this living nightmare, I can only suggest treating your body first, before any kind of manic cleaning, which took over almost 24/7 of my life. if only I had known! I didn’t believe they could get into your skin and cause so much chaos, I was too busy cleaning, steaming, washing and disinfecting everything else.
One other thing: I stopped eating meat. My sugar intake is low, I hardly eat anything sweet, but I was extra careful after doing *some (*far too much) research on mites. Maybe co-incidence, but, not eating meat (or fish) seems to have helped rid the body of these miniscule monsters from hell.Hi Dajamaan and Reasley,I have also tried diatamaceous earth and steam ironing/cleaning the matress . The D.E. has been dusted in the wall electric sockets and eveywhere else. It helped initially, but soon I felt like I was back to square one. Reasley, I also can’t live without lint rollers! They are the single most effective thing I’ve tried. I feel so sorry for all those going through this hell. Most of my life now revolves around washing, ironing and cleaning everywhere in the home. It’s not a normal life. Your poor kids, Dajamaan. Breaks my heart. I’ve had this for almost 4 years now, but a couple of weeks ago I went to a doctor who fortunately took the situation seriously. She gave me Ivermectin to take, I took it and the problem has improved 90 percent. I took a fairly large dose over 3 days (2 packs of 4 tabs) and I have one pack left which I will take in a couple of weeks time to see if it clears completely. Meanwhile I haven’t given up on the cleaning.
I had no bad effects from the Iverm4ectin. This doctor has also referred me to an Internal Medicine doctor, I have this appointment mid April.
The other reason I’m writing is because I found a small hand held vacuum which is especially for mites. It has also a UV light which only comes into operation when you press down on the machine into the mattress, sheets, duvet, whatever you have on the bed, so it’s pretty safe to use. UV light is supposed to destroy insects. I’m not sure of that fact. I’m using it for the sofas, beds, anything upholstered. I ordered it from Amazon.It does seem to help a lot. You only have to look inside the machine to see how much lint (and eggs) it picks up in the hepafilter. Having tried almost eveything else, I was also feeling hopeless. I had pest control guys come twice with no result, so I have been battling with this alone – husband thinks I’m imaging it too. Pretty common when they aren’t affected.March 2022 – still battling with this problem after almost 4 years. It’s horrendous and I sympathise with all those who encounter what sounds like the exact same thing. August 2018: I woke up one morning, after restless sleep covered head to foot in a rash. Off to derrmatologist who treated me with steroids. He didn’t think it was insect related, he didn’t know what it was, but the steroids were a cure-all for any immflamation in the body. Five days into this treatment, the rash started to subside, but I ended up back in hospital on a drip to neutralise the steroids which had played havoc with a suspected stomach ulcer. I was told not to take any more, given some medication to calm the digestive system, and most of the rash disappeared. NOT the end of story, I still had the bites, made more obvious when the main rash disappeared, and I was still getting bitten – my back was the worst, but I itched all over. I refused to believe that these things actually invaded your body internally, I thought it was an external problem – if only I could find out where they were coming from. With renewed determination, I took the house by storm in a war against them.
Inch by inch, from celing to floor, I inspected, cleaned and filled every crack, nook and cranny. It didn’t help! I was up most nights with a magnifying glass and a small microscope. I found loads of evidence of tiny things I had never seen before, but nothing appeared to be alive! (My husband, who has not been affected by any of this, did not and still does not believe there is anything at all. I’ve given up trying to show him things I find, he thinks it’s all in my imagination!) I had three rugs in my bedroom which I steam cleaned, beat and disenfected with both alcohol sprays and insecticidals. A year ago I threw them out, so bare floors, which I wash and polish with an orange scented product from local supermarket. Every day I launder bed linen and towels and the pj’s I sleep in. I am exhausted from cleaning, re-painting walls and ceilings, and generally making sure there is not a speck of dust anywhere! Right now, the skin irritation is marginally better. I manage to get some sleep at night by taking an antihistamine and using neat *tree tea oil on the first sign of irritaion on my body. (Also found that neem oil put through my hair before I go to bed seems to help stop the itch and the fall-out of hair. The whole dreadful business has taken over my life. Not what i wanted during my retirement years, but it’s hard to concentrate on anything else. My thoughts and prayers are for all those who are suffering in the same way. I don’t yet have an answer, except to keep up the cleaning and diligence in the hope that one day someone will have THE answer. I am still in amazement that nobody I’ve read about has actually come up with something infallible. I am not resigned to ‘living with it’ I’m still looking for answers.
*nb: Tea tree oil. I recently read that it’s toxic. Desperation often makes desperate decisions, in my mind it can’t be any more toxic than these little critters from hell, nor can it be more toxic than the bleach, the peroxide and the alcohol that I’ve used on my skin to try to help solve the issue. I don’t recommend any of this, ultimately, it doesn’t help.….and also, my story is similar to yours – suspected bedbugs, pest control could find nothing, sprayed anyway. Then I found a little dot that under a magnifyer looked like a carpet beetle. Little black, unmoving dots in various places which looked like nothing insect-related, (actually suspected mold spores, but that was ruled out).
The situation improved has never gone away. It ebbs and flows, but in 2 years have not had a proper night’s sleep. Woke up one morning covered from head to toe in an ugly rash. Dermatologist suspected an allergic reaction to something, but never got to the bottom of it. We are surrounded by palm trees, and after reading about bird mites it seemed to sum up the problem, even though I have never actually seen anything alive! I read once that bird mites are self limiting, but due to the amount of non-stop cleaning I started to disbelieve this theory. My husband is totally unaffected and so has everyone else who has stayed here. Yes, I warned them before thay came – family, so easy to talk about. However, they all now think I’m a little crazy – I just let them think that’s indeed what it might be because I had no answers and was too tired to explain any further. I was happy enough to know I wasn’t crazy – something was getting at my skin and causing dreadful reactions – the pin pricks and the ‘bite’ marks! All the symptoms I’ve read about on here. So, thanks again for your post. Maybe this is it!Hi LNova
I just read the article from your provided link. Only thing I’ve read that actually computes and makes sense for me. It would explain the tiny (microscopic) black hairs I find after sweeping my skin with Alcohol or Peroxide and looking at various things from chairs and sofas in home. I’m exhausted from the cleaning, washing floors, walls ceilings, emptying closets and drawers, laundry, steam ironing, steaming rugs etc ad infinitum. Nothing has made much difference, and I’m still left with more questions than answers. Acrually feel as if a lightbulb has lit after reading this article. Thank you – I shall proceed with the instructions given, and a lot more hope. 🙂Thank you Johndoe.
I thought I had tried everything, but I’m definitely going to try the coconut oil today.
Thing is, I have only just realised that these things get inside you. I took notice of the ‘experts’ that say only one type of mite burrows into your skin – and I definitely don’t have scabies 🙂 I have been battling this now for a couple of years, and just as I think I’m winning, it comes back with avengence on rocket fuel. I tried Benzyl peroxide as a random thought – for the first time I noticed little wounds (holes) on my hands and just poured in the peroxide – 2 days later they had healed, so I will try whole body with this stuff in bath and then the coconut oil. Nothing much else has worked.
I am in Spain, cannot buy some of the stuff that is sold in USA.Rachael – so sorry you are going through this. I love your fighting spirit.
Suffered for almost 3 years, had no idea what it was until I came across this forum. Along the way I’ve made loads of mistakes, and myself ill with insecticides. No sleep, hours wasted with magnifying glass and sticky tape – all the stuff I’ve now read about, you get the idea – I’m not crazy – and neither do I suffer with parasitosis. These bugs are microscopic,, but they do leave clues in the strange fuzz balls and odd bits and pieces I’ve picked up with a lint roller. Thanks to a suggestion on here from the person who used a tealight burner for essential oils and eucalyptus crystals, Ive just had 2 straight nights of sleep with no irritation. I have neem oil in the top of the burner and I drop the eucalyptus crystals into the oil. (Amazon sell both) Place a tea light underneath, and burn it all day and all night. We’ll see how it goes. I think it’s actually working – the aroma is strong, but not unpleasant. At the moment I have it placed on night table right next to my bed. I’m giving it a few more days, and then I intend buying these little burners for every room in the house until I’m not being bothered any more. The other thing I tried is, instead of sptaying my body with 96% alcohol or 5% peroxide, in desperate 4am moments, I thought talcuum powder might work to smother them, certainly better for the skin, so far so good. I wish you the very best – this thing is hell on earth!
