infestation

[tielan]

Grain mites out on the porch. EVERYWHERE out on the porch. Tiny little white dots that move and cluster and are creepy AF.

I suspect it's thx to two bags of dry chook food that a friend offered me and which I took but didn't seal up properly, and which we've had trouble feeding to the chooks because it goes so SLOWLY. Plus, you know, unsealed containers of chook food and scraps and snacks all over the place. Which I previously managed to manage with diatomaceous earth - my preferred method of dealing with it rather than poison bombing the property - except that I ran out of diatomaceous earth a couple of weeks ago and haven't replenished.

Visit to a pet shop with the diatomaceous earth ASAP.

While grain mites don't bite humans, they do spread and can cause itching/skin irritation. They might also cause irritation in the digestive system for small animals - eg. chooks and cats. And one of the cats has a delicate system and has been vomiting on occasion.

*grumps*

Additionally, even the thought/memory of all those tiny bits moving makes me itchy. GRR.

At least throwing out the two bags, while not ideal, is also not a financial loss b/c they were given to me by a friend. But UGH. Everything needs to be cleaned/dusted/sealed up airtight, and the sweeping will be AWFUL.

I wonder how bad it would be to either air-vaccuum or blower-vac these things. They pretty much look like white dust, and they like shiny things. I think they might be attracted to water, so, perhaps more shiny things?

Another alternative would be to spray everything with soapy water and then hose it off. That might work?

And then when that's done, need to run a flea bomb or two in the house. The hot, damp weather this summer has been awful for bugs and pests, and probably not assisted by various rodents.

*sigh*

Comments

[wpadmirer]

That has to be frustrating. I live where it's generally always humid/damp and hot (though this sporadic winter shit can go away anytime), so bugs are something you have to learn to either live with, or spray lots of poisons.

I won't spray poisons because they don't just kill the bugs, they kill the lizards and the birds and other things.

So we just realize there will be some bugs, and we just have to keep things as clean as possible to prevent what we can.

[tielan]

I can accept some bugs, but this is a little white moving mass of bugs-that-look-like-dust and I CANNOT EVEN. Plus, I'm worried that it will spread into the house (it's presently outside, which is bad enough, because this is supposed to be an entertaining area).

Basically, it's become a far larger problem than initially and will need systematic dealing with. But I'm with you on the 'no poisons' (well, okay, I sprayed in the car and on the shiny things in the area for a 'quick fix' before I realised just how extensive the infestation was). So it'll be a few days of very dusty existence.