Thomas Alan
The Living Force
Thought I'd pass this experience along to those it might help.
Summer came and with it came chiggers. I could see them on the chairs on the patio, and some nailed me. I've found that if I take a Qtip dipped in rubbing alcohol and apply it on the bite it stops the itch and the bite begins to heal.
After several weeks the chiggers disappeared from the patio, probably went through their life cycle and move on. But I was still getting bites. Lots of them. Unlike chiggers this was mostly on the upper body, though they moved down to more personal places as well. The alcohol swabs killed them as well even more effectively than chiggers. But there were more each day. At least 6 and as many as 30 new ones each day.
I eventually remembered about 4 years ago we had an outbreak of oak tree mites locally. The story goes there is a mite that causes galls on oak tree leaves and there is a mite that feeds on them that is the culprit. They too small to be seen, are not stopped by window screens and are not effect by insect repellents. They fall in "shower" and are easily carried into homes by a breeze.
During the last outbreak there were several articles in the local paper and even a few radio broadcasts about it. The time I found a small article on the states health site that mentioned that these mites were indeed active this summer.
For the nearly two months I battled the beasts dabbing alcohol on them several times a day even sometimes getting up in the middle of the night to kill new ones sometimes nearly in tears. I found that using a hot iron on my clothes including underwear before putting them on helped some but the attack went on.
In further research I found a product that really helps. It is from company called Natural Ginesis. The product is Kleen Green. The claim is it contains a natural enzyme, not a poison, that the bugs can't handle but in harmless to humans. Intended for bedbugs and any type of biting mites.
Well it was worth a try. When I got I put in in a spray bottle diluted it as directed. I sprayed on my bedding each night, on my clothes before dressing and directly on my body in the morning and just before bed. The bites were greatly reduced, the red welts on body began to heal, I put my alcohol bottle away. The liquid has very little odor and causes no skin irritation.
Though it really helped I decided the only complete solution would be to wash all my clothes and bedding in it. This would be expensive, a half gallon cost $64 USD with shipping but I was considering ordering a gallon to solve the problem.
Fortunately, nature has intervened, (or perhaps the Divine Cosmic Mind heard my pleas) the mites have vanished within the last week. I thought I would have to wait until frost for the rampage to end but recent overnight lows in lower 50s seems to have ended their cycle.
I've read that there has been an outbreak of bed bugs in the US recently, the worst outbreak since just before World War 2.
So if anyone is having trouble with bed bugs or other mites Kleen Green might be worth a try.
Mac
Summer came and with it came chiggers. I could see them on the chairs on the patio, and some nailed me. I've found that if I take a Qtip dipped in rubbing alcohol and apply it on the bite it stops the itch and the bite begins to heal.
After several weeks the chiggers disappeared from the patio, probably went through their life cycle and move on. But I was still getting bites. Lots of them. Unlike chiggers this was mostly on the upper body, though they moved down to more personal places as well. The alcohol swabs killed them as well even more effectively than chiggers. But there were more each day. At least 6 and as many as 30 new ones each day.
I eventually remembered about 4 years ago we had an outbreak of oak tree mites locally. The story goes there is a mite that causes galls on oak tree leaves and there is a mite that feeds on them that is the culprit. They too small to be seen, are not stopped by window screens and are not effect by insect repellents. They fall in "shower" and are easily carried into homes by a breeze.
During the last outbreak there were several articles in the local paper and even a few radio broadcasts about it. The time I found a small article on the states health site that mentioned that these mites were indeed active this summer.
For the nearly two months I battled the beasts dabbing alcohol on them several times a day even sometimes getting up in the middle of the night to kill new ones sometimes nearly in tears. I found that using a hot iron on my clothes including underwear before putting them on helped some but the attack went on.
In further research I found a product that really helps. It is from company called Natural Ginesis. The product is Kleen Green. The claim is it contains a natural enzyme, not a poison, that the bugs can't handle but in harmless to humans. Intended for bedbugs and any type of biting mites.
Well it was worth a try. When I got I put in in a spray bottle diluted it as directed. I sprayed on my bedding each night, on my clothes before dressing and directly on my body in the morning and just before bed. The bites were greatly reduced, the red welts on body began to heal, I put my alcohol bottle away. The liquid has very little odor and causes no skin irritation.
Though it really helped I decided the only complete solution would be to wash all my clothes and bedding in it. This would be expensive, a half gallon cost $64 USD with shipping but I was considering ordering a gallon to solve the problem.
Fortunately, nature has intervened, (or perhaps the Divine Cosmic Mind heard my pleas) the mites have vanished within the last week. I thought I would have to wait until frost for the rampage to end but recent overnight lows in lower 50s seems to have ended their cycle.
I've read that there has been an outbreak of bed bugs in the US recently, the worst outbreak since just before World War 2.
So if anyone is having trouble with bed bugs or other mites Kleen Green might be worth a try.
Mac
Those can be done in by a flyswatter, though. Those we called oat bugs, but never did find out if that was their real name or not. Evil was the general moniker, as in "Those Evil bugs are chomping tonight."
