Re: How to get rid of mites

If you can see them, they are not spider mites. Spider mites are almost microscopic and generally only viewable if shaken onto a white piece of paper.

You may want to dust all the carpet with diatomaceous earth, wear a mask and don't inhale it, but it is non-toxic otherwise. You may have a wicked infestation of dust mites in the bed, aka bedbugs. They too are microscopic and live on the flaked off skin of our bodies. One gram of that dead skin we shed can feed an army of them for 30 years.

You can solve that problem by buying impermeable mattress and pillow covers at any shop which sells linens.

Victoria

"Red bugs" or chiggers are too small to see without magnification. They are related to spiders and require a host (squirrels, birds, deer, reptiles, or humans). You can get chiggers by sitting on the grass or walking through tall grass. The larva can crawl from your foot to your underpants in 15 minutes and they look for a place to burrow in, usually a crease or under an elastic band. After burrowing in they spit their saliva which dissolves flesh, then they drink it. One chigger only has one bite site. After several days of feasting, they fall off the host, find a mate, and lay eggs on the ground where the larva emerge and the cycle starts again. They are more of a problem during warm days (>70 degrees). Often chiggers will congregate on one blade of grass, waiting for a passerby. The site of the bite turns red with a white center, much like a mosquito bite, and the itching lasts for a week or two. Use 91% alcohol (or I use "Absorbing Jr.") applied to the site for several minutes should kill the chigger. Scratching can infect the bite--don't do it.

HTH

I lived in Ohio, California, and Tennessee. There are chiggers in Ohio and Tennessee, but I never heard mention of chiggers in Los Angeles. In Ohio, I got them by sitting in the grass while polishing my car wheel rims. I imagine many gardeners get chiggers, and don't realize it. There are some graphic images on the web, showing the chigger in a skin pore or hair follicle. Yeah, it's a little creepy.

In article , snipped-for-privacy@Underworld.com says... :) Oh, god, I never read anything to terrifying in my life!!! :) :) Are there chiggers in So. Calif, or is it a Southern U.S. :) speciality? That's where I've mostly heard about them. :) :) Chiggers or redbugs are the larval form of the harvester mite. The adult feed off of decaying plant material while the chigger feeds off animal. They can be found in Southern California, but I don't think as prevalent as the Southern states.