Bites or mites or WHAT??

[aliasjoey]

I just need to vent, this is doing my head in...

since late August my DD (10) has been getting what look like insect bites all over her body. been to the GP twice, the first time was prescribed scabies treatment which did nothing, then referral to a dermatologist. he confirmed insect bites, but said she had an 'over-reaction' to them (staph?)

several times now we have seen tiny TINY bugs in her room. they are the size of this full stop . too small to identify properly. maybe first instar bedbugs, but we have never seen any adult bedbugs, eggs, faeces. 3 times (on different occasions) I saw these mites on the bedframe, nothing on mattress. we have now thrown away the frame, and are getting a new bed & mattress.

tonight I saw another one! they could be booklice, everyone has those, and we don't normally notice. but booklice don't bite. scabies mites are too small to see, and anywaye her bites are mainly arms/legs not between fingers & wrists

body-lice? would surely be on HER not the furniture? and we'd all have 'em if we were that filthy...

DH was putting Christmas decorations up in the loft, said he heard birds - there was a bird's nest under the eaves near her room - I just googled birdmites and am freaked out now. although we only find 1 at a time, not an infestation.

this has been going on FOUR MONTHS, my beautiful daughter is covered in scabs and sores, and of course totally embarrassed. class going swimming next week and she's dreading it. she herself saw one crawling across her ipod and freaked. (we haven't told her we've seen others, didn't want to upset her)

and today she said 'maybe it's not my bed, maybe they're on ME'

many thanks if anybody is still reading. we are going to debug her room when the new bed arrives, I just needed to get it off my chest!

have you thought of contacting environmental health?
i think i would if you cant work out what he problem is.
my DD9 brought a flea home recently from 1 of her friends houses. (they have pets, we dont)
she was getting bitten on her trunk at night.
i washed all her bedding on a 90c wash and the problem went away.
hope you get it sorted soon. must be stressful for you all.

thanks for replying. the council do not deal with birds nests, if that's what it is...

this morning found 6 crawling on top of her bed and another 6 on a nearby brand-new plastic chest. now we've just got rid of the mattress, although there weren't any on there. duvet is in for washing.

DD nearly hysterical and I can't blame her

I would catch some on a piece of sellotape and take the to your local vet to see if they can identify them because they will probably look at them immediately. If this doesn't help take them to the GP and ask them to find a way to get them identified.

Hi Alias, there is an environmental health professional in our house

Can you catch one? That's the best way to identify them. Either take it along to environmental health dept or you can PM me. In a clear jar if possible, or on a piece of Sellotape (without squashing it! Tricky but can be done). If it's bedbugs wash bedding over 60 degrees. A bug the size of a full stop is mite size, rather than bedbug size. It is possible that you are seeing more than one type of pest. You cannot tell the insect from the bite.

Depends on the council but if you can't catch one, many will do a survey for free or quite cheaply. With private contractors prices and quality of service vary enormously.

It will get you down, but it's really just down to bad luck. Treatments sometimes need repeating until they are fully effective.

Your best bet is to talk the whole thing through with a pest control officer or Environmental health officer at the council.

thanks burrito we tried catching them but so small they just squash. DH thinks they are bedbugs (first instar) although it's weird we've never seen adults. I had a good look at the mattress as it left, and nothing. he is spraying and hoovering the room.

I think it could be Bird mites? the dog has been treated, and he's not allowed in her room anyway.

they all seemed to be on TOP of the duvet/chest not in the bed itself I think we're going to get pest control in to remove birds nest, new bed coming this week and we have bedbug treatment.

God I feel itchy just talking about it.

If they squash easily they are unlikely to bed bedbugs, as they are 'armoured'. Removing the nest is probably critical. Keep us posted!

well... we were going to wait till the new bed arrives before de-bugging, but this morning triggered the decision. mattress removed (no bugs) duvet and pillow washed (DH put it in at 90°!)

sprayed the room and now loads of dead and dying ones have appeared on the windowsill. it's freaky.

there was a bird's nest near her room in the summer - would it still be used in winter ?

Ooh! can you put a photo of a dead'un on your profile?
Don't know re nest.

burrito we've got one, but its so small I don't think we can get a decent photo. It is 1mm long, plus I can see feelers at the front. DH says he can see legs but maybe my eyesight is not that good! It is oval shaped.

They appear light on dark surfaces but dark on white paper (may have squashed it a little). After repeated sprayings of DDs room, they only appear on the windowsill (bed and bedding all removed now) none on other surfaces. Sprayed our own windowsill for comparison - nothing.

Have now put the curtains in at 60degrees, hooks and all! Of course it could just be a complete co-incidence that DD has all these bites... looks like she will be sleeping in with us tonight - hope she doesn't bring them with her!

The description does fit a few things including bird mites (in which case removing the nest will be critical).

Glad your spray appears to have been effective, and hope your DD feels a bit better about it. All the best!

Scabies are tiny mites, sounds exactly right. They are notoriously difficult to get rid of. Read here.

scabies are almost invisible to the naked eye. Also, they burrow under the skin, whereas these ones are all over the room surfaces. We have treated with scabies medication just in case, but she doesn't have the classic 'between-the-fingers' bites.

its quite sad that over the last 4 months I have become so aware about so many little parasites...

do you have wooden window frames?

no they are pvc.

fair enough. do your critters look like this?

hmm I don't think so, I couldn't see any legs - only 2 'feelers' at the front. but they're so small it's hard to tell...

oh well , bird mites seemed the best bet. Lets hope the spray kills the critters off, but it's worth moving the birds nest too.

good luck & hope your dd stops getting bitten. ds1 always gets bitten by anything that's about, I have to smother him with insect repellent when the weather is warm.

Update.

Sent request to council on Sunday and they said they would deal with it within 5 days. Yesterday I phoned to find out what was happening and had the following conversation:

Me: this is the ref. number
Council: okay you need to send the creature in for identification
Me: its too small, I can't even get one!
Council: we can't do anything without idenftification
Me: okay... what if it was bedbugs?
Council: you think it might be bedbugs?!
Me: (lying) well it might be...
Council: in that case we need to send someone round!
Me: repeats address (through gritted teeth - they already have the address)
Council: okay, somebody will contact you within 5 days...

FFS. So I phoned a pest control company. The first one said it sounded like fleas (umm, no. we have a dog, I know what fleas look like, besides fleas JUMP, these scuttle)

The second said 'Hmm, have you had a birds nest?' I said, how soon can you get here. They're coming today to have a look. However have had no live critters since Monday, and only tiny squashed dead ones to show them. But we can hear birds from inside the room, although can't see anything. DH thinks they're starlings, and starlings are a protected species.

I said mites aren't a protected species, and I will pay good money to anyone who legally or otherwise gets rid of the nest.

Am seriously considering putting DDs new bed into the spare room and just moving all her stuff permanently. oh and thanks for reading if you got this far.

its sounds so stressful for you all.
i posted up thread about my dd9 bringing a flea home. turns out the flea is a bed bug. we found one last night after she started getting bitten again at night.

Ive cleared her bed again and ordered a new mattress.
for the life of me i cant work out where they have come from.

made me feel sad

Get a pest control company round. We had this and didn't know what it was, maybe fleas, maybe bedbugs, maybe bird mites (had a nest in chimney and thought mites could have come in through vents). The pest control people said they treat them all with the same stuff anyway, sprayed ALL flooring, beds and put stuff in chimney vent. Literally not had a bite since and that was 2 years ago. Cost us £100 but was well worth the money.

its horrible thinking about these bugs isn't it? the idea of them crawling all over our children...

the pest control guy said it was almost certainly birdmites. (he's going to call later with confirmation) but they are starlings and apparently starlings are protected. Apparently we could get fined £3K for disturbing them!!

he remarked that if someone was up there clearing the gutters and 'accidentally' dislodged the nest, it would be a terrible shame eh? seriously, my DD is covered in bites and we can't do anything about it? I feel sick just thinking about it....

I guess we could just spray, spray, spray but am worried they will return unless we get rid of the source.

I want that nest GONE

Hi - DH of Hotburrito here...tough call.

The relevant law is the Wildlife & Countryside Act. It IS illegal to remove the nest or kill birds, remove eggs etc if it's protected, which starlings are. However, I've just had a quick look through the legislation and there are two angles that could enable this to be dealt with. First an "authorised person" can removed the nest lawfully - I can't see a definition of "authorised person" in the Act but it appears to be a person Licensed by DEFRA [government department] so DEFRA's website may help you in finding a local contractor who could do it.

The other angle is that you can remove the nest if it's necessary for protecting public health or the spread of disease. Slightly risky to just plough in and do it though so my advice would be to look at DEFRA's Website [or go through DIRECTGOV website - surprisingly useful btw] looking at "birds" "protected birds" etc and contact the relevant team. It may be the Environment Agency that enforces this [can't remember] but you're best off seeking advice from whoever would be likely to prosecute you. If it went wrong and/ or you got caught then you'd be in bother - removing a birds nest from the roof or chimney is exactly the sort of thing

Your call at end of the day but, however anonymous we may be thru mumsnet , I can't recommend an unlawful course of action.

burrito thank you, they are definitely a health hazard, DD has so many bites and they are hard to heal!

the pest control guys have said they can remove the nest as long as it's before April, and they are coming on Monday. THANK GOD. just worried about how they can get to the nest, and make sure there are no more gaps for future nests... yes I'm slightly paranoid!

I know this is an old thread but I'm wondering if the OP is still around and could tell us how this resolved.
We have a bird or rodent mite infection in our house and the pest control people we have spoken to are keen to just spray the entire house. I suppose I'm after reassurance that this works. We have no idea where the original infestation comes from.
There is a lot of conflicting information on the internet and we are trying to talk to people who have actual experience of this situation.