, LL, & Lady D

[Guest guest]

My story one week, about 7 months ago. We had some

wild fires after strong Santa Ana winds knocked down

fences, lines, and trees in our area, and throughout

San Diego. It brought a lot of dust, ashes and " other

things " in my house. So I vacuumed everything! Every

blind, windowsill and carpets. That night in bed, was

when I felt the first of the crawling/itching

sensations. I took our blankets off and pulled out

new sheets and blankest right away. It happened every

night.

I first thought I was allergic to the ashes or dust,

or my soap, detergent, fleas (since our dog was

itching nonstop...I went to the dermatologist,

doctors, sprayed flea foggers etc....my bites first

started underneath my biceps. I went online to search

and saw the bites looked similar to bedbugs and it was

the first time we had dusted under the bed so I

thought they were in the bags and boxes under the bed

and we stirred them up. I talked my husband into

getting us a new bed. That same month we got tented

for termites and the exterminator said if we had

bedbugs they would die with the tenting. They were

back about a week & 1/2 later. I had already encased

our mattress but not the boxspring because it was

expensive.

After that I felt them off and on, but mostly

downstairs on our carpet, and one of our couches. We

cleaned both, and it would help some, but then it came

back. it was also cold during these months and there

was not a lot of activity. The bites came and went,

and started to have the little bites like mosquito

bites on my shins, with the bulls-eye point. They

itched like crazy and wouldn't go away for about three

weeks or so.

Then, during Spring Break, it was very hot and humid

and they attacked me (found me in my bed) every night

for a week. They were in our hair and had put Tree Tea

oil on my head, and they came onto my face and I had

new bites on my face in the morning! I had no sleep

and finally called an exterminator. That was when he

connected me with Deb (who had similar experiences as

he said) but was unable to help either of us and

couldn't find a bug. Their Pest control company is

the top company here that deal with mites of all

kinds. he told us he has never had this happen before

(not being able to help someone solve their bug

problem). Deb introduced me to birdmites .org and

then I couldn't believe that all the characteristics

were the same.

Our dog got hit by a car a few weeks later, so it

wasn't fleas, we got rid of our couch, and it helped.

Be covered our box spring and it helped. We started

cleaning our clothes with Chlorox and bagging them and

wearing them only once, cleaning our carpets with

bleach every 3 weeks....basically many of the same

rituals of cleaning and it helped.

I have done the IR light to get a sample and took it

to the Health Department of Vector Control and they

found nothing. I have bought an EyeClops though which

is a toy that magnifies things 200x and you can view

it on the TV. The times that I have been itchy or

feel them on me, as well as my husband, we can see

tiny black specks on that part of the body, or

clothing we are wearing. Yet we see nothing with our

own eyes. I even got a microscope from school and

couldn't see anything.

During that same week, I walked outside of our condo

one day and saw a bird feather on our front pourch. I

looked up, and found 3 nests all about 4 feet apart in

the cracks of our bricks. I had the nests removed but

the man said their were no mites.

I think we got our mites by the winds blowing them in

our house. (our attic vents were right below the

nests. The only other thing I can think of is the

same month in October, our friends moved to Africa,

and gave me 3 large bags of used baby clothes she had

in her rafters for 3 years. And she had mice/rat

activity around her area. I put a Christmas dress on

my daughter from one of the bags at Christmas time and

didn't have time to wash it and within an hour she was

bright red and itchy and screaming.

As far as who is affected...I get the bites and feel

them the most. I had scabs inside my nose the entire

5 months till I started putting Aquafor in it (advice

from birdmites.org). My husband sleeps hard and feels

them most when he is wrestling with our son on the

carpet, or had sat on our cloth couch (which since

then we have thrown away). He also had them bad in

his truck which has cloth seats. It took about 2 to 3

month before he felt them and believed me. My 2 1/2

year old coughs randomly throughout the night and has

not cold (started the same time, and throughout, since

this started), He gets small bumps and says he

itches sometimes behind his knee. My daughter only

gets affected if she is wearing something that was

hanging up and not in a bag. My husband doesn't get

bites but will get red and severely itchy when he

feels them.

I have gotten the exterminator to spray Suspend in our

home although he found no bug and I have heard it is

against the law to spray anything without finding a

bug. We also are going to try the pyrethrins next

week because our homeowners are willing to pay for it.

I know it supposedly doesn't work. But we haven't

tried it, and it's free. So if it doesn't work. Our

next step will be Cedarcide out of our own pocket.

We'll see.

Tammy

--- Singleton <baboig@...> wrote:

> Tammy, I live just outside Philadelphia. Are you the

> only one getting bites?This all started with my

> daughter who had bites on her stomach which I

> thought was maybe a food allergy but when I had her

> tested nothing showed up. I started rubbing vasaline

> on her tummy and back every night and now she only

> gets random bites every so often. My husband and son

> are the least affected, me on the other hand that's

> a different story!

>

>

>

>

> Re: Hi

> > >

> > >

> > > Hi ,

> > > I have a two year old and an 8 month old just

> > about

> > > to

> > > crawl on our carpet where we feel all the " bugs "

> > and

> > > terrified. I keep picking her up and putting her

> > on

> > > her blanket as she scoots away. so sad to deal

> > with

> > > this in the midst of taking care of kids that

> are

> > in

> > > such need of our every moment.

> > >

> > > Deb and I, Tammy, live here in San Diego and are

> > > dealing with this mite problem too. We don't

> think

> > > we

> > > have the same mite, but they definitely follow

> the

> > > characteristics of them. She is still in the

> > process

> > > of using the Cedarcide, and I believe I will be

> > > trying

> > > it within the month. I don't want the summer to

> > > creep

> > > up and still have to deal with these things! I

> > feel

> > > so bad that pretty much all of my daughter's

> first

> > > year of life was consumed by these bugs! I can't

> > > even

> > > remember when I last took a picture of video of

> > her.

> > >

> > > It is not fair to her, I am sure, but I know how

> > > hard

> > > it is to take care of young kids, and live with

> > the

> > > daily routine of fighting these things.

> Exhausting

> > > to

> > > say the least.

> > >

> > > We will get back to you on the Cedarcide. We

> hope

> > it

> > > works as well. Deb has had it for a long time as

> > > well

> > > and is pretty infested. We all hope it works for

> > > her.

> > > She also sprinkled Sevin dust on her floors.

> > >

> > > Tammy

> > > --- Singleton <baboig (DOT) com> wrote:

> > >

> > > > Hi all,

> > > > I'll try to keep this short. I've been lurking

> > > here

> > > > for a while and

> > > > like most of you have been dealing with this

> > mite

>

=== message truncated ===