Tropical Rat Mite vs Bird Mite

[Guest guest]

I am new the forum but I consider myself very well-versed in the

topic as of 2 weeks ago, myself and my wife started experiencing

bites. At first, we thought they were bed bugs but I found several

on the bed and they didn't appear to be bed bugs. I then found a

listing for tropical rat mites

(http://www.acvcsd.org/biting_mites.pdf) which is the county we

lived in. Before the appointment with the PCO arrived, I found a

dead rat, not mouse, inside of our external A/C unit. I put gloves

on and the whole shebang, got the rat out, and sprayed the unit with

high grade 91% isopropyl alcohol. I noticed that they couldn't live

without the hosts so I searched in the attic. We never had any rat

infestation before and it appers somebody poisoned the rat and it

went up into our attic. The pipe leading from the HVAC unit was all

scratched up and a number of sheets of fiberglass insulation were

shredded. I also found splotches of blood. To me, it looked like

the rat was freaking out because it was dying. Another quick note

on the mites is that they are very active and very visible. I have

seen them coming out of the electrical outlets of both bathrooms as

well as the connection valve for both toilets. However, I have not

seen one at any other outlet or water source. For example, I made

duct tape traps around the outlets and water connections in the

bathrooms and caught quite a few but the other ones yielded zero.

Also it appears that our living room couch is conducive to them even

though I have never seen them on the couch. The reason I say that

is whomever seems to sit on it, gets bitten while whoever sits in

the chair does not.

Here is what we have done:

* Washed all clothes in hot water

* Washed sheets every other day

* Applied 's Soap a few times to the wooden bed frame

* Bombed once using the Ortho ones with Bifenethrin

* Dusted outlets and water connections with Diactomeous Earth; also

dusted and vacuumed with D-Earth; also sprayed D-Earth in the attic

area

* Dusted with flea powder twice all carpeted area

* Placed traps in attic for rodents though I believe it was an

isolated case

* Treated bites with Witch Hazel

* Worn long covering clothes to bed

* Applied OFF! Deep Woods to extremities

* Using vaseline at end of clothing

* Contacted Vector Control for an appointment after which we will

meet with a PCO to discuss any work

My questions are:

1) Can these mites only reproduce off of the rodents or birds? How

true is this? I have seen a lot of writings that state this point.

If that is the case, wouldn't you rid yourself of these things by

removing the host simply by attrition?

2) Anything else that should be done?

Thank you and I really appreciate any feedback.