Re: lint balls, yes

[Guest guest]

Hello, the lint balls you are describing was one of the first things I kept seeing around our home. As the infestation grew worse the lint balls got bigger and I could see them on the floor as I vacuumed each day. I have look at those things for 2 years. I never saw any move, never saw anything that looked like a bug but the things just kept cropping up. Some times they looked like little sesame seeds sprinkled on the floor. There was a time that I could roll the things off my skin with oil. We bought an expensive hepa filter to run in our bedroom but with the aid of a black florescent light we could see the things being blown right up the wall from the filter. The black light only works in total darkness so I began cleaning my rooms at night using the black light. I knew that our home was getting better when I stopped seeing the lint balls on the floor. What ever this "thing" is it's very hard to kill and it's the high numbers of the things, the rapid attack that can be felt when around them and how quickly they can move on the body that has worried me the most. We all need to keep hunting until we find someone to ID this thing and explain the phases in it's life cycle.......I really want to understand the lint ball cycle as it's related to the black specks. Rita

Non Toxic Cleaning Observations

Nearly 2 weeks ago I joined this wonderfully helpful forum & posted about Buzz Off protective clothing & the Orange Plus bath routine.Having multiple chemical allergies precludes me from using any of the pesticides or even the bleach that are so widely used by so many of us.Using my everyday cleaning products of white vinegar, Orange Plus & 's Oil Soap, I washed the walls in my hotspot bedroom behind the bed yesterday & discovered Something Interesting.Rubbing the wall with a white cotton washcloth type rag wrung nearly dry with hot water & a splash of vinegar on the folded cloth showed various small white lint balls on the wallboard. The natural light was bright in that room & the paint is flat with no sheen, so the water the rag left showed the contrast. To check if this was lint from the rag, I wiped a wall in a hallway - no lintballs. Took a synthetic yellow chamois & wiped an adjacent section of the bedroom wall - again white lintballs. Looking at an angle at the wall, I could only see these where I dampened the wall. Couldn't see or feel them on unwashed sections. Took a little rubbing with the damp vinegar rag to detach them from the wall & then wipe them off. Working in sections & rinsing out the rag in hot water in between, I could see these lint balls in the navy blue sink. They were all small & of various round to oval shapes, just like they appeared on the damp wall, but smaller after being rubbed off.Washed down a wood table next to the bed with a mix of a capful of 's & Orange Plus to a half gallon of hot water - same with a rag wrung dry. No lint apparent. Didn't wipe the mixture off the table.Next I tried the Orange mix on another section of the wall. Turned up the lint balls again - BUT - in trying to wipe them off after they came loose, they dissolved & black specks appeared in their place!!!So - I'm thinking the lint balls are like cocoons around the mites - either protecting them while they go into their next phase or a place to retreat?I'd done the whole house vac on the ceiling & walls in that room with a short bristled upholstery brush attachment, rubbing hard, every few days. Using it again, I did another section of wall, then wiped it with the Orange rag - more dissolving lint balls with black specks. A little more experimentation showed the easiest way to remove the lint balls was the vinegar rag followed by upholstery attachment with the brushes removed - just the hard surface. That was easier than wiping off the detached lint balls. I'd rather remove the balls with their specks intact than try to be sure I got every speck off the wall.Even once I've adjusted my eyes to the very small, I go cross-eyed sometimes!None of the specks showed any movement - luckily.This discovery jibes with a lot of what I've found researching the past 2 weeks. Lint balls seem a common link. One microbiologist examined numerous samples from a Morg's sufferer & by teasing them apart under the microscope found several enclosed a mite at the center. Another fellow found lint balls that were nearly transparent & only visible in water hit by sunlight. Some of the lintballs examined were composed of unknown fibers, others of organic ones. Another subject for another time.Interestingly, didn't find any lintballs on the semi-gloss trimwork.More to post but think I'll confine sets of info into separate posts so they're easier to organize with the database idea.Hopes this helps! Best wishes, Sue

[Guest guest]

Not sure if this is what's happening to you, but here is the critter I find, over and over, and what I have figured out is its life cycle.

First I feel movement or a bite. I put on a vinyl glove and move my hand to the exact spot inside my clothing. Sometimes I use a finger from my other hand to press on the exact spot from the outside, which helps me be sure I'm in the right spot.

I first feel the skin for anything on the surface that clearly doesn't belong. If I find nothing, I then feel the inside surface of my clothing at that spot. Nearly 100 percent of the time that is where I find "it." By "it" I mean the slightest little bump, something that doesn't belong, on the inside surface of clothing. I pinch it and often feel it pull loose from the fabric as though it has its legs wrapped around the fibers.

The eggs remove more easily, and also roll off the spot, meaning I have to then figure out where they fell and go after them there till I find them and remove them.

When I remove them I place them on the lint roller. When I have accumulated enough of them I open Photoshop Elements, turn on my digital camera microscope, click the scanner icon, choose the TWAIN device, and a live screen opens up showing where I am holding the device.

The first stage of their lives that I have been able to identify is the egg, which is a kind of fuzzy white ball. I actually think the fibers we see in the later stages, whatever they are made of, evolve from these white fibers.

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2232570810103193234ByEYza?vhost=home-and-garden

At the next stage, two things that look like catfish "barbels" emerge from each side of one end of the ovoid egg. These may or may not develop before the means to feed. I have seen them both with barbels only or with feeder tubes only.

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2906297640103193234fLdhFC?vhost=home-and-garden

Unlike catfish barbels, however, instead of only being able to pierce with the tip, these are more like doublesided, pointed swords, because they can both pierce with their tips and cut laterally. I can't remember how I figured that out, just that it was painful. At the same time they begin developing their "feeder" tubes...

Are Feeder Tubes Cartilage rather than Protein?

....The hollow, bevel-tipped (think carton drinks) feeder tubes are hard to spot once the other spaghetti legs (fibers) develop or are "adopted." When the critter feeds, the feeder tube gets red at the point of insertion, and the red spreads up through the straw. After a while, the red color darkens to brown, as blood does when exposed to air, which leads me to think the straws are air-permeable. Also, they remain unaffected no matter how long they are exposed to enzymes. These enzymes attack the exoskeleton of a microbe, but what if the microbe HAS no exoskeleton? What if is instead protected by this thorny field of barbed, blade-edged barbels and instead of having a mouth has only a feeding tube with a direct line to the core of the critter? Kinda makes me want to feed them something in my blood that will be harmless to me but a bit more harmful to them...

The more legs that develop or fibers are adopted,

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2099966580103193234PBjMDD?vhost=home-and-garden

the harder it is to see the near translucent organic matter inside, which you can still barely identify under a microscope as "a light beige blob"

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2770059520103193234rpqaZR?vhost=home-and-garden

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2479208000103193234nNPyaB?vhost=home-and-garden

And is this one the same critter or a different one?

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2275650580103193234EQFYPm?vhost=home-and-garden

>> Hello, the lint balls you are describing was one of the first things I kept seeing around our home. As the infestation grew worse the lint balls got bigger and I could see them on the floor as I vacuumed each day. I have look at those things for 2 years. I never saw any move, never saw anything that looked like a bug but the things just kept cropping up. Some times they looked like little sesame seeds sprinkled on the floor. There was a time that I could roll the things off my skin with oil. We bought an expensive hepa filter to run in our bedroom but with the aid of a black florescent light we could see the things being blown right up the wall from the filter. The black light only works in total darkness so I began cleaning my rooms at night using the black light. I knew that our home was getting better when I stopped seeing the lint balls on the floor. What ever this "thing" is it's very hard to kill and it's the high numbers of the things, the rapid attack that can be felt when around them and how quickly they can move on the body that has worried me the most. We all need to keep hunting until we find someone to ID this thing and explain the phases in it's life cycle.......I really want to understand the lint ball cycle as it's related to the black specks. Rita> > Non Toxic Cleaning Observations> > > Nearly 2 weeks ago I joined this wonderfully helpful forum & posted > about Buzz Off protective clothing & the Orange Plus bath routine.> > Having multiple chemical allergies precludes me from using any of the > pesticides or even the bleach that are so widely used by so many of > us.> > Using my everyday cleaning products of white vinegar, Orange Plus & > 's Oil Soap, I washed the walls in my hotspot bedroom behind > the bed yesterday & discovered Something Interesting.> > Rubbing the wall with a white cotton washcloth type rag wrung nearly > dry with hot water & a splash of vinegar on the folded cloth showed > various small white lint balls on the wallboard. The natural light > was bright in that room & the paint is flat with no sheen, so the > water the rag left showed the contrast. To check if this was lint > from the rag, I wiped a wall in a hallway - no lintballs. Took a > synthetic yellow chamois & wiped an adjacent section of the bedroom > wall - again white lintballs. Looking at an angle at the wall, I > could only see these where I dampened the wall. Couldn't see or feel > them on unwashed sections. Took a little rubbing with the damp > vinegar rag to detach them from the wall & then wipe them off. > Working in sections & rinsing out the rag in hot water in between, I > could see these lint balls in the navy blue sink. They were all small > & of various round to oval shapes, just like they appeared on the > damp wall, but smaller after being rubbed off.> > Washed down a wood table next to the bed with a mix of a capful of > 's & Orange Plus to a half gallon of hot water - same with a > rag wrung dry. No lint apparent. Didn't wipe the mixture off the > table.> > Next I tried the Orange mix on another section of the wall. > Turned up the lint balls again - BUT - in trying to wipe them off > after they came loose, they dissolved & black specks appeared in > their place!!!> > So - I'm thinking the lint balls are like cocoons around the mites - > either protecting them while they go into their next phase or a place > to retreat?> > I'd done the whole house vac on the ceiling & walls in that room with > a short bristled upholstery brush attachment, rubbing hard, every few > days. Using it again, I did another section of wall, then wiped it > with the Orange rag - more dissolving lint balls with black > specks. > > A little more experimentation showed the easiest way to remove the > lint balls was the vinegar rag followed by upholstery attachment with > the brushes removed - just the hard surface. That was easier than > wiping off the detached lint balls. I'd rather remove the balls with > their specks intact than try to be sure I got every speck off the > wall.> > Even once I've adjusted my eyes to the very small, I go cross-eyed > sometimes!> > None of the specks showed any movement - luckily.> > This discovery jibes with a lot of what I've found researching the > past 2 weeks. Lint balls seem a common link. One microbiologist > examined numerous samples from a Morg's sufferer & by teasing them > apart under the microscope found several enclosed a mite at the > center. Another fellow found lint balls that were nearly transparent > & only visible in water hit by sunlight. Some of the lintballs > examined were composed of unknown fibers, others of organic ones. > Another subject for another time.> > Interestingly, didn't find any lintballs on the semi-gloss trimwork.> > More to post but think I'll confine sets of info into separate posts > so they're easier to organize with the database idea.> > Hopes this helps! Best wishes, Sue>

[Guest guest]

Thank you so much for doing this. Thank you.....I can only imagine how hard it was to be there looking at these things. It had to be awful. I have seen the exact same things that you have taken pictures of only through a very weak microscope. We have seen them in our clothing, on our floors, and on our skin. We bought new sheets and underwear that we could see them through the packaging even before we opened them. When we got home we took some of them out of the packages and looked at them under the microscope and they were the little bundles of fibers,,,,just like your pictures. What in the world is this? The only time I saw them change was when we first started to dry the salt on our skin. After the salt was dried on our skin I would look at the things under the microscope and instead of being a tight bundle they looked like they had been hit with a hammer. Broken apart......I just don't know where we are all going to turn to. We have major TV shows such as Dr. Phil saying that this is all in peoples heads. No one is really taking this serious until they come down with it. I have tried so hard to kill this thing. I started to see improvement when I added the salt to the Clorox back in January of this year. I put the one pint of water with 2 cups of Epsom salt in it and used that on the skin after I wash down with dawn and Clorox. I also started to take the 1 TBs. of plain table salt by mouth and with in one week saw improvement and felt better. I still think that I could never have got any sleep unless I had worked in my bedroom to create as much a sterile environment as possible. Nothing that I have seen in fighting this thing has made any sense to me. We need a better way to control the environment because what I have noticed is that the things can sit, like in a tote for months. The tote is opened and they come running out. As long as this is possible we can't take enough of any thing by mouth to stop the flood of the things that can seem to sit and wait till the timing is just right for them. It's a very hard critter to get my head around because it just doesn't make sense. What do we do??? Rita

Non Toxic Cleaning Observations> > > Nearly 2 weeks ago I joined this wonderfully helpful forum & posted > about Buzz Off protective clothing & the Orange Plus bath routine.> > Having multiple chemical allergies precludes me from using any of the > pesticides or even the bleach that are so widely used by so many of > us.> > Using my everyday cleaning products of white vinegar, Orange Plus & > 's Oil Soap, I washed the walls in my hotspot bedroom behind > the bed yesterday & discovered Something Interesting.> > Rubbing the wall with a white cotton washcloth type rag wrung nearly > dry with hot water & a splash of vinegar on the folded cloth showed > various small white lint balls on the wallboard. The natural light > was bright in that room & the paint is flat with no sheen, so the > water the rag left showed the contrast. To check if this was lint > from the rag, I wiped a wall in a hallway - no lintballs. Took a > synthetic yellow chamois & wiped an adjacent section of the bedroom > wall - again white lintballs. Looking at an angle at the wall, I > could only see these where I dampened the wall. Couldn't see or feel > them on unwashed sections. Took a little rubbing with the damp > vinegar rag to detach them from the wall & then wipe them off. > Working in sections & rinsing out the rag in hot water in between, I > could see these lint balls in the navy blue sink. They were all small > & of various round to oval shapes, just like they appeared on the > damp wall, but smaller after being rubbed off.> > Washed down a wood table next to the bed with a mix of a capful of > 's & Orange Plus to a half gallon of hot water - same with a > rag wrung dry. No lint apparent. Didn't wipe the mixture off the > table.> > Next I tried the Orange mix on another section of the wall. > Turned up the lint balls again - BUT - in trying to wipe them off > after they came loose, they dissolved & black specks appeared in > their place!!!> > So - I'm thinking the lint balls are like cocoons around the mites - > either protecting them while they go into their next phase or a place > to retreat?> > I'd done the whole house vac on the ceiling & walls in that room with > a short bristled upholstery brush attachment, rubbing hard, every few > days. Using it again, I did another section of wall, then wiped it > with the Orange rag - more dissolving lint balls with black > specks. > > A little more experimentation showed the easiest way to remove the > lint balls was the vinegar rag followed by upholstery attachment with > the brushes removed - just the hard surface. That was easier than > wiping off the detached lint balls. I'd rather remove the balls with > their specks intact than try to be sure I got every speck off the > wall.> > Even once I've adjusted my eyes to the very small, I go cross-eyed > sometimes!> > None of the specks showed any movement - luckily.> > This discovery jibes with a lot of what I've found researching the > past 2 weeks. Lint balls seem a common link. One microbiologist > examined numerous samples from a Morg's sufferer & by teasing them > apart under the microscope found several enclosed a mite at the > center. Another fellow found lint balls that were nearly transparent > & only visible in water hit by sunlight. Some of the lintballs > examined were composed of unknown fibers, others of organic ones. > Another subject for another time.> > Interestingly, didn't find any lintballs on the semi-gloss trimwork.> > More to post but think I'll confine sets of info into separate posts > so they're easier to organize with the database idea.> > Hopes this helps! Best wishes, Sue>