jeff teeters+hatebirds88 he answer to my prayers

[Guest guest]

I can declare V-Day thanks to both of them.

I have been running 3 dehumidifers at 1.3kw collectively, 16L capacity

each for 7 weeks, coming to 8 weeks now. 2 weeks ago, DE was spread

through hotspots, the window ledges, study tables, balcony, our shoes,

bathroom and kitchen undersides/drainages.

Today, i can sit on my desk, have dinner on the dinning table and

watch TV on the sofa, free from the crawling and biting.

In addition to DE and dehumidifiers, me and the wife threw out

anything with cotton, the curtains, books and anything with porous

wood. I don't care even if i have to throw EVERYTHING out, so long as

i can deprive them a place to hide and reproduce. some of the thing i

owned were heartbreaking to trash (especially all my treasured old

world of darkness VtM+MtA and ADnD 2nd Edition books), but my health

and sanity are worth a whole lot more.

Coming across some posts with those of whom are still having

difficulties despite of running dehumidifiers and dusting DE, i've got

some suggestions you might want to take note of:

1. Bear in mind that humidity and mite growth studies are often done

in an environment that has very little fluctuating microclimate to

speak of, controlled lab experiments at the first tier cannot allow it

for the sake of accuracy and time counting.

In view of which, when looking at a timeframe for your own situation,

try moving elsewhere or do some motel/hotel hopping temporarily for a

month or two. The point is not only to deprive them of a bloodmeal,

but also to prevent the presence of a microclimate from your

perspiration and breathing. Me and the wife took to hotel hopping for

about a month. Some of you might want to do what Rita did by not

entering certain rooms with the dehumidifiers running.

2. Depending on the average Relative Humidity of your home, You will

not see any results until more than a month and a half later if you

cannot hit a constant RH of 30% or lower. Just like any living

creature that depends on water, dehydration varies from individual to

individual. We all know that without water any living species will

most certainly die, the question is for long it takes for them

individually to finally hit the floor.

Our RH is in the range from 45% to 50% for the whole time we ran the

dehumidifiers 24/7. We returned to our home to check on the situation

(we didn't sleep at home, went in, checked and went out again) on the

3rd week and still felt creep crawlies and biting. 4th week was

remarkable, activity had decreased, they are still there but not very

active. The 7th week, we came home, slept and ate home. It was like

they've never been here before.

3. Seal any openings! You don't want outside humidity to get in and

undo your weeks of work. Keeping RH fluctuations down is an important

key factor in our case. We didn't even want the microclimate from our

bodies to undo anything.

Some things observed:

1. In these few months that i have been plagued by these critters, i

do not believe that they parasitise the human body from INSIDE. In all

honesty, i hadn't been disturbed when i was hotel hopping.

The first day of our " getaway " was marked by the buying of 1 new set

of clothes sealed tightly, a high temp steam cleaned car interior

while we used public transport for a trip to a sauna, after a shower,

next was the disposal of our clothes and putting on the new clothes

then checking in to a hotel.

I should have brought them to the hotels (we stayed in 2, one for 3

and another for 4 weeks each time) if they were living in my body, but

it never happened.

2. I found that should i go to or near places where wild birds are

present, i get hit by crawling sensations on my legs. I would spray my

legs with Bayer's Baygon and wash it off at a public loo. This led me

to believe that these things are always in the environment. They

probably won't bother anyone until one get marked by their pheromones

through bites (which is nothing more than their chemo mating call).

Washing off this " scent " is crucial, or you will just attract these

things everywhere you go - probably giving you the illusion that they

are coming out of your body. I used scentless soap with 3% sulphur in

the shower twice a day and wipe myself down with Hydrogen peroxide

until the next shower. Do this until you don't get creepy crawlies up

your legs in public anymore.

3. The dreaded Chitin Hypersensitivity problem. Should you get bitten

often enough, you'll start to feel anything and everything that crawls

on your body. There are tons of microbes and insectoid creatures that

live off our bodies EVERY single moment, we just don't feel them, (99%

of them are actually useful creatures, don't get too paranoid thinking

they are parasites) until we get conked by bird mites which caused the

immune system to kick into overdrive mode.

After a while, you'll be able to tell which are mites and which is

actually something else. The only way to rid yourself of this is to

get out of the house and go some place else which do not afflict you

with crawling bloodsucking creatures, get antihistamines, cover

yourself with Hydrogen peroxide and rest. It went away in 1 weeks time

for me in the hotel.

It has been a harrowing experience, one that i hope i do not have to

relive ever after. The cost of this battle was high and heartbreaking

to say the least. I wish all of you the best in beating this thing.

Farewell and Good Luck.