Re: Follow up to mite infestation

[Guest guest]

Hello Dawn....we have been fighting these things for a little over 2 years now. The longest we have not felt them is 3 months. We have what we call hot spots in our home that we try to avoid now. What we have done has helped a lot of people. You may get private emails telling you not to do what we have done but each person has to decide for their own personnel life what protocol to use during the nightmare. Here is what worked for us.

The dawn dish soap did not kill the things in our scalp but it does clean the hair, scalp and skin so that each new application of the following gets down into the hair follicles.

We wash our skin with the dawn from head to toe. As we wash we keep squirting a little straight Clorox on to the wash cloth. Where ever the mites or "things" are the skin will turn red, and hurt. The skin that doesn't have the mites in it will not react to the Clorox. Wash the Clorox off the skin in the beginning within seconds, not minutes of application.

After washing this off, next pour a very strong salt solution (1 pint of water to 2 cups Epsom salt dissolved) over the body from head to toe. Rub this into the skin well. Don't wash this salt off the skin. Next go right over the salt with olive oil, baby oil or neem oil. The neem oil will kill mites but it smells really bad. Next, get out of the tub and blow dry the body till all water has evaporated and the oil has been allowed to soak down in to the hair follicles from the heat of the blow drier. You can sleep with a shower cap on to help hold the salt and oil in the hair during the night. Putting betadine 10% solution in the ears and nose can keep them out of those areas along with a little Vaseline. The neem oil will kill what gets down into the roots of the eye lashes along with a covering of Vaseline at night.

The rest of the fight is environmental. We mopped our floors with Clorox, let that dry then sprayed the salt solution over that. It makes a mess but nothing can live in Clorox and salt. I had to use a streamer to remove the salt from my floors once our home wasn't infested any more. It's hard to fight this with carpet on the floor. Many have had to remove their carpet, others have tried working diatomaceous earth or borax down into the carpet. Running dehumidifiers to lower the moisture level in the home has helped some. Everyone has had to cover their beds with very thick plastic making sure all seams are taped tightly or get an air mattresses. A new trash bag had to be placed on our pillows every night. Since we discovered that Raid ant and roach spray killed what ever was on our skin on contact we have since been spraying our rooms with the raid and it has cut down on all the cleaning. Vacuuming as often as possible seems to help a lot. We spray the raid right over our computer key board and every where we sleep and sit. I'm hoping that people who can fight this early won't have to throw all their furniture away like we had to do. We found that everything covered in fabric was infested. It's a hard fight but it can be won or made livable. What ever method you choose to use, mine or others I wish you luck and our prayers go with you. Rita

Follow up to mite infestation

I just got back from a run to the store to pick up a few of the things mentioned but wanted to ask about what to wash my hair with. I want to be really clear on what to do here. Am I correct that I should use the "Dawn" original scent blue (or ultra concentrated)on my hair? How long should I leave this on, how many times do I need to do this before I can be sure they are all gone? Do I need to repeat multiple times? I know this process will take me several days to complete as I have a large home and lots and lots of junk in my home. I also have two kids. Also, do I need to launder each and every item in my home and if so do I just do a normal laundering of these items? Do I need to store things in plastic bags? What about sheets, pillows, mattressees? Oh, this is all so overwhelming. Sorry for all the questions. Thank God I have found this group as a resource. I truly feel like I am at the end of my rope. I hope this is the answer. I think i have started to loose my hair partly because of the stress but also because of the infected sores from these darn things. I am only 38. Thanks again for any help you can all offer.Dawn

[Guest guest]

Hi Dawn,

Wow, you've been suffering with the mites for a long time. I hope you

get relief soon, and your children stay mite-free.

For my hair, I've used Head & Shoulders, Selsun Blue, and Sulfadene

(dog shampoo - they carry it at Walmart) on my hair. Never tried the

Dawn. I usually alternate among shampoos. I have thick, long hair.

Lately, I only need to wash my hair every 3 days, and mostly use the

Head & Shoulders. After I wash my hair, but before I condition it, I

take a bath and I soak my scalp in the bath water (I've been bathing

in either apple cider vinegar or epsom salt/borax/baking soda). After

the bath, I rinse off and then condition my hair. Also, for the past

several weeks I have been using the ESP Botanicals products, which

includes a soap that is supposed to help draw things out of the skin,

and I sometimes soap up my scalp and leave it on my scalp with a

showercap overnight, then wash it out in the morning.

For laundry, regular laundry procedures won't get rid of the mites and

their eggs. It seems the most effective methods involve either very

long periods of soaking the clothes in water, or cooking the clothes

(in the oven, microwave, or boiling water). It's hard to destroy the

eggs, but cooking them seems to work best. I gave up on my clothes

about a year ago and threw them out and started over again because I

lacked the energy, time and motivation to cook all my clothes. I had

in fact spent many weeks soaking and washing everything, but still had

bugs in my clothes. After I dumped my clothes, which were mostly

cotton and rayon, I replaced them with synthetic fabrics only;

polyester, nylon, acrylic. Those fabrics don't seem to get infested.

Even with the polyesters, I have to follow a laundry protocol of

soaking them for an hour in borax, bleach and white vinegar, before

washing them. I keep all my laundry, dirty or clean, in sealed

plastic bins. Large garbage bags or large ziplocs would probably work

too. The bins were more convenient for me.

I threw out all my sheets, pillows and mattresses. I sleep on a

polyester camping cot with polyester sheets and blankets.

These are just my answers to your questions. There are many different

approaches to dealing with the mite problem. You can get a lot of

great ideas from this group, but you'll need to decide on your own

strategy. Do you prefer to use organic products, or do you want to

use anything that works? Can your skin handle harsh chemicals or not?

Also, some people emphasize controlling the mites in the environment,

other people focus on their bodies and health first. There is no

right or wrong way. What works for one person may not work for

another. We all have different environmental conditions, different

bodily conditions, and possibly are dealing with different types of mites.

If you have time to read through old posts, that is helpful for

learning from what others have tried.

I wish you the best of luck in your battle!

myrtle

>

> I just got back from a run to the store to pick up a few of the things

> mentioned but wanted to ask about what to wash my hair with. I want to

> be really clear on what to do here. Am I correct that I should use

> the " Dawn " original scent blue (or ultra concentrated)on my hair? How

> long should I leave this on, how many times do I need to do this before

> I can be sure they are all gone? Do I need to repeat multiple times? I

> know this process will take me several days to complete as I have a

> large home and lots and lots of junk in my home. I also have two kids.

> Also, do I need to launder each and every item in my home and if so do

> I just do a normal laundering of these items? Do I need to store things

> in plastic bags? What about sheets, pillows, mattressees? Oh, this is

> all so overwhelming. Sorry for all the questions. Thank God I have

> found this group as a resource. I truly feel like I am at the end of my

> rope. I hope this is the answer. I think i have started to loose my

> hair partly because of the stress but also because of the infected

> sores from these darn things. I am only 38. Thanks again for any help

> you can all offer.

>

> Dawn

>