bird bugs

So last week we were getting ready to leave to see Eric's parents. Tuesday night E wakes me up and says bugs are crawling on him. They are really tiny and you could hardly see them, so I said, well it has been like two bugs don't worry about it. He woke me up again and was freaked out because he was all itchy and he was still finding them crawling on him. I told him if he found another one to put it in a baggie. He did so in the morning I took it to lab and put it under the scope. It was crawling around still but I didn't want to squish it, in case it occluded the view. I successfully determined it was a Bird Mite! Apparently, this is why you should not let birds nest on your house. When the birds fledge and leave the nest (which ours had done a few days before) the mites that have been feeding on the birds look for new food, US! I was lucky they didn't get me, but E was by the window and he is far warmer than me, and they like heat. I left work for a few hours and wore large gloves. I removed the nest and sealed in a ziploc back to get rid of it. I then insecticided the whole area around the nest, around the door, around the windows, etc. I also got some natural plant bioscide to spray inside around the bedroom windows and in the cracks by the wall etc. I bleached washed the trim, windows, walls. We stripped the bed and we washed EVERYTHING in hot water, including any clothing we were going to bring to his parents house. We ended up sleeping on air mattress in the living room the night before we left to see his parents. He didn't want to take any 'friends' with us. Luckily, once there his paranoid itching stopped and he didn't find any more bugs. The websites we visited said the mite will only live about 10 days without a bird host and they do not spread disease or infect our skin. They bite us to sample our blood and their saliva makes us itch but they can't live on us. Last night we returned and E was itchy again (he said it was just the thought that some could still be around). We slept in the living room again, but I didn't see anything upstairs so I think we will be reassembling the bedroom tonight. I really hope that they are all gone because I don't want to this all again, but there isn't a sure way to tell as they are so small! (About the size of a period at the end of a sentence) We also ran into some scary websites. One of the first ones I found gave me an immediate stress response. They said we had to fumigate our entire apartment for ($3-5,000), spray like crazy, cover all furniture in plastic, saline clean your nose, etc. It freaked me out but I searched for more info and was grateful many entomologist university sites that said the mite was not toxic, removal of the nest and insecticide should work, and that they don't invade furniture! phew!

So, if a bird is nesting on your porch light or under your eaves, once the baby birds leave the nest,IMMEDIATELY remove the nest and avoid the invasion of bird mites!