Mites Mites everywhere and not an end in sight

So since I brought in some new mice we've had mites here. I've been treating non-stop 1-2 times per week.

Each of my mice get sprayed with iver-on spray once a week
2x a week Each of my tubs/cages gets sprayed with Permethrin spray
Then each tub gets Food Grade DE and finally the pine pellets.
I shake it around to evenly coat everything.

Once a day--or sometimes every other day, I go with the Permethrin spray and spray the outside of the tubs and the shelf they are on, and the surrounding areas including the floor.


The problem is, I have about 1000 square foot and it's a basement with 10's of millions of tiny cracks and crevices everywhere that's literally impossible to get to.

There are NO mites on my mice or in their cages!


I notice MILLIONS of little white dots walking around on every surface I have not sprayed.

I brought down a bag of bedding the other day. Yesterday I went to pour it in the bin and the bag of bedding (the outside) was covered in millions and millions of tiny little bugs that crawled up my arms when I picked the bag up!---- YUCK.


I'm supposed to be taking everything out of the basement today (if my boyfriend feels better before it gets too late), washing every cage outside, treating AGAIN, and am going to BLEACH the floor and walls with diluted bleach and a mop.



Does anyone else have any advice on what to do? I'm at my witts end with all of this and am seriously about to lose it.

There are so many mites that it looks like there is a pile of white dust, but really it's mites. I'll have to get a photo. The one area is all dead from me spraying them but it's gross.

Thanks all!

Provent a mite, been proven to work over and over

the cracks in your house do not matter, the mice don't even matter, if the mites can't get to the snakes, then they will die shortly after. treat the cages with provent a mite, in a week, I would change bedding and treat again, hopefully getting rid of any eggs that might of been laid. If I didn't see any more mites, I would still treat 1 or 2 more times, just incase any eggs hatch. I found getting rid of the current mites is easy, damn eggs hatching then popping back up when you thought it was over is the annoying part, then those ones lay eggs and the cycle starts again.

I do not have any snakes.

I have one lizard with no mites on it/in the cage.

I am using permethrin in probably a larger concentration than what's in Provent-A-Mite. I believe permethrin is the active ingredient in Provent-A-Mite so this is just more concentrated I believe.

This might be why I'm able to keep my mice from being infected.

I believe the mites are tropical rat mites.

If you're dealing with rodent mites I would try Hi-yield in the bedding and Ivermectin for the rodents.

With mite out breaks we will spread hi-yield under the bedding and give each rat a dose of ivermectin about every 5 days until the mites were all gone, typically 3-4 weeks.

You can spray permethrin on the outside of the mouse tubs also, but those first two will go a long ways to stopping an outbreak of rodent mites.

Good luck, been there!

http://www.amazon.com/Hi-yield-Garde.../dp/B00585AH46

The rodents are being treated with Iver-on (Cattle IVERMECTIN diluted with water) once to 2x a week.

There are no mites in any of my rodent cages and none on my rodents (I've had mites before and have seen them on my rodents but something I'm doing must be keeping them out of my cages).


permethrin is being sprayed in the cage and on the bedding and all around.

What's this Hi-yield ?

Do you happen to have a link??

Quote:

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Originally Posted by reptilegirl07

What's this Hi-yield ?

Do you happen to have a link??

---

http://www.amazon.com/Hi-yield-Garde.../dp/B00585AH46

Ivermectin paste is what I used, never had to dilute it.

Do you have any suggestions on what to use in the room since there are absolutely no mites on the rodents?

Mites need a host, so either they are mites found on dogs/cats, rodent mites or something different altogether.
I know you say they aren't on the rodents, but mites have to be on something living, and the number one thing is rodents.
The mites cannot live without a host.

It sounds like you need to remove any animals and bomb the place :confusd:

I've dusted my chinchillas and ferrets with DE and sprayed their cages with permethrin. There are other animals down there that don't belong to me but I was told they were being taken care of.

I take it they wouldn't be multiplying in the vast quantities that they are if there wasn't a host available to them. My dogs have been treated and there aren't any cats down there, they're 3 floors away.

I feel like I'm running around in circles. What bomb would kill the mites? I might do that in addition.

I would think a flea bomb would kill the mites also....Someone correct me if I'm wrong...

After looking into it more, it's come to my attention that most of the mites may be grain mites!

There are some normal black mites down there, but nothing like these other white mites.

Photos:

On the black part of the bedding bag:
http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/6380/baghz.jpg

On my bleach spray bottle nearly overnight:
http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/4636/mites.jpg

On the bottom of one of my cages
http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/4093/mites2.jpg

Are you renting?

Get your landlord to fix that for you, it's not a problem caused by your animals.

No, unfortunately, this is one of the houses WE own.

I would still thinking using PAM correctly should kill all your mites and infested areas for good. (if used correctly that is) I recently had a bad case of mites on my ball python. Cleared up in one treatment will still do another treatment in a week to be sure everything is dead.

Can someone tell me what the active ingredient of PAM is.

Spankege, how does one "use it correctly"?

http://img.tapatalk.com/62d07125-ff6c-ed40.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/62d07125-ff96-ebd9.jpg
Didn't know which pic was better, first active ingredient listed is permethrin...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2

It's pretty simple, take animals out of enclosure. Remove water or any wet substrate. Spray a small amount of Pam very small it does not take much. Wait about 10 min. Then take a magazine and fan the enclosure. This is not necessary, but I would rather just be careful because the fumes are extremely hazardous when they are wet, but are safe when dry. Spray it right on substrate btw, and you want to clear the room for the first 10 min. Not good for people either. It sounds complicated it really isn't I'm sure other people have better steps. Might even be a guide on here! Ask away if you need more.
Cody

Quote:

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Originally Posted by snakesRkewl

Mites need a host, so either they are mites found on dogs/cats, rodent mites or something different altogether.
I know you say they aren't on the rodents, but mites have to be on something living, and the number one thing is rodents.
The mites cannot live without a host.

It sounds like you need to remove any animals and bomb the place :confusd:

---

Yes, mites are parasites and must live off a host. If you have been treating for a while and haven't seen them on your animals they will all die soon, unless they are some other kind of bug, then you may have a different problem than what you think. Just my two cents.

Thanks guys.

I use the cheaper equivalent to PAM, which is 5.00 a can and has the same active ingredient. When I used to have snakes, it got rid of mites in one shot.

But I've since been using it with my rodents.

So since there are no mites on my rodents, I'm assuming what others have suggested to me, grain mites.

I burned all my grains yesterday and took almost everything out and washed it with the power washer. It's all still outside.

I don't really see anymore mites in the basement as of now. My mealworm colony was INFESTED with mites though. Got rid of all of them.

All cages were cleaned again and sprayed with permethrin. We're in the process of mopping the floor with Bleach/Water.

Hopefully this puts an end to my problem :)

Sorry if someone already said this, I only skimmed...

White mites are wood mites. Not harmful, but VERY irritating. They come from bedding.
Wood mite (scroll half way down)
http://www.rcreptiles.com/blog/index..._white_bugs_be

Rodent mites are actually not visible. They develop scabby spots on the rodent. Your rodents will become very itchy and lose fur. These mites would be treated with Ivermectin.