I'd Rather Have Scabies

Yes, well that's what I told the woman at the pharmacy when she offered me the scabies cream. I mean if I had scabies, I'd be able to cure it within a week wouldn't I? I wish I had scabies or fleas or something that I can see, then I could kill them. Then again, if I could see them and not kill them that would probably be scarier. What kind of scary would I prefer? Hmmm...

Enough! And on to important things. I decided today that I am going to treat this problem like a war. After all, it is a war, they have invaded my territory and I want to claim it back. Sure they've been there long enough that they feel they have rights. They've built their little cities, generations of mites have known no other world than other than my hair, my bed, MY BODY!!! Grrrr!

I have decided to blog my plan of attack because I am hoping that it will work... and if it works, I'm hoping that other people from around the world can follow my attack step by step and maybe even do it themselves and KILL THESE BASTARDS!!!!

So plan is to:

1. Have a plan. I'm not going to do it ad hoc. Not a bit of this and a bit of that. I'm taking my inspiration from Jacob's List. I'm going to try as much as what they did as I can because Jacob and his wife Shannon, actually managed to get rid of them. They only had the problem for 3 months... so I'm going with their method first.

2. I'm going to decide what strategies to undertake. What products to buy and how to implement them. I'm going for the most organic, non-toxic methods if I have a choice between two methods.

3. Buy the products. Stock up on them. This is not so easy... this is the step I'm at now. Many products on Jacob's List are American. So I have to go through the torturous task of working out what the active ingredients are and then finding a similar product in Australia.

4. Plan for my additional ideas. For example, I freeze my bedding but now that I've heard that the eggs can't survive without oxygen, I'm considering buying space bags to suck out all the oxygen - don't know how effective it will be coz there will probably still be enough in there to keep them alive. (I thought about putting all my stuff into large vats of jelly... anyone got ideas for oxygen deprivation? Co2 is another system but it's very dangerous so I won't do that. I'm liking the jelly... it's so crazy it just might work!)

4. Plan a systematic hour by hour or minute by minute methodology. I'll probably even rehearse it. I realised after I implemented a half baked plan one night that because I hadn't thought it through, I was reinfecting myself through carelessness. (ie The plastic bags I bought weren't sealable, so the mites could escape quite easily. My feet had been in the infected bed, so just by walking from room to room I could have been transferring eggs). I need a plan for my environment and a plan for my body. It has also been suggested that you should attack your car and workplace too! So much to do!

5. Make some big decisions. Am I going to do it to my garage as well, so that I don't have infected stuff coming back into the house? Am I going to get rid of (yet another) bed or try to save it? Am I going to attack the attic?

6. I'm going to devote a whole weekend to washing my clothes and cleaning my whole house from top to bottom. Another question: Am I going to rotate my clothes through the freezer? Jacob and Shannon wore every item of clothing only the one time every time. They washed their bedding every single day. Perhaps it was their persistence, rather than purely the method that worked.

I just bought myself a whole lot of products: windex, bird mite and lice spray, oils, witchhazel etc but I realised that because I didn't have a simple strategy, or a consistent one, I couldn't work out what was working and when. I sprayed my bed with windex (very bad I know) put borax and windex in a plastic bag with my bedding in a freezer (yet to see if that's worked) but for some reason I feel as though I'm being bitten MORE than before. I've certainly stirred something up in a bad way. (I've heard that essential oils can attract the critters so now I'm wondering whether my use of tea-tree oil etc. has been counterproductive). I don't really know. So now I want to plan what I'm doing so that I can assess whether it's actually working or not.

Here is a picture of some products I bought ad hoc:


I also bought some bird mite and lice spray but it's toxic and I didn't really think about how I was planning to actually use it. I'm going to research how other people are using the active ingredient of: pyrethrins and piperonyl butoxide.

I'll post about the diatomaceous earth and menthol crystals I ordered on the internet today soon!

My long term plan - to buy myself a latex bed after I've not been bitten for 12 months! (They can't live in latex, and boy they're comfortable!

First Entry

This is what I posted on the yahoo group birdmites.org today.

Hi everyone,
I've just joined this forum. I will write my story in more detail eventually (maybe even blog it).

But for now - I just want to give you this tip coz it DRAMATICALLY reduced my problem so much that I even forget I have it sometimes.
(I know that doesn't sound promising).

Basically, I discovered that freezing the mites kills them. (I don't think it kills the eggs but I think it kills the adults and the nymphs.)

Over the years I have thrown out 3 beds, 5 mattresses and heaps of clothing (and moved 3 times). But I didn't have support whatsover (there was not much info on the web about it in those days) so I was coming up with my own strategies in isolation. I'm so happy that I've discovered both this site and birdmites.org coz I think with combined strategies I might be able to kick this thing once and for all.

When I first got the mites, my friend and I tried to work out why they only bit me after I'd been in bed for half an hour. We then guessed that maybe they sensed the heat of my body (I now know it is for that reason and many others). So we decided to put my bedding in the freezer with a bowl of hot water in an attempt to lure the mites out of the bedding and into the warm bowl. I don't know whether that actually worked or not but the side effect was that I noticed I was being bitten less and less every time I put the bedding in the freezer.

It then became a habit of mine to put my bedding in the freezer every morning without the water. (Try explaining that to your guests!)

I know it's tough if you have a big family but I would invest in a good quality deep freezer - I think it's worth it... I bought a second hand one for $150.

I would rip out carpets and systematically put all of my clothing and bedding, cushions (whatever you can) into the freezer.

I think freezing is more effective than washing (though I haven't tried the borax thing. I bought some borax and windex today and I feel powerful! :-)

My strategy now is if I am ever bitten (when not in bed). I immediately remove that piece of clothing and either throw it away or put it in the freezer for a few days.

It really really helps.

I'm pretty sure that I've managed to reduce the mites to just my bedding... I was almost free of them recently (I threw out another bed and the base). I was mite free for days. Then a friend came over and lay on a sheepskin rug I had and then on my bed. Only after he'd been there awhile did I realise that that rug had come from my previous (carpeted) apartment and that there were probably mites in it. I should have thrown it out. Needless to say - they were back.

As for freezing I know two things: 1. Museums freeze books/artifacts etc in an effort to kill any insects that might damage the item. They do for this for up to two weeks at a time. 2. Airports quarantine items that are imported by freezing them (again up to two weeks at a time).

I know that I can't reach the high temperatures I need to to kill the bugs and the eggs... but freezing is a good stop gap.

On a museum site I read ages ago, they talk about snap freezing because with a slow freeze, an insect will have the time to adapt to a reducing temperature. They also say the colder and longer you freeze the better the outcome.

I have been experimenting with freezing my bed linen for two weeks at a time (I have two lots). I won't wash my linen unless I've frozen it first. I'm now thinking I'll reduce it to 3-4 days, because I think I read somewhere that it takes 7 days for the eggs to become adults. So I'm thinking maybe I can kill them before they have time to lay new eggs.

Even though this doesn't destroy the eggs it allows me to get some sleep.

I also think I get three kinds of bites/sensations:
1. Crawling on skin.
2. small bites that sting immediately but don't last long
3. big bites that feel like a needle is going into your body (about 1/2-1 second in length) and leave a big welt. These ones can wake you up.

I still get 1 and 2 but they don't wake me up night. I don't get 2 and 3 at all during the day anymore. Actually, maybe no.2 on occasion. Type 3 I get once every couple of weeks, maybe even less.

I used to get type 3. at least 10-20 times a night and I remember how UNBEARABLE it used to be.

Also, after many doctors/dermatologists/people thinking I was delusional, I found a doctor who took a biopsy of my skin (around 9 years ago). The results showed "consistent with an insect bite" but he couldn't tell me which insect of course... but at least I could prove to my friends that I wasn't delusional.

In case you want to do the biopsy thing. He told me that I couldn't shower after a bite (I think they need the saliva). So I got a friend to draw circles around the old bites (with pen) before I went to bed, when I went to the doctor in the morning he could see which bites didn't have a ring around them so he took a biopsy of one of those.

I really feel for you all... and remember when people don't believe you... they didn't believe bacteria existed in the old days or that mosquitos could carry malaria. Some people are very closed minded and I think it's easier them to believe that you are delusional than to believe that blood sucking insects that you can't see but cause much distress are REAL!!!

I know one day we'l beat this thing. I can imagine people trying one strategy once... and they'll rid themselves of it... we'll get there.

Tania - MiteWar veteran

PS: I live in Melbourne, Australia