sick to death of this

[melby]

Today I am writing out of pure and utter misery.

6 weeks ago we got bird mites in our house. I think I brought them in from being in the avairy's all the time and they transferred on to me and then into our house.

It has been 6 weeks of hell. I have had our house professionally gassed twice and the floors sprayed with deltramethrin. I am still getting bites. I now have the raid sprays in each room going off every 5 mins with natural pyrethrins. I've order some electronic insect repellers which I should get net week. I've spent a fortune. My husband is starting to get jack of it.

We have taken all our gouldains out of their avairy's and put them into small cages. We have sprayed the birds with avain insect liquidator plus put S76 on the back of their necks and in their water. They are still scratching. We have had a couple of deaths, 1 mum and 2 babies. We have sprayed out the big avairies with surface spray.

I'm at my wits end though. I don't know what else I can do. I think I keep recontaminating the house because of handling the birds.

I'm at the point where I just want to get rid of all the birds but at the same time I don't. We have blue gouldains, australian yellows, dilutes, normals, white breasts. We worked hard to get to where we are at, but now we have scratching and balding birds.

I think it all started from our chickens. We had chickens and we got rid of them and 2 days later, everyone was scratching.

I've tried spraying the whole back yard with pemethrin.

Why aren't these things dying. Why are my birds still scratching. Do I have to get rid of all my birds, and who would want to buy them with the way they are anyway.

Arrrggghhhhhhhh, I can't cope with this any longer.

[Diane]

So sorry to hear of your problem with mites. It must be so frustrating.

It sounds like you are doing everything you possibly can to get rid of them. I guess its just a matter of time and positive thought.....something along the lines of
"thats killed another load of the little ..........."
each time the spray goes off!

I have read that mites dont like the smell of essentials oils, eucalyptus, orange, lavender, lemongrass, and peppermint, but you need the 100% pure oils. Also need to spray regularly too, at least twice a day varying the oils each time.


Hope to hear things are getting back to normal for you soon.

[gomer]

Dianne,so sorry to hear that,Have never heard of mites being that bad.I would not get rid of the birds,As you have the mights now,And they may or may not have come from your birds. and if you get rid of the birds you still have to get rid of the mites.Sounds like you are doing all the right things.I would clean out your avairys,and hit them with coopex.
http://www.birdsrus.com.au/?page=82&list_cat=164
i have a 6 litre garden spray unit i mix it in,One satchel i put in it.And it is only used for coopex.Maybe you could use it in your house?
Heres another link.
http://birdmites.org/index.html

Gomer

[jusdeb]

Can understand how frustrating this must be for you , I know stupid question but is it bird mites and not some other funky bug happening?????? Ive heard kero mopped about the place and on surfaces can help but that doesnt help with carpets and other soft furnishings .
I can only suggest handing this over to the dept of health to see what they can come up with coz it cant be good for you living like this not to mention the stress ... Good luck and I hope you get a break soon.

[melby]

thankyou for your responses. I do feel like all my efforts are paying off, I only get a couple of bites a day now, but I am so scared that what ever it is is going to breed and get worse again.

I sorta lost it today when I checked on the birds and they were still scratching. It's a bit of a feeling of hopelessness because all my efforts with the birds are not paying off. Mind you, they are definitly not scratching as much as they were at first.

I've looked at the birdmites.org site many times and man it's a pretty depressing site. There's people who have suffered with these things for years. I can't live like that. I will do everything in my power to eradicate these things asap. I'm an extremely clean person and this is doing my head in.

I bathe in a mix of lavender, tea tree and eucalyptus oils with epsom salts. This definitly helps.

The coopex could be a goer, thanks gomer because I looked up the active ingredients and the pemethrin is at 250g/kg. The most I've been able to find is 40g/kg.

It's definitly not bed bugs, the pest inspectors have confirmed that. And it's awfully suspisious that it all began after we got rid of the chickens. So bird/chicken mite.

I do feel pretty confident in the electric pest repeller that I've ordered. I've ordered 5 of them and they do a 30 day money back guarantee on mites and biting bugs that you can not see.
It used much better technology than the cheaper versions. Here's the link http://www.aussiepestcontrol.net/?gclid ... pAodhx3ECQ

What I really don't know how to do though is get them off the birds. Any suggestions?

[gomer]

sounds like they are on the retreat
You can also get pysteen ? powder for dusting mites.

[Diane]

I found coopex at my local Bunnings

[toothlessjaws]

hey melby.

i really feel for you. i have also been to that site and seen how depressing it is. these things can be an absolute menace. now, some advice.

ARE YOU 100% POSITIVE THAT THESE MITES ARE COMING FROM YOUR BIRDS?

i reason i say that, is because we got them at work. and i realise how disgusting and infesting these little %*&#@'s are - especially to a fellow anal clean freak. but we didn't keep birds at work. they were coming in through the vents from feral pigeons that roosted on the windowsills at night. it seems they can actually spread and reproduce without the birds because these things just suddenly appeared and were EVERYWHERE!!!

we had to get a fumigator in, and yet despite my protests that more had to be done (after researching that site you mentioned) the boss brushed it off as no big deal. the pigeons remained and the mites never again returned inside.

i can understand how disgusting this is. i think you just gotta keep at what your doing. but seriously, make sure there are no other wild birds nesting in your roof of property anywhere as this may be the source.

oh and if you have carpet, rip it up!!!! polished floorboards look nicer anyway.

[jusdeb]

yeah starlinhs a notorious for spreading them too , had them in the roof years ago and ended up with polished boards to minimise the problem.

[jusdeb]

STARLINGS sheesh been sober too long ...