Recent infestation

[Guest guest]

Recently discovered bird mite infestation in my home. What led to this

conclusion is almost humorous had I not spent a lot of time and money in the

process.

Over memorial day weekend we had spent a lot of time outside and so when my

daughter first complained about an itchy scalp I assumed it was sunburn. Later

in the week she was out on our deck and she said that her scalp was really

really itchy. I checked it, and to my dismay I found teeny tiny little things

running around her widows peak. Being a parent of a child in school, I

immediately decided it was head lice and went into combat mode. During my

weekend of cleaning I began doing more research, and things just weren't adding

up. She didn't have any nits in her hair and these things were almost

microscopic, I figured if anything I had caught this head lice thing early on.

Then I also wondered why no one else in the house had any lice? We often share

pillows, etc. At the very least my 3 year old should have had them as well.

Did further research and started investigating bird mites. We had a nest in the

eaves of our suspended deck that the chicks had recently died in. My daughter

spent many afternoons with her head down near the boards so she could check out

the nest and her hair is long and hangs down. In addition, her head didn't itch

all the time, just when she was out on the deck looking at the nest or if she

had been doing it recently. Well, you never can be sure so I had the school

nurse check her before class on Monday and she found no evidence of head lice.

Later that day my son and I were out on the deck for all of 15 minutes and I

found at least 30 of those things crawling all over our arms and legs. In a

panic, and to be honest I was still worrying about head lice, I ran a sample to

my pediatrician for him to decide. I should have gone with my gut instinct.

Pediatrician said it was head lice even though I tried to explain they were on

arms and legs and only when we were outside. I really didn't expect them to

tell me it was a bird mite but I did think they'd be able to say with some

certainty it was not head lice. Needless to say I bought more head lice

treatment with the intention of treating everyone at home again and cleaning my

house from top to bottom again. However, when I got home I decided to

investigate further.. I thought about heading back out onto the deck, but turns

out wasn't necessary, found a bunch of those creepy crawlers on my storm door

then on the windowsill and side table near the area on the deck where nest was.

On further investigation I've found them on the second story windowsill as well.

I have ehrlich coming out to treat tomorrow. Asked them to treat the entire

house. They said they've dealt with them before so I'm hoping their treatment

and my cleaning will rid of us these things. Unfortunately we all have

excoriated scalps from obsessive nit combing and head lice treatment as well as

itchy skin from bird mite bites!