# Hay / Straw Mites / Chiggers



## Robin Craig (Aug 8, 2010)

Anyone ever had any experience of the above?

R


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## sedurbin (May 30, 2009)

They are common in the Midwestern U.S. Eat a lot of garlic and they won't bother you as much. (neither will anyone else) One thing to note, they prefer to locate themselves in body-part areas that are embarrassing to scratch in public. The more politically correct name is Chigeroes ;-)


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## NDVA HAYMAN (Nov 24, 2009)

WE recently had a load of straw come in that was full of little red mites. When starting to load this straw back out for shipment, everyone started scratching like crazy. My help had little red spots all over. Needless to say, our supplier had to come and pick that load up and take it away. Mike


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## Haggard (Aug 20, 2010)

I have had experience with the little devils. You are right about the polite scratching and it will be impolite for about 2 weeks. I think it is funny about that load of hay. I am surprised you learned about them before you got the load on. Generally they don't show up for several hours later.

I don't know if you allow it or no. If so here is shameless plug for some guys that knows how to take that itch away in short order. I was ready to douse them with gas and set 'um on fire then put it out with an ice pick. Fortunately I found this chigger cure before I found the gas and matches. Cure Chigger Bites

I hope it helps you out some.

Haggard


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## Greyhorse (Jun 22, 2009)

If you only have a few bites then you can paint over the red spots with fingernail polish and suffocate them..... I prefer clear. They burrow down a hair follicle and eat your skin, nasty critters. A good repellent with DEET also keeps them off.


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## vhaby (Dec 30, 2009)

Interesting topic. Haven't had a chigger bite since about 1982. Wonder if fire ants eat chiggers? I've seem fire ants cultivate aphids. Do you suppose that fire ants are worth something after all?


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## Robin Craig (Aug 8, 2010)

I asked the question because of our catastophic experience earlier this year.

Last year, when we set out to make and store and sell hay to the horse market we were given advice as to how to store the hay. We have a 50' X 100' fabric covered building with closed sides and open ends. The floor is limestone gravel 7/8" with fines that has locked down well.

The advice we took was to lay 6 mil poly vapour barrier down and shred by hand small squares of straw over the poly to act a a barrier to any moisture.

All went fine last summer, we loaded in hay and as we unloaded stacks from the Stack Cruiser we laid the poly and straw.

All winter long we loaded hay out to customers, until it came to late spring / early summer. One load we handled after 2 hours my employee and myself were just squirming with a rash that kind of looked like chicken pox. We we naieve about what it was and carried on and delivered the hay.

Over night the itching got worse to the point that sleep was nigh on impossible. We consulted various persons, government and locals alike with zero help. What worried me most was the government guru on hay gave me an answer that was one degree from "dunno mate, tough luck, i'm waiting for my pension" it was that much of a slough off.

The phone started ringing off the hook from the 2 customers who had received hay from us that week indicating their people handling the hay had the same reaction. Horses were also coming up in bite lumps if they were in stalls next to hay storage in the stables. Vets were being called out and I was scared of the impending deluge of vets bills that we would be stuck with. Cortisone cream gave some relief but I was close to getting out a chainsaw and taking off a 1/4" of skin I was that bitten.

We found some information in the USA on the internet about straw / hay mites published by the Oklahoma Public Health Dept and I called down and got quite a bit of help from them.

In the end we found a high concentration of Deet works as a repellant if you have to handle the hay but you had to open your shorts and cover the entire waist band / groin area as well as upper body armpits head neck etc. It only worked for about 2 hours before another dousing was needed.

Failing help or advice we made the decision to burn the remaining 1000 bales and thankfully found a major pest control company employee in the area who has an ag background and knew what it was. He srayed the barn with Malathion 85 which killed all the mites, which at 1 / 125" can not be seen with the naked eye.

We have determined in our mind, that the mites were in the locally produce straw and were kept alive all winter long despite the sub-zero temperatures because they were insulated by the hay and spread under the hay to infest the whole barn and all hay even from different field sources.

The straw was the one common factor to all the hay.

In total I reckon our loss due to this outbreak and the clean up that followed and the set back of our hay season has cost us around $10 k easily when you consider lost time, usage of our own equipment to load and burn hay, lost crop of first cut this year while dealing with the problem, trucking costs and labour to go collect the delivered hay and warranty it with new hay from this year.

It was quite the go around I never wish to repeat, and hence no staw under the hay this year.

We did find out, too late sadly, that we could have had the hay fumigated under a tarp but I was getting no help so my decision was to contain and burn to limit the spread of the problem.

Coming from the UK and remembering the outbreak in the late 1960's of Foot and Mouth and that last one in the last few years and how a lack of action allowed the spread of the disease, and sensing that I could have been dealing with something that could have affected other people I was mightily angry that no government department up here took me seriously and left me hanging in the wind to deal with it on my own.

I have a highly developed sense of responsibility about my actions and felt awful that we could have been the start of something bigger. I never want to have that feeling of helplessness again.

If this helps just one person then I am happy

Robin


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## prairie (Jun 20, 2008)

Greyhorse said:


> If you only have a few bites then you can paint over the red spots with fingernail polish and suffocate them..... I prefer clear. They burrow down a hair follicle and eat your skin, nasty critters. A good repellent with DEET also keeps them off.


Painting chigger bites with nail polish is a piece of misinformation that most of us heard from our parents, and they learned from theirs.

The following is from a website with good information about chiggers.

_Do chiggers bore under the skin and suck out the blood?

No. Chiggers are bitters, not borers. They do not suck blood. They bite a hole in the skin next to a hair follical and place sipping straw in. Then they spit into the hole an special little enzyme that will rot the flesh away. Then the chigger will suck up the rotted flesh in the little straw._

_Does nail polish stop itching chigger bites and kill the chigger?

No. The chigger is long gone by the time nail polish is applied. Nail polish does nothing to stop the itching of chigger bites or any other kind of bite. It is an old wives tail.
_

Check out the following website for chigger info.

Cure Chigger Bites


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## haybaler101 (Nov 30, 2008)

Just how far north do chiggers go? I am from Southern Indiana and have fought chiggers all my life, even had a few this summer. My wife is from Northern Indiana (north of the Artic Circle, LOL) and she has never heard of chiggers and even thinks it is some kind of a myth.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

I've never had any problems with em up here. I'm about 30 miles south of the Michigan border. Only person I personally know of who's had em, was my Uncle Dave and he picked em up south of Indy during Bean Blossom Boogie.


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## haybaler101 (Nov 30, 2008)

Must be true, wife's from Columbia City. Said she played in waist high grass as a kid with no problems. If you even look at grass above your ankles here, you are going to have chiggers heading north to the land of the privates.


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## prairie (Jun 20, 2008)

haybaler101 said:


> Just how far north do chiggers go?


We have them here in NE Nebraska. My son and wife seem to be bothered by them much more than our two daughters and myself. Mosqiutos_(spelling?)_ and buffalo gnats bother them worse also.

Have a friend who lives in the Wilmar MN area, and he has them in his area. They do seem to be more prevalent the farther south you go though.

Some of my seed business comrades in the Dakotas and Canada, buy Kansas smooth brome seed. They don't like to take delivery and clean it until winter sets in, as then the mites are either dead or dormant. Some workers in seed cleaning facilities have ended up in the hospital with severe allergic reactions.


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## sedurbin (May 30, 2009)

> Only person I personally know of who's had em, was my Uncle Dave and he picked em up south of Indy during Bean Blossom Boogie.


I suspect you could pick up something far worse than chiggers at a Bean Blossom Boogie. ;-)


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