Are These Mites?

by qwerty Mon 29 Jan 2018, 3:20 am

Hey! I was cleaning a popsicle stick house yesterday and there were some crumbs stuck in the crevices of it because my mouse eats in there pretty often, so I hit it on the ground to try and shake them out. And then these tiny bugs the size of a grain of sand fell out! So I get a lens from a laser pointer and attach it to my phone camera to see one of them magnified. It looks like a mite to me and a few other people, but I'm still not sure. It would make sense though because, for the past few months, she has been itching a lot. When I first noticed this itching I thought maybe it was normal and I was just worrying too much since I saw no reason for it. She has no hair loss, scabs, or reddened skin like a lot of mice with mites do. What do you think, are they mites? And if they are WHAT DO I DO??? I know I wrote too much, but I'm really panicky right now because I don't deal well with insects and its 3 in the morning, I can't sleep, and I haven't started my history essay yet, please help!

by AnonymousMouseOwner Mon 29 Jan 2018, 5:34 am

I have no idea what a mite looks like up close, so I couldn't tell you if that is one or not, but I can tell you that mites can usually be easily treated with ivermectin, as long as it isn't a severe infestation or anything. There's instructions about this here (scroll down a bit): https://www.petmousefanciers.com/t17-itching-hair-loss-and-parasites

You can buy that at most farm supply stores Smile

by CallaLily Mon 29 Jan 2018, 5:38 am

Since they were near the food area, they're probably just grain mites. Icky but not harmful. Check your food container. Many people put new bags of food straight away into the freezer to try to prevent them. They do look like little moving grains of sand to the naked eye.

But it never hurts to treat your mice just in case. Most here treat all new mice as a preventative and then retreat later when needed if they see excessive scratching or thinning fur. You'll find info on treatment here: https://www.petmousefanciers.com/t17-itching-hair-loss-and-parasites. The other option, if treating yourself makes you uncomfortable, is a vet trip where they'll do a skin scraping to check for mites and treat if needed.

by qwerty Mon 29 Jan 2018, 6:10 am

Ok so they aren't hard to get rid of? I didn't expect that. I'll order ivermectin then. Also, if they are mites and she had them for multiple months, would that have caused any damage to her health? And do I need to throw out all of the wooden toys?

by CallaLily Mon 29 Jan 2018, 6:26 am

She'll likely be just fine after treatment. You can instead spray the wooden toys with the prepared ivermectin, just let them sit dry before putting them back in the tank/cage.

by qwerty Mon 29 Jan 2018, 6:36 am

Got it, thanks for all the help!

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