Tropical Rat Mite???? or Tropical Fowl Mite???

bugman

November 20th, 2008 at 12:54 am

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Mites

What the…
Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 3:55 AM
Hello.. Can you please identify this bug that we have been finding around. We have found it crawling on our body, laptop screen and even in the bathroom.
Help is required
Australia, Melbourne

tropical rat mite 300x268 Tropical Rat Mite???? or Tropical Fowl Mite???

Tropical Rat Mite, possibly

Dear Help,
We believe you probably need a true specialist for this identification, but we are leaning toward the Tropical Rat Mite, Ornithonyssus bacoti. We first located an image on BugGuide, but it is very tiny. Then we found a wonderful informative website on Biting Mites in Homes. The website states: ”
Rat and bird mite infestations occur in structures where rat or bird nests are located. Infestations are sometimes first noticed following extermination, or after the natural hosts have died or left the structure. Infestations may also occur where heavy mite infestations have developed around a rodent or bird nest. Rat mites are small, approximately the size of the period at the end of this sentence. They move actively and can be picked up with a wet finger, brush or piece of sticky tape. Distinguishing between different species of Ornithonyssus mites to determine whether birds or rodents are the likely source is difficult and requires special expertise. The best first course of action, when faced with biting mite problem is to look for all potential bird or rodent sources.”

It could also be the tropical fowl mite or bird mite (Ornithonyssus bursa). For information check out: http://www.wsahs.nsw.gov.au/icpmr/pdf/0263.pdf Good luck.
KK

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Comments 3

kkroeker wrote:
It could also be the tropical fowl mite or bird mite (Ornithonyssus bursa). For information check out: http://www.wsahs.nsw.gov.au/icpmr/pdf/0263.pdf Good luck.

KK
Posted 20 Nov 2008 at 2:30 pm ¶
bmoc wrote:
It could also be the “chicken mite”, Dermanyssus gallinae, or “swallow mite”, D. hirundinis. – Barry
Posted 04 Dec 2008 at 5:25 pm ¶
halebop wrote:
Do you own a hamster? or other small animal? I went through a terrible time trying to figure out what was biting me and they bite at night! It was a tropical rat mite diagnosed by the University of Florida. This mite needs to be killed on the animal who is the carrier. I can tell you it reproduces from a larvae, every 7 days so getting treatment for the animal is key my vet gave me drops for the hamster to take weekly this took over 6 months! I wll never buy another small animal before having a vet check.
Posted 10 May 2009 at 8:47 am ¶

Trackbacks & Pingbacks 2

From Possibly Tropical Fowl Mites from Australia | What's That Bug? on 22 Dec 2009 at 11:41 am ¶
[...] Bird Mites would be a strong possibility. In November 2008, we posted an image that might be a Tropical Fowl Mite, Ornithonyssus bursa, and we provided a link to an Australian Website on that Mite. Tropical Fowl [...]
From Biting Mites: Tropical Rat Mite or Tropical Fowl Mite??? | What's That Bug? on 17 Jun 2011 at 8:31 pm ¶
[...] will enter the home to seek a blood meal. You may see additional information on our site at this posting from our archives. There is also a very informative dialog on this BugGuide posting.0 I like [...]