Itchy Pest Conditions of the Skin

Pests can be small animals or plants that can cause many harmful effects to humans, properties, food, and many other things. Mites are some of these pests. They are tiny arachnids, most being less than one millimeter in length, making them easy to overlook. Although most mites don’t spread diseases, some species thrive on human skin and can cause intense itching. 

These critters that feed on your blood and cause your skin to develop some itchy rashes are known as parasitic mites. In fact, one of the most common skin disorders in children, scabies, is caused by sarcoptic itch mites. This mite isn’t the only one that can cause severe itching on your skin. There are a couple of mites besides the itch mite that you have to look out for, so here are some of the most common parasitic mites, along with the symptoms they cause and the treatment they require:

Scabies: Parasitic Mites on Humans

The itch mite, also known as Sarcoptes scabiei, is a mite that causes scabies when it burrows into the outermost layer of your skin and deposits its eggs. It’s a contagious disease that mostly transmits through direct, prolonged physical contact with infected people. These mites cause extreme itch when they move around within your skin, and at first glance, it may look and feel like an allergic reaction. These mites are almost too tiny to be seen by the naked eye, being just 0.5mm in length. 

Scabies’ symptoms tend to show between four and six weeks from when they bury if it’s the first time you’re infested. During reinfestation, the symptoms can appear quickly, usually between one and four days. Common symptoms are the appearance of rashes and an agonizing itching that can get considerably worse at night. A scabies rash has the appearance of blisters or pimples, and if you continuously scratch the area, you may cause an infection. 

Itch mites can burrow anywhere in the body, but it prefers some spots, such as between the fingers, elbows, armpits, waist, wrists, and genitals. In young children, it can also appear on their neck, head, face, and palms.

Scabies isn’t an infection that can go away on its own, but there are plenty of ways you can deal with the infestation, with the downside that everyone who lives with you must submit to treatment to eradicate it. This is because even if they may not be showing symptoms, it’s likely they might be infected as well. The most common scabies treatment involves applying prescription ointments, creams, or lotions directly on the skin. You put on the cream or lotion in the entirety of your body, washing it off after leaving it on between 8 and 14 hours. Some common creams, lotions, and ointment are permethrin, benzyl benzoate, sulfur, and lindane.

There is also an aggressive oral medication called ivermectin that’s reserved for severe cases that don’t see improvement after treatment or crusted scabies. The latter is an extreme case that may appear in people with weak immune systems and requires quick treatment.

Chiggers

Chiggers, like many other mites, are incredibly tiny, but their bite is pretty powerful. They have many names, harvest mites, red bugs, scrub-itch mites, and Trombiculidae, among some others, and they only bite you when they’re on the larva stage. These critters are most commonly found in tall weed and grass, waiting for the opportunity to catch someone. Other places you might find them are berry patches and woodlands.

When these mites latch onto you and bite you, the extreme itchy feeling comes between a couple of hours to a day or two. The chiggers prefer areas of the body that are moist and warm, and they can stay on you for a long time. Chigger bites inject saliva that hardens the place they bit and creates a tube from which they feed for a period of up to four days before detaching.

Usually, the most common symptom that chiggers cause is an insanely itchy feeling, which can worsen with an infection if you scratch it too much. Other than that, they leave a red, itchy welt when they fall from your skin that can heal by itself between one and three weeks.

As the chiggers don’t burrow into the skin, the best and easiest way to treat chigger bites is to take a good hot shower and soap repeatedly. Doing that can dislodge most of the mites, but the tubes they created when they bit you remain, which causes itching. You can apply creams to relieve yourself from it or take antihistamines. Of course, laundering the clothes you wore when the chiggers got on in hot, soapy water is also essential.

Bird Mites

Bird mites are tiny arachnid pests that, as their name implies, feed on birds. Occasionally, they manage to get indoors, where they constantly try to bite humans and pets. While it may be a nuisance, they cannot procure what they need to survive from them, meaning they only live for a couple of days in homes and up to some weeks with truly ideal conditions. 

The symptoms from a bird mite bite are similar to the other parasitic mites, but the itching isn’t as extreme. However, it can still be quite severe at times. Their bites are harmless unless you scratch yourself to the point of breaking your skin, in which case you may contract a bacterial infection.

Getting rid of the source of the mites is the best way to deal with them. The nesting site can be in various places of your home, so hiring someone to remove it is ideal, but you can do it yourself using appropriate equipment. Besides that, scrubbing your skin and washing your hair eradicates any mites that may have gotten on your skin.

Takeaway About Itchy Pest Conditions of the Skin

Parasitic mites cause a troublesome itch that can last for a while, but most of these aren’t particularly harmful to your health. The only real danger is if you scratch yourself to the point of breaking your skin, which may make you develop an infection. Other than that, if you have an itchy skin condition that was brought about by a mite pest, try to avoid scratching too much and follow the proper treatment procedures to get rid of the mites.

 If you’re looking for the right team to handle the issue for you, Synergy² is here to help. We provide trusted services throughout the area, so contact us for the best pest control services around.