HELP - HAY MITES - BITES

[Sandy S.]

WE JUST IN THE 3 WEEKS BOUGHT AROUND 400 BALES OF HAY AND PUT IT UP IN THE BARN. WE NOTICED THE NEXT DAY WE HAD A LOT OF BITES ALL OVER US. THEN THEY KINDA CAME TO A HEAD. IT HAS TAKEN ABOUT 3 WEEKS OF THESE BITES TO HEAL SOME SEEMED TO HURT AND THEY WOULD ITCH LIKE CRAZY, AND STILL I AM FEELING CRAWLY THINGS ON ME EVERY TIME I FEED HAY. HOW DO YOU GET RID OF THIS. AT FIRST WE THOUGHT CHIGGERS BUT NOW I HAVE HEARD OF HAY MITES OR SOMETHING.

HELP, WHAT DO WE DO, WILL THEY GET ON THE HORSES, I FIGURE IF THEY ARE ON US THEY WILL GET ON THE HORSES, CAN THEY GET INTO THE HOUSE AND BEDDING OFF OF US. I JUST HAVE THE HEEBIE JEEBIES AND FEEL LIKE THEY ARE CRAWLING ON ME ALL THE TIME.

 

[Marty]

Sandy Go to your pharmacy and bring a sample of hay with you in a baggy. Show it to the RX guy. We had that here some years back and it was chiggers or ants or something.. I thought at first we just had hay rash, but nope, it was some sort of buggies. It could have been something else but that was our best guest.

Usually you can get instant relief from the AVEENO products there at the drug store. Also calamine and washing in brown soap and maybe taking Benedryl.,.

I would not even feed it. It would probably get all over the horses, and they would also injest them probably too. Maybe, maybe not but who the heck needs this? Besides, you'd still have to be handleing it daily and you'll get them all over again. I'd have that hay returned. I'd get it out of where you stored it and clean that storage out very good.

 

[justaboutgeese]

We had a helper here once who said their were bugs in the hay, well there are always bugs in the hay when its bailed. Everything from grasshoppers, bees, and all sorts of other things. Walk through a hay field and just look at the bugs that live there. Or you could just ask Marty. She advocates keeping pastures and grass well trimed just because bugs live in it. But this helper said her (and her friends) arms were all bitten up. Not wanting to take my word for it she trotted off to the ER. What it was were marks from the bales as they were handled using the forearms rather than muscles to lever the bales into place. The cut side of the bales had left multiple marks on the forearms. Granted it looks kind of sore an gross what she had was quite mild. Most people see it as a badge of honor from doing an honest days work. If hay can be grown without bugs and a person wants to give me an education I am always willing to learn. But I will repeat that virtually all hay has many many critters in it everything from thousands of bugs, groundhogs, snakes, frog and toads, birds plus even an occasional house cat or skunk. I do not see how it could possibly be stopped. I am a careful equipment operator but mother nature adds the bugs and small animals that come in the hay bales not the operator.

 

[Sandy S.]

We have put up about 700 bales of hay for the last 5 years in our barn and this is the first time we have ever had this. They were definetly bites. They were not on our arms where we handled it. I I know hay prickleys (as I call them) because I get that on me all the time. Doesn't bother me a bit. They were on our stomach, butt, back, shoulders. And I still keep getting new bites off and on after I feed.

There is no way to take the hay back. It cannot be replaced, hay is suppose to be harder to find in our area, no rain for a while. Is there any safe spray or something.

Heck, I know there is all kinds of bugs in hay , I have found it all. Hate the spiders the worse, but what ever is in this sure don't want it again.

 

[USMCshamusmom]

we are in the middle of a drought here (at least until yesterday when we got a blessed half inch of much needed rain!), and chiggers in the area(central illinois) are really bad. They are desperate for food/a drink of blood.... whoever comes into contact with them is the victim... they burrow under the skin and lay their eggs, then die. Most everyone has an allergic reaction to them the same as for mosquito bites, horse, human, or bird. resulting in violent itching, I think it is worse than flea bites! they are a type of mite.... Frost will kill them, and they tend to die off once there are a few good rains, but in dry weather they live for a long time... and we all suffer!

flyspray will kill them, or most things you use as skeeter or fly repellent for you or your horses will kill them too, but of course all that is off limits for spraying on your hay.... not really much you can do about hay or straw bedding with them except wait a while and hope the heat of the hay curing will kill most of them.... I have scars on my ankles this year from all the scratching... I keep forgetting to put my repellent on when I walk through the grass lawn to go to the barn and do chores....

 

[ChrystalPaths]

No question here, I'd get it gone in a heartbeat.

 

[Marty]

Or you could just ask Marty. She advocates keeping pastures and grass well trimed just because bugs live in it.

HEHE Vic, well sorta: We get fleas and ticks in the backyard really really bad, usually around June and July. They get so bad in fact that when we go outside, to sit in the yard or barbeque our legs are covered and we have to brush them off before going back into the house. So we do keep the lawns mowed down short short there. We used to treat the yard but guess we forgot these last couple of years.

Pastures we do keep mowed down, which does help with a lot of those swarming things we get up here that live on the grass tops in June/July and bite bad usually after a lot of rains, forget what they are called now, but we don't mow the fields really short like the yard.

Oh back to the hay, I usually break out in a rash but never got what Sandy is describing but my son Dan did. One time I found body parts of a ground hog or something in it. That was so gross. I died.

 

[JO~*]

A number of years ago when I worked at a feed store we had some straw come in with some kind of mites. All the guys that worked in the hay had bites. I think the boss got them all quill sp? lotion.