Bird Mite Emergency Solved in Belmar, NJ
Challenge
Insects don’t take off on weekends or holidays and neither does Cowleys. This past Sunday, on Memorial Day week-end, I was on-call to handle any pest emergencies. When on-call, I’m only a cell phone away to come in ASAP to handle any customer emergencies. Cowleys just received a call from a somewhat frantic customer in Belmar, NJ, that his own bathroom was occupied by some unexpected guests. According to him, an army of small insects had infested his bathroom and were crawling around all over, even on and around the toilet!
Solution
I arrived at his house immediately to resolve the problem. I inspected the bathroom, and soon knew exactly what little nuisance insects I was dealing with: bird mites (sometimes referred to by pest control technicians as “bird lice”). Technically, these guys are arthropods — animals with exoskeletons like spiders, centipedes, and crustaceans. They are most active during spring and early summer. Mites are parasites that feed off blood. Bird mites, as their name suggests, feed off the blood of birds, and often, their hosts are common nuisance birds like starlings, sparrows, and pigeons. Bird mite infestations in homes result when birds manage to gain entry into some cavity of the home to nest and roost. The nesting materials and the unfeathered baby birds are an ideal environment for bird mites to thrive and, as this homeowner found out, their populations can explode quickly. As happened here, once the birds leave the nest, these mites (often, tens of thousands of them!) are left behind, Without a suitable host, they leave the nest in search of a new host. With bird mite infestations inside dwellings, these mites will bite the human occupants. However, unlike bed bugs, they cannot survive on human blood and will die in a few weeks. Bird mite bites can cause severe irritation with rashes and intense itching. it’s a good thing this homeowner postponed use of that toilet.
Where there’s bird mites there were once birds, and I immediately located the source of the mites. There was a bird nest inside the ductwork of the bathroom exhaust fan above the ceiling. The exhaust vent cover was missing and some birds decided to exploit the opportunity and build a nest in a nice warm private cavity of the home. I vacuumed up the mites and treated the area with a residual aerosol that would kill any mites that I may have missed. I also caulked the edges of the sheetrock to block their entry. into the bathroom We will be returning shortly to remove the now-vacant bird nest, sanitize the duct work, and install a new vent cover. The homeowner was grateful that someone from Cowleys was able to quickly respond to the problem on a Holiday weekend, and I was more than happy to help.
