Think twice before buying pigs ears

Bumbleroot

Hi Everyone,

My kitchen has become infested with tiny almost microscopic mites that were transported into my kitchen via some pigs ears that I had bought for the dog(one has been in the back of the press for about 6 months).
The mites are called flour mites, they are tiny grey/white things which look like a tiny crumb until you lok a bit closer & it moves.
I have tried everything to get rid of them including milton, bleach, dettol, steam, blow torch, hoover & 5 cans of fly/insect spray. It's 10 days since I discovered the infestation & they still remain, though I think I've killed off most of them. i think the remaining ones are babies which have hatched fom eggs that are probably in the creavices of the presses.

Has anyone ever come across these mites & how did you get rid of them. Needless to say I'll never be buying pigs ears or treats for the poor dog again

00112984

Ugh- sounds horrible!

How do you know it was the pig ear, though? I don't let them into the house anyway because they freak me out- especially when you can see the little hairs on them. Ugh.

Do a Kim and Aggie on it and bleach everywhere! Wipe some tea-tree oil around a bit too; natural disinfectant and repell insects.

I think you'll probably have to dump most of the contents of your cupboard. Apart from flour, sugar, bread, rice, pasta etc, they also live in tea (bags and loose), in crisps, flour and corn tortillas, cereals. Actually, pretty much everything. Double-bag the rubbish and get rid of it immediately. You'll probably need to spend a few weeks bleaching/tea-treeing the area so you can get rid of the eggs and larvae.

Don't envy you, have the heebi-jeebies even thinking about them.

Oh, and give your vet a ring and see what you can do about making sure your dog's coat isn't infected. I don't know if those mites can live on dogs but I'll willing to bet they can.

joyce2009

ahhhhhhhh you offically freaked me out,,,i dont like pigs ears anyway but my god that is horrible.:eek:
I'm not squimish but the thought of those things crawling around on the food is awfull.

fishfoodie

Couldn't you just microwave the ears for a minute once you get them to make sure there's no nasties on them ?

I doubt it'll make much difference to them otherwise

Bumbleroot

Thanks Guys,

I emptied out my kitchen last Sat & hoovered out all the presses. I threw out all food only keeping stuff in jars & tins. Everything is in boxes in the sitting room.(it's some mess)
I'm putting it down to the pigs ear even though I've no actual proof that they came from it but that press was the most infested all the stuff in it looked like it had a light coating of red dust but upon closer inspection it was millions of these mites covering everything.
I have a 7 week old baby & I'm totally freaked out that they're crawling on her but she's happy out thank god. It's really starting to get me down now. Don't know what else to do apart from call out Rentokil but they'll prob just spray the kitchen anyway & charge a fortune

Enii

Bumbleroot wrote: »

Thanks Guys,

I emptied out my kitchen last Sat & hoovered out all the presses. I threw out all food only keeping stuff in jars & tins. Everything is in boxes in the sitting room.(it's some mess)

Throw out the bag in your vacuum cleaner - they are probably still alive in the bAG.

arybvtcw0eolkf

How is this insect infestation anything to do with pigs ear's?.

.

r3nu4l

Hi bumbleroot, first off. Don't panic (I sound like the Hitchhiker's guide there!)

Secondly, I assume that you bathe your baby every now and then, yes? If the answer is positive, then your baby is not mite infested

It can take some time to get rid of mites but the best answer is to keep doing what you are doing now. Every day, spray with disinfectant, leave it for a minute, then wipe and dry. Repeat twice a day.

If you're vaccum cleaner is bagless then when you empty the container, wipe the inside with disinfectant. Don;t just clean the press, clean any shelves or surfaces underneath it.

Finally, even if you do eat product with mites in it (sounds gross), they won't harm your health. Some people who eat really heavily infested foodstuffs can have some minor inflammation and irritation of the bowels (the squits ) but most people wouldn't dream of eating heavily infested food anyway

Keep at it, keep your cupboard doors open as that allows ventilation and light to get in. These little feckers don't like either of those things.

Just keep it up and you'll be alright.

They may have been in your flour. If you do buy flour in future, seal it in a container between use, don't buy it from a shop where the stock turnover is slow and just check the bag every so often by heaping a spoon of flour onto some foil and leave it for a minute. If there are mites in it you will see their trails as they move through the flour

00112984

fishfoodie wrote: »

Couldn't you just microwave the ears for a minute once you get them to make sure there's no nasties on them ?

Or put them into a bag and into the freezer for 24 hours. Freezing kills the little blighters.

hardtrainer

The mites most likely didn't come with the pigs ears, but leaving the pigs ear in the back of the cupboard for 6 months allowed the mites to multiply like crazy. The life cycle is quite quick, new mites hatch every 3-5 days so you have to continually wipe the inside of the cupboard to get any freshly hatched mites before they begin to lay fresh eggs. Keep everything in the cupboards in airtight containers and the mites will be gone in a few weeks. They're no harm to you or your baby and they can't live on your dogs coat, so don't worry there. You can get some vapona (insect killer that looks like an airfreshner) and leave it in the press for a week with nothing else in there (i.e. remove all food) and that should kill them all quickly. Then clean all the surfaces well and allow it to air for 24 hours and you'll be good to go.

Fajitas!

00112984 wrote: »

Or put them into a bag and into the freezer for 24 hours. Freezing kills the little blighters.

Unfortunately, a lot of the time, freezing won't kill the eggs.

You know that Mr. Sheen furniture polish? It's probably the most effective thing you can use to kill mites/ants/bugs - give it a go

Bumbleroot

Thanks guys for all the suggestions I guess it will just take a bit of time before they starve to death!!
It said on he net that the mites can be found in dog food & treats so that's why I thought that where they came from as it was the only food source in that press.
Does anyone know where to buy that vapona thing it sounds good. At least the winter is coming so the cold will prob kill any stragglers off. The infestation probably got really bad during the humid conditions during the summer. I was in hospital for the last 6 weeks of pregnancy(July & August) so that's when infestation prob got really bad as very little cleaning etc was done by hubby.
Didn't know that about Mr Sheen where did you hear that? It would be a more pleasant smell than inhaling fly spray!!!

cotton

I doubt they came from the pigs ears, more than likely they are flour mites or something like them. Do they look like these? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acarus_siro
Although pigs ears in the back of the press will have helped the blighters along their way.

Have you tried boiling hot water & biological washing powder? I don't think any mite can withstand being boiled, I hope not!

convert

I really really doubt that these mites came from pigs ears. I had them in a house I used to rent and it turns out that they came from flour (one of the girls who lived there had left a bag of flour in her press for months (if not over a year) and hadn't bothered to clean her shelf, so these mites grew and spread through the whole press. No matter what we did, we couldn't get rid of them - tried bleach, milton, disinfectant, all types of cleaners, etc. I ended up just using jars and containers to store all my food.

I think the secret is to continually clean the press every day so as to break the cycle, in addition to not leaving any food in the press for so long!