Yikes, Straw mites in the new hay. What to do?

Hey horse people! The 8 large round bales of hay are infested with straw mites. Every time I handle the hay, I have bites up my arms and if I do not wear boots with pants tucked tightly inside, then the bites are also on my legs. Those mites cannot be seen and crawl into tight spots so waistbands, sock tops, skin folds, etc are where they bite. Apparently the mites cannot live on humans, but they can make life miserable. Two questions:
Are they biting the horses and if so can anything be done?
What do I do about them? Will the new hay infest the farm forever?

I have never heard of a straw mite! Never.

What would I do? Being a believer in trying all sorts of stupid things, I would throw a great big tarp over the bales and toss a couple NoPest strips in with them for a few days and see if that nuked the little buggers.

My thinking would be that the NoPEst strip would leave less residue than a can of RAID, or other noxious substance that you don't really want to feed to your critters.

Lighting the bales on fire might also work.

Have you seen them? Could it be something else causing the irritation? If I didn't know I was allergic to alfalfa, I don't think I would have known what caused the blistering on my legs last month.

However, I do lean towards what Uno suggests, especially the bale burning. That sounds very effective, Uno. Your most natural solution as well.

Yes, I agree too! Burn them all.

You might even be able to see the glow on the horizon, DWD!

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Come on, Higgins! Burn books?!? What else would you do if they were infested with book mites? Burn them! Burn them all, I say!

Uno, have you been watching a little too much Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Next I expect you to call for The Fat Ewe to burn her turkeys!

Oops, wrong thread. And I am sure The Fat Ewe cooks her turkeys to perfection. No burning allowed!

I am sure this is the last time Fat Ewe will bother asking for help. She probably went away disappointed. But to be completely serious (as serious as I can be thinking about Monthy Python) I wonder what a straw mite is and if I have them and maybe don't know it!

In all seriousness I would tarp something and toss in a few Pest Strips. If I ever get a case of head lice in the house all bedding and such will go into sealed garbage bags with a NoPEst strip included. I cannot say for sure if it would leave a residue in the hay, but not as much as any other pesticide might, I think.

Of all that banter, I am not sure there is a whole lot of "advice" but I did get a few laughs, thank ewe.
Straw mites are terrible. They live in the grass and feed on bug, mostly beetles. When the grass is harvested, so are they. I recall a post where Sue was covered with what looked like scratches and possible small bites. If the bites were itchy, likely they were straw/hay mites.
Burning the bales is not an option for several reasons. They cost money - 50 dollars a bale delivered times 8.
I do not own a tractor and the proximity to trees and my house makes fires out of the question.
What would the horses eat all winter?
Mites can be dormant over long periods of time. I wonder if the no pest strip would have any effect on the mites. I can see them burrowing deep into the bale and not being much affected in their hibernation state.

So, I guess I am faced with using the bales, but I wonder then if I have introduced the mite population to the farm and if so, is it forever?

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My reaction was an allergic one, not caused by mites. As I mentioned in my first post on this thread and in the original post, I was having an allergic reaction to the alfalfa in the bales.

There are so many things in straw and hay that could cause a reaction. Why do you think mites? Have you seen them?

The mites cannot be seen with the naked eye, at least not my eyes. They crawled up my sleeves and into the folds of the skin, at the elbow joint, underarm and under my undergarment. That is typical of the mites.. to bite in constricted places. If it was an allergic reaction, my skin would have had to have come in contact with the hay and it did not. I am allergic to hay and will break out as you did Sue, if I am exposed to direct contact, so no matter the season, I am completely covered and have tight sleeves and collars, tucked shirts and boots. The mites have attacked me legs when I was in shoes, but have not done so when I am in boots with pants tucked in. I have been observing the dogs because they are sleeping on the hay a great deal and I do not see them scratching. Maybe they are not sensitive to the bites or they do not bite fur animals. They are gross at any rate though. Ewwwwwe.

Maybe its the aliens coming at night doing experiments!

What? .... It could be.

I asked Farmer Husband and he suggests burning them as well. Sometimes ya gotta take your lumps.

For moving round bales, if you don't have a tractor but you do have something that can pull, if you push a rod/pipe/pole through the middle of the bale (obviously this works better on soft core or loosely baled rounds), and attached a sling on either side back to your pulling machine, you can kind of pull and roll it along to where you want it to go.

We call that "the toilet paper approach".

heda gobbler wrote:We call that "the toilet paper approach".

Only if you cut the twine first.

I would be getting proof of the mites, calling your supplier of hay, and demanding they come get their critter infested hay off my farm and refunding my money.

Failing that, I would burn it as well. Bugs are not welcome here.

The man whom I brought the bales from is willing to take them back. He is a good man. He said he has never heard of straw itch mites and I am sure thinks I have made this up. On the wet coast where I am from, they are certainly more prevalent than in Alberta and the reason is likely because they live in moist environments. It stands to reason then, since this year there was plenty of rain, that the mites would explode in certain areas since they like thick moist grass. Then when the grass is cut for hay, the population goes along with it.
The best control, I agree, is to burn the hay. Fortunately, I will only have some to burn and the rest can be distributed to cows in a field somewhere where human hands never touch it.

Been pondering this. IT's a bit of a mystery, to my mind. Maybe less of a mystery to The Fat Ewe.

Many of us have never heard of this. I've been around hay all my life, never heard of straw mites. Sounds like many others are equally baffled.

Higgins posted some links. The first two links are from sources in HOT countries. The third link is based out of the US, where there are also HOT areas. Last link, I was not able to determine the location. This makes me wonder if straw mites are NOT native to our cooler climate. If they occur alright, but not here.

This is not to say that you don't have strawmites. I think one would have to search the British Columbia or Alberta govt websites for known pests. Because if it isn't listed, and you've only read about it on a New Zealand or AUstralian site...I think this is not a closed case yet.

It would be interesting to take a sample to a local college or highschool science teacher and ask if they can find and identify anything. From the non-response of the rest of us and the lack of LOCAL evidential support, I would think you cannot yet conclude that this is indeed a straw mite. It's a MYSTERY!

Uno, I submitted a query to Alberta Government Agriculture and am hoping for a reply on Monday. The mites flourish in hot humid conditions. This summer, we had those conditions here. If the mites are really in existence, from what I have read, they are terrible for all animals, not just humans, and are the culprits of horse itch, a problematic condition of free ranged pasture horses in lush hot conditions.

Are your animals showing any signs of these "horrible" mites? Are they scratching them selves raw against posts, trees, etc. like moose with ticks? If not, than whats the big deal? With the evening frosts and snow we've had, do you really think there is an issue with these bugs? Even if that is what caused your rash (which I still doubt was the cause for your "scabies" looking sores), I'm sure getting your hay fella to take the bales back is going to create more problems for you now and in the future! He's probably already rolling his eyes over this!

The Fat Ewe wrote:If the mites are really in existence, from what I have read, they are terrible for all animals, not just humans, and are the culprits of horse itch, a problematic condition of free ranged pasture horses in lush hot conditions.

If this is the case, then I would caution whoever plans to spread this mite infested hay in a pasture to reconsider. If you infect a pasture with mites, it may become problematic for generations to come. I am reminded of a saying that goes something like this: We don't inherit land from our ancestors, we are custodians of the land for our children. ( Or something akin to that.)

Fat Ewe, I hope you hear something back. If not, don't dismiss the idea of local highschool science teacher. Once we found a snake that we had NEVER seen in all our lives here. Put it in a bucket and took it to the highschool where science geek was thrilled to get a real live mystery to bring to his students.

Turns out it was a rubber boa, NOT native to this area but imported in goods. So...you might find help in the most unlikely places. Let us know what you find out.

Funny, we had a similar question about rubber boas - a local boy found one near Alexis Creek (east of here) and no one had a book that showed it - but the local science teacher identified it as a rubber boa, in the north part of its range. I talked to Dick Canning who is one of the great authorities on BC nature and he confirmed they are found this far north but only in dry areas that are hot in summer. So it may not have come too far Uno!

And I too have never heard of straw mites, but then so much of life is a mystery to me. The more I learn the more I see how ignorant I am!

Some of my ponies came from Texas where they had sweet itch from chiggers, no mention of straw mites.

Glad we don't have chiggers here. They are REALLY nasty. Burrow under the skin and itch like crazy. Horses go bald scratching.