Content

• To step
• Part 1 of 3: Avoid areas with harvest mites
• Part 2 of 3: Keeping harvest mites off your body
• Part 3 of 3: Keeping your garden free of harvest mites
• Tips
• Warnings

Harvest mites or August mites are not insects, but the larvae of mites. They live outside in places that resemble the places where ticks live. Harvest mites, however, do not carry diseases like ticks do, so you do not get sick if you are bitten by harvest mites. The places where you were bitten itchy and you suffer from it for a long time. Taking certain precautions when outside can help you avoid getting bitten by harvest mites. Harvest mites are usually too small to see with the naked eye, so the best way to avoid being bitten by them is to learn about their habitat and behavior.

To step

Part 1 of 3: Avoid areas with harvest mites

1. Avoid places where harvest mites are common. In the Netherlands, harvest mites occur mainly in late summer and autumn in moist soil in forests. Harvest mites like heat and moisture. Avoid walking through shrubs, tall grass, and areas of weeds. Avoid wetlands, swamps, and wooded areas with rotting leaves and heaps of branches.
   • Harvest mites often sit in undergrowth and low bushes waiting to attach to small animals. These are their natural hosts. Stay away from shrubs and creepers that can brush against your body, so that harvest mites get on your skin.
   • Harvest mites rarely move far from the hatching sites. You can therefore find groups of harvest mites in damp and warm places.
2. Sit strategically. During the summer months you should not sit or lie on the floor itself. Instead, take a folding chair or blanket with you to sit on. Also, do not sit on tree trunks or logs. Instead, sit on a dry and warm object, such as a rock heated by the sun.
3. Plan your activities when the harvest mites are least active. You are most likely to be bitten on afternoons in the spring and summer, when the ground temperature is between 25 and 30 ° C. Harvest mites are not active at a temperature lower than 16 ° C, and die when the temperature drops below 6 ° C. During the harvest mine season, plan your outdoor activities on days with cool or dry weather.

Part 2 of 3: Keeping harvest mites off your body

1. Dress appropriately to avoid getting bitten. Wear long pants and a long-sleeved shirt when going to areas where harvest mites live. Densely woven fabrics with few openings offer the most protection. Tuck your shirt into your pants to cover your bare skin. Harvest mites often bite the areas around your waist. Harvest mites also target the thin skin on your ankles, around your groin, under your arms, and at the back of your knees, so keep those areas covered.
   • Wear shoes and socks to keep the harvest mites from biting your feet and ankles. If you are going to a place where the risk of being bitten by harvest mites is particularly high, such as a swampy area or a swamp, tuck your trouser legs into high socks so that no harvest mites can creep up on your ankles.
2. Use an insect repellent as a barrier. Buy an insect repellent that contains N, N-diethyl-meta-toluene amide (DEET) or permethrin. You can buy these products at the drugstore and camping equipment stores. Spray an insect repellent containing DEET along the top of your socks, around your waist and on your ankles to prevent harvest mites from getting under your clothes.
   • You can apply DEET to your clothing or skin, but you should wash it off your skin as soon as possible. You should only spray an agent containing permethrin on your clothing.
   • Follow the instructions carefully when using permethrin and DEET. Your skin may burn or itch if permethrin gets on it, and DEET will have the same effect if you leave it on your skin for hours. It is not known whether DEET and permethrin are carcinogenic to humans or not.
   • Look for lotions and sprays specifically designed to repel harvest mites, as well as ticks and mosquitoes.
3. Apply sulfur. If you don't trust the chemicals in DEET and permethrin, you can also sprinkle sulfur powder on your clothes. However, this does smell like rotten eggs. You can buy sulfur powder at pharmacies, garden centers or health food stores.
4. Shower after being exposed to harvest mites. Shortly after visiting a place where harvest mites may live, take a warm shower or bath to rinse away any mites that have attached themselves to your body. Contrary to popular belief, harvest mites do not burrow under your skin and can easily be brushed or washed off your body. You can also loosen the harvest mites by rubbing your skin thoroughly with a towel.
   • Wash your clothes after being in a place where harvest mites live. You need to remove the mites that are still on your clothing and wash out the insect repellent you applied.

Part 3 of 3: Keeping your garden free of harvest mites

1. Keep your garden well maintained. Cut long grass so that no harvest mites can live in it. Keeping your grass short allows the sun to penetrate the lawn and dry out the grass and soil. Harvest mites like moist places and avoid heat.
2. Treat your lawn with a mild insecticide. Put a few milliliters of dish soap in 4 liters of water and apply this mixture to areas near shrubs to reduce the population of harvest mites and other pests. Avoid overusing chemical pesticides containing permethrin, cyfluthrin, diazinon, and carbaryl, as they can completely wipe out healthy insect and animal populations.
3. Keep rodents out of your yard. Harvest mites live on rodents and small animals that live in bushes and piles of wood. Remove all shrubs and all wood waste from your garden. Use gardening gloves and wash your skin with soapy water after gardening. Set up a fence if there are many animals entering your yard that host harvest mites.
   • Keep the lids of your trash cans tight so that small animals don't come over them.

Tips

• Some people think that dark colors attract harvest mites and insects. Wearing light-colored clothing during the summer months can help avoid harvest mites, and you will stay cool when you go outside. You will also be able to see insects through it more quickly.
• You are unlikely to get harvest mites from your pet.

Warnings

• A harvest mite bite rarely causes more than mild discomfort if you treat it with hydrocortisone or calamine lotion after detection. Do not scratch the areas where you have been bitten, as this can cause a bacterial infection.
• If you develop a fever or swelling after being bitten, or if you are allergic to hydrocortisone or calamine lotion, see your doctor right away to treat the bites.