# Mites



## Satin mouse (May 25, 2012)

Hi how do mice get mites? where do they come from?


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

They can come from wild meeces (or other wild things, probably). Some folks think they can come in bedding, grain, other food mixes.

They are annoying and very bad for meeces; be glad they can't live off you, but they will take a wee taste if they should find themselves on your bod. The bites are like cat and dog flea bites: if you scratch them, they get a lot worse and can last for a couple of weeks. I use two different products to keep myself, my meeces, their bedding and tanks form being infested constantly.

There have been a couple of times when I bragged, "My mousery is mite free TOTALLY!!"

And it may have been so, for a day or three, or a week or three.

I tried freezing both bedding and grain...I got steel wire shelving to prevent wild meeces from climbing like they could do so easily on the wooden shelving I was using. I've tried everything I could think of. Now I just check for 'cooties' every time I change a tank, and I always check mousies before I put them together to breed, and again when the doe is showing. Mites can really mess up babies and stunt their growth.

One of the products I use is lageled for use for cats and dogs in one size and for reptiles in the giant gallon jug. Weird, huh?


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## Satin mouse (May 25, 2012)

Ok thanks you for the info, its just showed up on three of my mice who will be treated today for it, they sre in different cages and keep in a room in my house, i only have rabbits but ive heard they can come from flies?


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

I don't think so, but Ogden Nash wrote:

Bigger fleas have little fleas with littler fleas to bite 'em
And so it goes and on and on and on ad infinitum


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## Velvet_Meece (Apr 20, 2009)

I've had more issues with lice, they really cause the mice problems and the rogue rat i recently had in my shed passed them onto everything. I'm a little while clear of them now after several treatments and cleaning everything in insecticide. (touch wood)

Mites i haven't found to be much of an issue, obviously if they are blood sucking parasites or skin dwelling mites like mange and ear mites then they need dealing with. So far i've only have mites attracted by excrement, though not for a while now.

My most recent mite breakout was in a food tub after i bought a mix that contained dried fruits like banana and i think that's where they have come from and was the fruit attracting them.
I didn't throw it away though, i used it, after all it was the food infested, not the mice and they didn't want anything to do with the mice and so never had an issue with it. Mice ate the food, mites gone, food tub clean and empty.


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## Satin mouse (May 25, 2012)

My girl was losing abit of fur on her back and she had a scab and then one of my does had the same thing, i was worried that it would get serious and really afect there health.


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## Velvet_Meece (Apr 20, 2009)

If its causing irritation and open wounds then i'd suggest treating. Most treatments will treat both mites and lice. I use Harka-mectin (ivermectin for birds) to treat lice/mites and Dyna-mite to prevent.


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## Satin mouse (May 25, 2012)

Yes i have done my friend lol


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