Check your ear muffs...

[FlyingDutchman]

Today I was spreading manure and clearing fence lines and I just happened to switch my over the ear muffs to a different pair after a break. I have three pair and they can be laying about anywhere anytime, in the house by the desk, on the kitchen table, in the truck, on the entry hall table, in the garage. The muffs never get cleaned, go about everywhere with me outside. Always running equipment and chainsawsand have horrible tinnitus I don't want to be any worse.

Well today switching to pair no 2 I couldn't stand wearing them my face was itching and my ears were itching. Turns out pair 2 was absolutely crawling with tiny white mites. Located the other two pairs, they were also -thoroughly- infested with the mites.

A few years ago, I had an old house I tore down and rebuilt. At the same time, a friend was dealing with a bird mite infestation. I knew all the bird nests in the walls were crawling with the mites. They tried everything and ended up having to burn or throw away everything they owned. The mites are practically invisible, they bite and crawl on you when you sit still and sleep like bed bugs. And since you can't see them, they're 10 times harder to kill once an infestation starts. Don't Google it if bed bugs bother you.

So I ended up pushing over those walls and burning them. It also came with a 2 year long panic attack while I lived in the house and rebuilt it, never sure whether I had an infestation or not.

So I'm cleaning like a madman hoping to eliminate any residual ones in places the muffs might have been set over the last few weeks, or who knows how long they were in there.

 

[Mad Professor]

Today I was spreading manure and clearing fence lines and I just happened to switch my over the ear muffs to a different pair after a break. I have three pair and they can be laying about anywhere anytime, in the house by the desk, on the kitchen table, in the truck, on the entry hall table, in the garage. The muffs never get cleaned, go about everywhere with me outside. Always running equipment and chainsawsand have horrible tinnitus I don't want to be any worse.

Well today switching to pair no 2 I couldn't stand wearing them my face was itching and my ears were itching. Turns out pair 2 was absolutely crawling with tiny white mites. Located the other two pairs, they were also -thoroughly- infested with the mites.

A few years ago, I had an old house I tore down and rebuilt. At the same time, a friend was dealing with a bird mite infestation. I knew all the bird nests in the walls were crawling with the mites. They tried everything and ended up having to burn or throw away everything they owned. The mites are practically invisible, they bite and crawl on you when you sit still and sleep like bed bugs. And since you can't see them, they're 10 times harder to kill once an infestation starts. Don't Google it if bed bugs bother you.

So I ended up pushing over those walls and burning them. It also came with a 2 year long panic attack while I lived in the house and rebuilt it, never sure whether I had an infestation or not.

So I'm cleaning like a madman hoping to eliminate any residual ones in places the muffs might have been set over the last few weeks, or who knows how long they were in there.

permethrin will do them in. Might work on ear muffs as it is used to treat clothing.

 

[Mad Professor]

permethrin will do them in. Might work on ear muffs as it is used to treat clothing.

One other thought, boiling water.

I've seen those mite critters on wild turkey. Dunk the bird in scalding water for a few minutes before you pluck them. Do that with the ear muffs, the water not the plucking.

Spray down the area where you had the ear muffs stored with permethrin. Hot wash any clothes stored together.

 

[ironman_gq]

Definitely a job for permethrin, works on all those creepy crawly critters bed bugs and mites included

 

[uniballer]

A few years ago I discovered that mice had eaten the foam from one of a pair of ear muffs I had out in the barn. Now they are locked in an ammo box...

 

[The Lorax]

Good earmuffs have hygiene kits that you replace on a regular 1-2 yr basis. This keeps the muffs clean and also function better because the seal to your dome is better because the material is pliable. Most of the seals harden over time from exposure to the oils on your skin and when they are hard they don’t seal as well and let in a lot more high frequencies.


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[farmer steve]

Now I'm gonna be itchin all day.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Ticks have been known to get into ear muffs. Then they get into your ears and hair when you wear them and chow down. I hate ticks!

 

[FlyingDutchman]

I hate ticks too but, at least it's not a possible full on home infestation. The thing I'm afraid of is the truck is infested with em because the muffs are quite often in there. A good vacuuming, heat, detergent, and or alcohol will kill them too. Truck sits in the sun and is dark . Going to pick up some permethrin tonight. The lint roller is the best way to test to see if they are there. I've never seen any and continue to not see any but err on the side of caution. I vacuumed the house and wiped stuff down for 8 hours after finding them.

The ear muffs are all old anyway and probably best replaced.

 

[CentaurG2]

Give them the ozone treatment. Problem solved.



https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078P6VHYT/ref=emc_b_5_t

 

[Mad Professor]

Good earmuffs have hygiene kits that you replace on a regular 1-2 yr basis. This keeps the muffs clean and also function better because the seal to your dome is better because the material is pliable. Most of the seals harden over time from exposure to the oils on your skin and when they are hard they don’t seal as well and let in a lot more high frequencies.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What did you say? I can't hear you......

 

[Mad Professor]

I hate ticks too but, at least it's not a possible full on home infestation. The thing I'm afraid of is the truck is infested with em because the muffs are quite often in there. A good vacuuming, heat, detergent, and or alcohol will kill them too. Truck sits in the sun and is dark . Going to pick up some permethrin tonight. The lint roller is the best way to test to see if they are there. I've never seen any and continue to not see any but err on the side of caution. I vacuumed the house and wiped stuff down for 8 hours after finding them.

The ear muffs are all old anyway and probably best replaced.

TSC has 10% permethrin (Gordons), dilute 20:1 with distilled water and spray away. Works on clothes for a month

 

[Wood Doctor]

Anyone ever tried to kill a tick with a flyswatter? It cannot be done. They have to be crushed. The Devil produced them. Just MHO.

 

[Huskybill]

I like to run tics over with the wheels of my walker to hear them pop. Then I clean it up.

My two outside cats, when there inside and bug me to be petted they have a tick on them everytime. I purchased those tic twisters.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Tick-remover-tool/120321558
Don’t squeeze the tic if you do that bad black juice goes into you or your pet and causes Lyme disease. Put the tics head inside the tic twister and twist it, the tic will come right out.

 

[FlyingDutchman]

I sprayed them multiple times in place to try to knock them back before removing the items I thought were infected, but only seemed to end up with MORE mites.
I noticed that there was an old bag of cheap horse feed left over from about March. The largest concentration of them were on that (the bag was white, so harder to see them on it). So I removed the bag of feed and all the offending items. Still a bit more horse feed in there to remove but its the fresh stuff we are using now.
Its likely that they are grain mites and its possible I should have no concerns about them besides the itchies if accidentally touched and possible contamination of our other feed. But they don't care about my deltamethirn bug spray at all. Chainsaw case, a roll of tape and some concrete screws in a bubble pack covered with a raft of moving dust. Even after 6 applications of the spray they still gave 0 ****s about it.

 

[Wood Doctor]

I think every professor at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana would have told you to throw those muffs away and then buy a new pair of hearing protection muffs for a few bucks.

 

[Huskybill]

For decades I washed my hands and arms in the woods when gassing up the saws. I never had a bug problem win non ethanol fuel. With today’s ethanol fuel I’m scared to try it?

 

[super3]

This stuff works.

https://www.cedarcide.com/pest-cont...=1pj&utm_source=leaddyno&utm_medium=affiliate

 

[Urbicide]

For decades I washed my hands and arms in the woods when gassing up the saws. I never had a bug problem win non ethanol fuel. With today’s ethanol fuel I’m scared to try it?

Back when 10 to 1 was a normal mix ratio, using straight 30W motor oil, you didn't have much of an issue with mosquitoes either!

 

[FlyingDutchman]

I guess now that the offending feed is gone, so are the mites where they came from. Looks like I get to rescue my ear muffs from the barn roof.