Has anyone ever dealt with grain mites? How did you get rid of them? Will they infest hay? Do you know where they came from? Do they affect horses health? Do they die in the winter? Help!!!
Is this what you have - https://www.grainscanada.gc.ca/storage-entrepose/sip-irs/gm-cf-eng.htm
If not, there is a long list of primary and secondary pests that get into grain and, unfortunately, each grain has mites specific to it. Only way I know of getting rid of them s get rid of the grain and sent off a bug bomb in the infested area
you dispose of all of the contaminated feed and you clean the bins, etc -
sk_pacer ~ I’m sure they’re grain mites after doing extensive research. It looked exactly as described…‘greasy dust’ and it had a sweet, slightly minty smell. (I thought it might be mold or pollen, so I gave it a sniff.) The next day the patches of dust started moving. That’s a great website though!
The mites are EVERYwhere! Including in the weave of my lead ropes, the brushes in my grooming kit, fly spray bottles & on the handles of my muck fork, broom, etc.
I have a combination run-in shed with an attached feed/tack room & hay storage area. I threw anything with mites on it out into the sun. The bin will be tossed. I’m pretty sure that’s where it all started. Every nook & cranny has something crawling on it.
I went to the feed store to get another bag of grain & the bags on their shelf were crawling with these mites. The associate told me they had talked to an exterminator. He said to bomb the store. She said they can’t do that due to the other products that might affect. I called their main company. The gentleman was very nice. Will be contacting me back at some point, I was told.
I think I might have to kick my horse out of the shed for a day, seal off the open side & bomb it.
Oh, yeah…and my horse has some mysterious infection that the vet came out for… 2 weeks after buying the contaminated feed. Guttural pouch area is swollen and a nose bleed. $240 worth of anti-biotics, which also happen to have mites crawling all over the jar now. I’m at my wit’s end!
All I can say is I feel for you. Getting rid of those things is not fun - some things may have to be disposed of and burnt if possible. Some things, like the building, just cannot be cleaned and will have to be bombed - check with ag agencies for the best bomb for the job; pony will likely have to rough it for 48 - 72 hours to let the stuff do its job.
OH NO! Grain mites are a biblical scourge! A friend dealt with them a few years ago. I wouldn’t go to her farm until winter. They like hot humid conditions and eat everything.
I actually refuse to buy grain on super hot humid days, don’t want the risk. I keep an eye on the weather and buy in advance, and go directly from the feed store to the barn, no stopping. Get those bags out of my suv.
When I was helping her find ways to get rid of them, I don’t recall there being a bomb or chemical that you could use on them. That was several years ago, could possibly be something on the market now.
The only way to kill them, as I recall and as per my friend’s experience, is to starve them to death. You have to remove everything, anything even remotely edible. Hay, seeds, grain, poop, maybe even shavings. Remove their food, and wait for them to leave and/or die.
My friend was so desperate she was buying bleach in gallons and dumping it on them, no avail. She couldn’t find one chemical strong enough to kill them. They’d just hide in nooks and reappear. She moved the horses to a different paddock. Put up temporary shelter and food storage, brand new and uncontaminated, scrubbed her barn and just waited for them to die.
Took a few weeks.
My dad got them a few years ago too, birdfeed he had bought at a farm store in bulk and kept it on his back porch in a large patio rubbermaid container. Opened it up and he said it was the most horrifying and impressive sight he’d ever seen (and the two of us witnessed ball lighting!), trillions and trillions of mites exploded out of the bin and all over his porch like a disgusting wriggling tidalwave of horror right out of a nightmare. He too did not find a chemical to kill them. Just cleaned and got rid of everything and waited them out.
I am so so sorry for you!
edited to add: https://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/f…91-grain-mites
I found my post from almost 10 years ago about my friend’s dilemma. Geeze, time flies!
I HATE GRAIN MITES!!!
I am cursed with a hawk eye for them.
Throw away anything with them in it, if possible (sometimes that’s too $$$$ or a product you can’t get elsewhere though!). Many feed stores will deny deny deny, so I often don’t even bother with trying for a refund anymore. And usually if it’s in one bag from the store, it’s in all of them, so replacing from the same store is a joke.
Storing feed in a (working) chest freezer will kill them.
Food grade diatomaceous earth is your friend. After washing feed bins out and allowing them to dry, I will dust the bins inside and out with diatomaceous earth. I’ll also dust the floor around and even the feed itself to kill off any stragglers.
Try to buy only high turnover products in the summer months. Summer is not the time to buy the last bag of some obscure feed sitting in the back corner of the store. Also not the time to stockpile feed; try to only buy what you can use up quickly.
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A million thank you’s!!! I have an old upright freezer that I can use until I can find a chest freezer. I wonder if I can stick my halters, lead ropes, grooming tote, etc. in there to kill them too!!!
I was adding up the cost of everything they’re on…including the $240 jar of Doxycycline that my horse is on for some mysterious illness. (Nose bleed & swelling in the throat latch area). It’s in the hundredS of dollars figure… GRRRRR!
I will check for the DE, too! I dusted the floor and walls with Livestock & Dairy Dust, then swept it into the nooks & crannies. Not sure if that will work. Guess I’ll know the answer soon.
I feed a pretty popular feed, but the ones on the shelf at TSC are still covered with mites or mite egg clusters.
DoubleDown ~ Thank you! I will look into the Dairy Bomb!
