mite skin infections

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SSSdave
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mite skin infections

Post by SSSdave »

A day after returning from my Pine Creek backpack last Saturday, I developed familiar red bumps under my wrist watch band of my left hand and also a few on the side of my waist where my pack belt pressed. By Monday the itchy bumps on my wrist had expanded onto the upper surface of my hand. In the past I have had similar episodes every year or so after backpacking in the Sierra. One of my brothers also had these symptoms 3 decades ago. At that time he was diagnosed as having a probable mite infection and was given insecticide lotions.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ig086

The symptoms are similar to chigger (also a mite) bites that only occur east of the Rockies while the bumps and itching are not as severe and are not similar to the more common scabbies mite infections. Note chiggers typically bite in areas where clothing is tight like under a wristwatch, belt, etc that is exactly per my experience. The mite species family is large and not fully studied in all environments so it can be expected little is known about mite species in remote mountain areas. One would expect there are mites infecting rodents and deer of our Sierra Nevada so my suspicion is my symptoms are caused by one of those mites. Usually the bumps and itching lasts a week or so and then fades away. That would match some of the symptoms I've read about on their life cycle.

Am expecting some others on the board that have also backpacked a lot over the decades, may also have occasionally developed such a mystery mildly itchy rash?
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rlown
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Re: mite skin infections

Post by rlown »

nope. Did you go to the doctor or scrape yourself to look under a microscope? Doesn't sound like a nice experience though.
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Re: mite skin infections

Post by giantbrookie »

I can't recall having a rash like that and I am a magnet for biting insects and the like.
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Re: mite skin infections

Post by SSSdave »

Guess I need to follow up with this.

A couple days later I noticed I still had a decade old tube of pyrethrum medicinal ointment so put some of that on the area of interest. Next day the itching stopped and by a few days later the red bumps had slowly mostly disappeared. May have just been coincidence or maybe the pyrethrum killed em.
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Re: mite skin infections

Post by SSSdave »

Last weekend tent camped with a couple bros at the Dardenelles Campground at 5765 feet along the middle Fork of the Stanislaus River along SR108. Since it was a warm mid forest elevation day without any mosquitoes about, I left my tent door open the whole day until retiring in the evening. Well after returning home, developed 6 itchy red bump welts on my upper left back that I thought just might be residual mosquito bites since over the 3 days before the weekend had been up in Tuolumne Meadows at 8.6k that indeed did have mosquitoes. Well now Friday the welts have only become worse that points to chiggers that are tiny red 8-leg arachnids.

Since the above earlier post have found UC abstracts in pay wall entomologist journals describing local chigger like species that infest rodents and mammals of our state. I have certainly seen plenty tiny red 8-leggers all over our mountains that tend to move around on the ground erratically at crazy fast speed compared to their size.

So yes, dug out that same old above noted tube of 5% permethrin cream and applied some this morning. Will follow-up with post indicating whether the welts again wane by tomorrow.
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Re: mite skin infections

Post by Jimr »

Well, I've never experienced anything like this in these here mountains, but I've had chiggers. Miserable. I used pool chlorine and Q tips to dab each welt several times per day. that killed them off over a couple of days.
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Re: mite skin infections

Post by Gogd »

Jimr wrote: Sat Sep 02, 2023 10:41 am Well, I've never experienced anything like this in these here mountains, but I've had chiggers. Miserable. I used pool chlorine and Q tips to dab each welt several times per day. that killed them off over a couple of days.
Or cover the afflicted area with rubber cement or nail polish, blocking oxygen to the critters. They will be dead in 24 hours.

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Re: mite skin infections

Post by The Other Tom »

Gogd wrote: Sat Sep 02, 2023 4:17 pm Or cover the afflicted area with rubber cement or nail polish, blocking oxygen to the critters. They will be dead in 24 hours.
When my brother and I were small children and got chiggers, my mother would apply nail polish over the bites. Worked wonders.
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Re: mite skin infections

Post by Jimr »

Half of my arms and legs would have been cemented. I went to my grandfather's graveside funeral it Texas. The cemetery neglected to lay down sulphur on the lawn before the proceeding. Everyone in attendance received a massive attack.
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Re: mite skin infections

Post by freestone »

Did a childhood stint in Oklahoma. Rag weed and chiggers were the summer torments and there was no treatment other than something called Camphorphic to treat the itch. We all survived each summer without any damage by just letting it run its course.
I did experience something similar in the hot springs around the Sespe in the Los Padres. Not sure it was in the water or on the edges but the itch was intense.
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