Bird Mite Treatment in Adelaide
Bird mite treatment Adelaide households need usually begins a week after the pigeons were cleared from under the solar panels, when someone in the bedroom below starts waking up with bites. The mites lived in the nest, lost their host, and came down through the roof. Symes SA treats the roof space, the cavities and the rooms below, removes the nest they came from, and proofs the roof so the birds and the mites do not return together.
Nests out, mesh on, mites treated
What are bird mites, and where do they come from?
Bird mites are tiny parasites, under a millimetre, that live in bird nests and feed on the blood of the chicks and adults. A pigeon, starling or sparrow nest in a roof void, an eave or under a solar panel carries thousands of them. They are pale and almost invisible until they have fed, when they turn reddish, and they move in numbers when the nest is disturbed.
In Adelaide the source is nearly always pigeons under solar panels or starlings in the eaves. The mites stay with the birds while the nest is active, breeding in the nesting material, and are barely noticed by the household below. It is the end of the nest, by fledging, removal or proofing, that sends them looking for a new host.
Why do the bites start after the birds leave?
Because the birds were the food. When the nest empties, the mites have nothing to feed on and go looking, down through the ceiling, the light fittings, the wall cavities and the gap around the cornice, into the nearest warm room. The person who sleeps in the bedroom under the old nest is the first bitten, usually within a week of the birds going.
This is why a bird proofing job done without a mite treatment can produce a complaint a fortnight later, and why Symes SA offers the mite spray with every solar panel bird proofing job where nesting was active.
Bird mite, bed bug or flea: how do you tell them apart?
Bird mite bites appear after birds have been in or on the roof, on skin exposed in bed, with a crawling sensation at night and no evidence on the mattress. Bed bugs leave blood spots and shed skins in the mattress seams. Fleas bite around the ankles, are seen jumping on carpet, and come with a pet. The history is the tell: birds, then bites, is mites.
| Clue | Bird mite | Bed bug | Flea |
|---|---|---|---|
| History | Birds nesting in the roof, eave or under panels, recently gone | Travel, second-hand furniture, a guest | A pet, or a house recently vacated by one |
| Bite pattern | Scattered on exposed skin, crawling sensation at night | Lines or clusters on skin exposed in bed | Clusters around ankles and lower legs |
| Evidence | Almost none; mites too small to see until fed, sometimes on ceilings near lights | Dark spots and shed skins in mattress seams | Fleas seen jumping on carpet and pets, flea dirt in bedding |
| Where it starts | The room under the old nest | The bed itself | Where the pet sleeps |
| Fix | Roof and cavity treatment, nest removed, roof proofed | Whole-room bed bug treatment, two visits | Flea treatment with growth regulator, pet treated |
What is our treatment: roof, cavity and living areas?
The roof space is sprayed with a residual across the area under and around the old nest site, the wall cavities and ceiling gaps that lead down from it are dusted, and the rooms below are treated at the cornice line, the light fittings, the window frames and the skirting where mites come through. Bedding is washed hot; the mattress and frame are treated only where mites have been found on them.
The treatment is targeted rather than a whole-house spray, because bird mites move in a line from the nest to the nearest warm body and do not spread through a house the way fleas do. The rooms under the nest get the work; the rest of the house is checked and left alone unless mites are found.
How do we remove the nest and the source?
The nest is found from the roof or the roof void and taken out completely, with the nesting material bagged and the site cleaned, because mites survive in the material for weeks. Under solar panels that means clearing every nest along the array; in an eave it means opening the gap the birds used and clearing the void behind it.
Where a nest has active chicks it is a native bird's nest that is protected and must be left until they fledge, and the mite treatment is timed to follow. Feral pigeons, starlings, sparrows and mynas are not protected, and their nests are removed on the day. The exclusion that stops the roost being reused is set out under pigeon and bird control.
Why does proofing have to happen at the same time?
Because a nest site that stays open gets a new nest by the next season, and the new nest brings a new mite population that does the same thing when it empties. Treating the mites without closing the roost is a treatment you buy every year. The sequence that ends it is nest out, mites treated, roost meshed, all in one visit where the roof allows.
Birds under the panels
Pigeons have nested under a solar array for a season. Cooing at dawn, droppings down the tiles, nothing yet inside the house.
Nests cleared
The array is proofed. Every nest comes out from under the panels and the mesh goes on. The birds are gone by the evening.
Bites in the bedroom below
Without a mite treatment, the household under that section of roof starts getting bitten within a week, at night, with nothing to see.
Treated and closed together
Roof space and cavities sprayed, the bedroom treated at cornice and fittings, the roost meshed. Bites stop; nothing comes back next spring.
How long before the biting stops?
Bites reduce within a few days of the roof and room treatment and normally stop inside two weeks, as the mites that were already in the room die on treated surfaces and no more come down from the empty nest. Bird mites cannot complete their life cycle on humans, so once the source is gone the population has nowhere to go. If bites continue past two weeks, the nest was not the only one, and the roof is rechecked.
The guide to birds nesting under solar panels covers the rest of what a nest does to a roof, from output loss to fire risk.
Bird mite treatment Adelaide: four things people ask
Why did the biting start after the birds left?
Because the mites were feeding on the birds, and when the nest emptied they went looking for another warm body. They come down through the ceiling, light fittings and wall cavities into the nearest bedroom, usually within a week of the birds fledging or being removed. That is why a proofing job on an active nest should include the mite treatment rather than wait for the complaint.
Can bird mites live on humans?
No. They will bite people and cause itching and a crawling sensation, but they cannot breed or complete their life cycle on human blood, and without birds they die out within weeks. They do not burrow into skin and they do not infest a person the way lice do. The problem is the nest and the roof, not the people, which is why the treatment goes there.
Do I need to treat the roof as well?
Yes, and it is the main part of the job. The mites are in the nest material in the roof void or under the panels, and treating only the bedroom kills the ones that have already come down while the rest keep arriving. The roof space and the cavities leading down from the nest are treated first, the nest is removed, and the room is done last.
Will it come back if I do not proof the roof?
Almost certainly, because the birds come back to the same site next season, nest again, and leave a new mite population behind when they go. Proofing closes the site so there is no nest to empty. Treating the mites and leaving the roost open is a yearly appointment; treating them and meshing the roost on the same visit is a fix.
Birds gone, bites started? That is mites, and the roof is the job.
Roof and cavities treated, nest removed, bedroom done, roost meshed. One visit, and it does not repeat next spring.