If you ever run into the unfortunate situation of having a mite or flea infestation, don’t immediately buy harmful chemicals as the first line of defense. Those chemicals are just as dangerous as the mites. Get rid of the infestation using naturally occurring diatomaceous earth.
Here’s a Short Story
Not too long ago I had to go through some old papers that had been stored away for quite some time. The task took about an hour, just long enough to allow whatever was living in those old papers to set up a new home on me.
Within a few hours, I started itching. Thinking it was the dust and the creepiness of the papers I showered and assumed the itching would stop. Not the case. That night I almost scratched my skin off in while I slept. The itching and scratching were so bad that parts of my skin became raw from scratching.
Must be Mites
I did some research online and read “there is no such thing as paper mites.” “Oh yeah?” I thought. Whoever said that never suffered as I was suffering. It took me some time to remember the benefits of diatomaceous earth. I believe I had a mite-induced brain cloud. When I remembered the DE I pulled it out and sprinkled it on myself just like one would put on baby powder.
Within 8-12 minutes the itching subsided. Fearing I had caused an infestation in the house, I sprinkled DE on every surface I touched, sat or slept on. I let the DE sit for about 20 to 30 minutes and vacuumed it up. I also washed everything in the house that was washable, sheets, clothes, towels, etc.
Just to Be Sure
I sprinkled myself with diatomaceous earth again after showering just to make sure all the tiny little mites were indeed dead. Although it took my skin a little while to heal from all of the scratching, I’ve got to say diatomaceous earth came to my rescue.
I’ve witnessed how diatomaceous earth kills spiders, ants, stink bugs and any other insect around the house. This was the first time I got to see, or should I say feel, how effective it is against mites.
By the way, I sprinkled diatomaceous earth all over the old papers and files. I’d rather sift through papers covered in DE than papers infested with mites.
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I just moved into a new place. I didn’t buy any new furniture but decided to get my old furniture out of storage. In a couple of days I developed a terrible itch all over my body particularly when I was lying in bed or across my couch. It was so bad that I was losing a lot of sleep and had almost scratched my skin down to the raw. I was miserable. The cost of a professional exterminator was ridiculous. Because my job had had a bedbug outbreak several years ago, I remembered I used DE to prevent my own home and family the spread of bedbugs.
This time around I believed it to be dust mites that I was encountering due to the fact that I had retrieved furniture that was kept in storage. Before paying an arm and a leg on an exterminator, I decided to try to rid these mites myself. I purchased a bag of DE and dusted my couch and bed with it. I let it sit for a whole day then vacuumed it up. I also washed and THOROUGHLY dried all curtains, towels, rags in my house as some of these items, too, were retrieved from storage. Also, my everyday laundry because i had been sitting on these infested surfaces. Well, here I am a day later, no scratching or itching at all. I feel GREAT!!!!! Being bitten by these things is the worst feeling. It was a nightmare for me. Now my nightmare is over and I’m feeling 100 percent better.
DE has taken care of my dust mite problem as well as a problem I was having with German roaches. What’s even better is I didn’t have to pay $200 for a pest control professional as I was quoted. I paid almost $12 for a big bag of DE, $7 on laundry detergent and bleach, and $15 worth of quarters for the laundromat. So my total Do-it-Yourself expense was $34 compared to $200 for a professional. Big savings and it works even better.
Tammie, what a wonderful success story! Thank you so much for sharing it! 🙂
It saddens me when I see people spending hundreds of dollars for toxic flea and bedbug removal chemicals. Diatomaceous earth works quickly and safely.
Keep sharing your story. Maybe you’ll convince other folks to stop wasting their money on harsh chemicals.
Thank you so much for your article. I want to ask if you know what can be done about the “critters” in old receipts & papers. I have stacks that I need to go through, put in chronicalogical order. This means I will have to put them in different stacks. It only takes a few minutes of touching these before I’m miserable! I can’t sprinkle DE on these. Do you have any suggestions?
Hi Genita,
I had a similar problem. What I did was I took all of the papers, put them in a box and a few in plastic bags. Then I took the DE and sprinkled it all over the papers in the box and bags. I let it sit for a day or two. When I came back I was able to handle the papers without getting eaten alive by the mites. Granted, I did have to shake off the dust and wipe down the papers, but I thought it was a better option than getting bit. Just a note, I did the paperwork outdoors because the paper sorting with DE can be a bit messy indoors.
Yes, i discovered DE’s many benefits 2 years ago and refuse using any chemicals at all.
Good for you, Michele. I wish more people would give up on chemicals and start using DE.
Diatomaceous earth is almost a miracle substance against bugs. It’s so effective (and harmless to people and pets) that exterminators hate the stuff. They start false rumors about it harming your lungs and being bad to use. DO NOT BELIEVE THESE LIES! Diatomaceous earth saved me from my dust mite allergy. I sprinkled it all around my bedroom floors, and my allergies totally went away so I could sleep. Then I noticed whenever I went into another room after sleeping, I would start sneezing. This was truly an “ah-ha!” moment. The rest of the house still had dust mites of course! Now I buy the stuff in 50lb bags, because it’s cheaper that way and never goes bad. I sprinkle it around the perimeter of the house to ward off all sorts of bugs from ants to cockroaches to you name it! What I like best is that it’s totally inert and completely harmless to anything with four legs or less. So it’s safe for amphibians, birds, fish, mammals, and reptiles of all shapes and sizes.
Amen Jack! Well said!