1 post tagged “mites”
If you're not living in the Chicago area you probably haven't heard much, if anything, about the "itch mite" problem that seems to have taken hold here. In the leafiest areas, especially around my northwest suburban neighborhood, there has been an outbreak of small, annoying, intensely itchy insect bites that seem to come from nowhere, but always affect people spending time outdoors. The story is well-covered in this CBS2 story and this huge Topix thread lists hundreds of posts by residents and visitors in northern Illinois who've noticed bunches of itchy red welts on their arms, necks, and torso. They itch for days and apparently the microscopic, oak tree-dwelling mite that causes them can't be warded off by repellent. The worst part is that you have absolutely no indication that you're being bitten; just the itchy marks to prove it ~12 hours later.
I got my first two or three bites after an evening run two weeks ago. The next day, I noticed them on my arms and on my stomach. Supposedly the mites don't bite until they've been on you for several hours, so a good shower should avoid the problem after time outdoors. Not true. I've been collecting these marks even after showering within an hour of finishing at 30 minute run, so I'm pretty sure the damage is done within minutes of the invisible, unnoticed mite taking a bite. Truly an annoyance.
So, what to do? Run indoors? No friggin' way. Wear long sleeves? Maybe, but a) it's still August and b) I've gotten these bites on my torso while wearing a short sleeve running shirt, so I think they can defeat loose-woven fabric. Stop running here at home until the first hard freeze, which is supposedly the event we need to kill these things off? Not likely. Still, it's demoralizing to step outside and know you're just gonna get some new itches for your troubles, and that's that.
My theory is this is completely correlated to the 17 year cicada cycle we encountered earlier this summer, even though these mites supposedly aren't their eggs' predators. It's too much of a coincidence.
