Diagnosis: Fleas or Mites?

Pest Extermination Forum
Forum topic/blog entry started by IHatePests on 1/6/2007 6:30:38 (server time).
This topic has been viewed 2600 times.
Diagnosis: Fleas or Mites?

I am trying to diagnose and then exterminate pests from my apartment.  I am a university student living in an apartment building which annually fumigates for roaches, but I have rarely seen bugs in my apartment.  The pests started about 4 weeks ago, but that was just before exams so I tolerated them for a while.  I have a carpeted and uncarpeted area in my bachelor apartment.  The carpeted area covers about 2/3 of the apartment.
When I stand on my carpet I can feel the pests landing on my legs.  I have never actually seen the pest, it is too small.  When I feel it land on my leg I quickly look directly at the spot it landed on but cannot see it.  I know that fleas can jump, but can dust mites?
I never actually feel anything biting me, which is why I think the problem is dust mites.  What changed my mind to fleas was when I found three or four tiny bite marks on the back of my left leg.  The pests seem too small for me to see, yet fleas are supposed to be 1mm to 3mm and I should be able to see something that size.  I know that I have some type of flea or mite, but I do not know which.  Maybe it does not matter.
The pests are in my carpet, bed, bed sheets, blanket and sometimes in my clothes.  I bought waterproof vinyl zippered complete enclosures for my mattress and blanket.  I tried salting my carpet twice then vacuuming because fleas are 60% water, but that has only somewhat reduced them.  I run my sheets through the dryer for two hours daily in an attempt to kill them, but every night I feel them crawling on me.  I heard that freezing your sheets can kill them so I will try that.
The problem is I do not know if they are fleas or mites.  Should I buy a magnifying glass and do a closer inspection, or does it matter?  Will the chemicals deal with both types of pests?  Should I buy something to kill the pests or call an exterminator?

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Reply from/ Date	Replies
13 YEAR OLD(JM 6/28/10 1:10:34 PM	MAGOT HELPER ( PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE POOP PART I WAS WATCING SPONGE BOB SO YH) O: POOP P=PEOPLE 0=ORDER O=OUR P=PATIES :D IM 13 YEARS OlD BTW SO yeAh.. I HAD A MAGOT PROBLEM IN HOUSE ONCE AND MY MOTHER WASNT HOME AND IO HAD TO CLEAN MY HOUSE I USED BLEACH HOT WATER AND THATS IT I THINK O: I VACUMED MY HOUSE FIRST VACUMED UNDER EVERYTHING!!!!!! EVRYTHING!!!! THEN YH =] IN 9- 13 HOURS I WAS MAGOT FREE;] I POURED BLEACH IN EVRY LITTILE PLACE I COULD FIND(BLEACH MAKES THEM POP OUT SO YEAH ) THEN I STOMPED ON THEM LIKE THERE WAS NO TOMORROW THEN I VACUMED AGAIN BECAUSE THEY HAD POPED OUT AND THEY TRAVELED AROUND AND THEN I WAS DONE !!! YOY HURRAY :D NOW U DO THIS >:O AND CLEAN UR HOUSE FROM TOP TO BOTTOM AND BE MORE CLEAN IN UR HOME PPLZ I HAD THIS PROB BCAUZ I HAVE 4 LIL BROS THAT R DISCUSTING >:O.... AND TRY NOT TO HVE FOOD IN UR ROOM AND EAT AT UR KITCHEN ONLY >;o AND STOP COMPLAING SO MUCH GOD (GROWN UPS R SO STUPID SOMETINES NO OFFENSE ._. IM SORRY IF I INSULTED U OR I SOUND STUPID AT THE BEWGINNING .-.AND I WAS WATCHING SPONGEBOB WHEN I WAS WRITING THIS SO YEAH ;{ IM SORRY ONCE MORE AND I HOPE UR MAGOT PROBLEM DISAPEARS LIKE MINES DID
MadWyvern 8/26/10 3:34:10 PM	RE MAGGOTS, other thread full Ok, i got 78 maggots (yes i counted) on my back door window, they are crawling through the smallest mother fc&ing cracks you ever seen, even past the felt stuff that seals the door, bastords. Anyway, i have got my revenge by laying a thick line of super-glue along where the little shats are getting in, funny to watch them get stuck, how patheticaly desperate they look. i don't condone cruelty to any of gods creatures, but these things? even god would disown them surely? But i do have a solution, you ain't gonna like it, but it works. I'm very spider friendly, and i am glad that i have treated the little eight legged dudes with respect over the years, cos right now i have five tiny 2mm troopers giving the maggots the good news. natures own super glue, spider webs. The maggots are just kinda quiting, wriggle-wriggle-wriggle, aww s*** spiders-web, feck-it. They just get all wrapped up to be breakfast for more baby spiders- which, in their own right are admittedly kinda creepy crawly. But creepy-crawly i can handle, wrigling dirty deseased fly-breeding little white maggots i can't. I'll tell you what didn't work to save you the trouble: small doses of electricity, repeated poking with blunt object, fly spray, soap powder, detergent, pepper (i know, sorry, kinda lame try). What worked, ranked first to last: Spiders Superglue (get your own back by seeing the little maggots die a boring stationary death) Fire (but dont do it, sticks to high heaven, and i dont need maggots in my lungs too) squishing. Oh... and maggots play dead for exactly 23 seconds. strange, but mine were all the same.
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