I've had a lot of problems with mites this year. I don't know what kind. Wasn't scabies (human mite). I really haven't figure it out. I attribute the problem to all the rain this year.

I thot tonight's moon was a beaut, too.

That moon was so wonderful I liked the three different phases.

The eclipse was wonderful and was fun to watch. We really enjoyed seeing it.

With the oak gall itch mites, they generally stay on your body for hours and don't settle in and bite you until they've been on your for 5-6 hours (sort of like ticks which also often roam around for a few hours before settling down), so the general recommendation if you live in an area with them is that you change clothes and shower when you come indoors from infested areas, and immediately wash your clothes in hot water as the mites could survive being washed in cold water.

We have 10+ acres of mixed hickory-oak woodland and I've never had the mites here, but I don't go into the woodland in snake season so maybe they are in there and I just don't know it. However, we have a couple dozen oak trees growing up in the front, back and side yards, and we've never had the oak gall itch mites on them either. Maybe we are too far south for them. I know they've been reported in NE OK for several years now. The road where I walk my dogs also have some oak trees close enough to the road in some places that we are walking under them and we have not yet had itch mites fall onto us and bite us from those trees either.

I don't know of any way to treat the oak trees for the mites either since they normally live inside the galls and feed on the creatures that are inside the galls. You have more trouble with them in years when there are not a lot of galls on the oak trees. I haven't seen but 1 gall this year on an oak tree in our yard, so it may be that your area also does not have many galls this year and that means the mites are hungry and are finding something/somebody else (unfortunately) to feed upon.

Thank you for your replies. I don't want to take a full shower in the mornings before I even start my yard work. Since I have only had a handful of bites, I guess I will wait. I find this mite situation just plain creepy.

I second that, Sammy. The kids and I found a "strip nekkid" spot just inside the front door closest to the washing machine. In the summer, it's difficult because we must come indoors intermittently to keep our body temperatures down while keeping our clothes on. So, we have a selective uncomfortable spot to rest. then VAC VAC VAC and MOP MOP MOP if we're not outside WEED WEED WEED MOW MOW MOW lol