A cure for near invisible mites in the kitchen?

[difflock]

Not ours, the daughters kitchen, no idea how to identify them, since they are so tiny as to be almost invisible, but the are causing the daughter serious stress, and she has already emptied cupboards and thoroughly cleaned several times.

Suggestions please.

P.S.

She has loads of house plants, and dogs, if that is any odds.

Marcus

 

[Squaredy]

9 hours ago, difflock said:

Not ours, the daughters kitchen, no idea how to identify them, since they are so tiny as to be almost invisible, but the are causing the daughter serious stress, and she has already emptied cupboards and thoroughly cleaned several times.

Suggestions please.

P.S.

She has loads of house plants, and dogs, if that is any odds.

Marcus

 

Send off some samples to the natural history museum in London, entomology section.  They will tell you what they are and then you can look up what they feed on and find out about their lifecycle.

 

Once you have the right information you should have a fighting chance of eliminating them!  

[WirralBoy]

If they are tiny flying insects (possibly fungus flies) check for standing water in plant pots. They'll breed in there.

Also check for an uncovered waste food caddy. That's another choice breeding place.

 

Have a read of this attached article.

It is helpful and reassuring.

https://www.almanac.com/pest/fungus-gnats

 

[Peasgood]

Are they in the flour?

I get them sometimes, just give everything a wipe with dilute Miltons or similar. Put flour in the freezer to kill them. Yes I know most will throw the flour away but no reason to, you can't taste them and if you could they probably taste of flour anyway.

[daveatdave]

if they are flying things try a plant saucer with cyder vinegar in it cover it with cling film and poke a few small holes in it they will drop in through the holes and not be able to get out 

[sime42]

I was thinking Fungus Gnats (sciarid flies) as well, given that you mentioned lots of house plants. We get them sometimes, especially when there's lots of vegetable seedlings on window sills and also around the compost caddy in warm weather.

They're not harmful in any way, just an annoyance really.

 

https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/fungus-gnats

[difflock]

I can only surmise they are mites=creepie crawlies as opposed to flying, but so so so microscpoic tiny.

And yes, the daughter found the epicentre of the infestation in a bag of flour.

[Welshfred]

1 hour ago, difflock said:

but so so so microscpoic tiny.

But you can see them with the naked eye presumably! Grain weevils? I had a bag of whole wheat for the hens absolutely infested to the point the bin of feed was getting hot! Hens didn't eat them either, I was squashing them in they're droves , hunting them round the henhouse. They congregated in the lip of the metal feeders. That was in autumn so the cold weather sorted them out eventually. And yes I got a free bag to (partially) compensate for all the hastle. 

 

[Stere]

Flour mite, Acarus siro

 

 

[difflock]

13 hours ago, Stere said:

Flour mite, Acarus siro

 

 

Most probably, but short of a good camera with a stupendous macro lens, not a mission of capturing an image. Literally just about discernable to the human eye. O.K. My middle aged shortsighted human eye.