Does anyone know anything about the types of mites that jump off long grass onto passing people and then burrow into skin, and cause long-lasting itching and allergic response ? The mites were black and between 1 and 1.5mm long, in Botswana. They had 8 legs so not larvae. Sorry there are no photos so no observation on iNat. In Setswana ( one of the languages of Botswana) the mites are commonly known as dilomabasala which with my limited knowledge of Setswana means ‘they bite and remain’. Here in Botswana we are looking for info about burrowing mites that can infest humans by getting right under skin rather than just hanging on the surface with their mouthparts. Thank you.
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@gekkoman do you have more to add ?
You might find some clues in this open access paper:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0020751914001994
Fischer, K., & Walton, S. (2014). Parasitic mites of medical and veterinary importance–is there a common research agenda?. International journal for parasitology, 44(12), 955-967.
Table 1 summarizes the focal groups of mites parasites.
While ticks are a subgroup of mites, they are not included in that paper. Is it possible that the burrowing mites you describe are burrowing ticks?
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yeah this does sound a lot like chiggers to me. Apparently they don’t actually burrow into the skin but spit some sort of acidic substance that digests some of your skin and causes an awful allergic response. With chiggers, they tend to bite along areas of tight clothing such as a waistline.
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The reaction sounds like chiggers but the behaviour doesn’t really match.
If you manage to get an image tag @rayfisher or you might just want to reach out to him.
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‘Is it possible that the burrowing mites you describe are burrowing ticks?’
Thanks for the paper link.
'I thought all ticks hang on and suck and then fall off. Are there any species of ticks that do burrow their whole body under the skin and stay there for some time ?
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The black mites had 8 legs and I thought chiggers are red or pale colours and only attack large animals when they are larvae and have 6 legs. Im sure theres a lot of mite species in Botswana that are underreseached and not well known. We shall try to get pics and put on iNat
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Yeah, the chiggers I am familiar with are in North America and I have no idea what might be in Africa, it just sounded similar. It’s probably something different.
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@gekkoman @rayfisher I spoke to a farmer in Serowe Botswana who is a Setswana speaker. He calls them dilomabasetse. He says they are tiny so never seen and bite especially in tight places like under a belt and the itch stays for ages. He thinks they appear when there are a lot of mice and rats when people are working in fields harvesting maize and sorghum ( which rats like). He thinks the acari found on long grass in large numbers are baby ticks and calls these masetsa and easily visible and can be brown or black. He did not know about these being able to burrow,
@gekkoman
Do you know the Setswana word for mite as bobotlanyana ? I guess this word means very small from the word bobotlana meaning smallness,
I think the question we have, is do some chigger larvae burrow in skin and do other chigger species hang on by mouth parts and fall off after feeding. If there are at least 66 different chigger speces in S Africa and at least 440 described species in Africa, why should they all have the same lifestyles, life cycles and behaviour ? Should there be a lot of variation ? Why cant some chigger species be burrowers and other chigger species be hangers on and suckers as larvae. Are all chigger species pale or red or are there some which are black or have dark colours ) in Africa or anywhere). We need far more photo observations of parasitic
mites, chiggers and baby ticklettes from around the globe and anecdotal experiences of people being attacked and infested.
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The chiggers in the US at least do not burrow into skin from my understanding, but they feel like they do and there’s widespread belief that they do. That being said, for all I know, in Africa they DO burrow into skin. I imagine they are a different color there, and the thing about their legs changing in number may not be true for your chiggers. They sure sound like chiggers to me, but i’ve never even been to Africa much less studied inverts there so take my thoughts with a huge grain of salt.
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Maybe this instead if the number of legs is different? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunga_penetrans
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Thank you so much. I have never heard of these before. Ill find out if they occur in Botswana,
wow that sounds like it could be right. and sounds awful :(
Those burrowing fleas sound a lot bigger than what is being described here:
Not something to look at the iNat observations of before sleeping.
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Botswana isnt in the predicted range for sand fleas but that does not mean they are not here in Bots. It would be so exciting to have a sand flea growing on my toe. I could get some fantastic inat observations if I could get one.
Im getting conflicting reports here from people, Some who work in fields say they are never seen while a white man here says they are very dark and about 1mm. I suppose its easier to see them if ones legs are very pale ! I think jigger fleas can range from very tiny, up to 1 cm as they grow under skin.
I was in the Okavango Delta a few years ago and never experienced any itchiness or saw any mites, even though some patches our group walked through had long grass. Maybe it was the time of year?
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with chiggers they vary a ton. I never experienced them in California until one very wet year when they were horrible in grass. After that they went away and i didn’t see them again for the duration of my time there spanning several more years.
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