Grass mites that burrow into skin in Botswana

Nature Talk
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https://farmerhealth.org.au/2017/03/20/scabies#:~:text=Infected%20farm%20animals%20can%20pass,irritated%20for%20a%20few%20days.

I usually walk in areas in Central Botswana where there are a lot of cattle and goats and long grass. There are always a lot of visible large or baby ticks on the ground or on the top of grasses. I think there are more ticks and the grass is at its longest in April at the end of the rainy season. I dont know what the cattle and goat-free areas of the Okavango are like. Perhaps we are confused because we get infested with visible ticklish baby ticklettes that just hang on for a while and suck and also get infested by smaller invisible burrowing mites like scabies at the same time. Can scabies jump from goats to grass to me ? Perhaps our mystery burrowing mites are scabies mites from goats and cattle. Here is an iNat observation of a handful of tiny baby ticklettes found by grabbing hold of the flowers of a long grass in Bots. See the last two pictures. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/205860540

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Here is a humerous lecture about scabies mites burrowing in the skin that made me laugh and itch all over at the same time. I hope any Norwegians wont be offended by it ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ1DxX158IQ

I think we need more iNat observation of mites, ticks, chiggers and jiggers and their larvae and ticklettes and the amazing things they can do to our bodies, especially in Africa ! Most of us just have to learn to live with them. There’s no escape, especially if we are iNaturalists exploring the wilder places in Africa where the grass is long !

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The small size, tendency to bite where clothes are constricted and association with rodents all seem consistent with rodent mites such as the tropical rat mite. (In Botswana it might well be a different species.)

Because the mites range from 0.75 to 1.4 mm, they may be visible with the naked eye when they crawl. Unfed, the mites are usually motile and gray; however, after
feeding, they are inactive and yellow or dark red.

I don’t believe these mites actually burrow into skin, but I know the itch that their bites cause certainly feels like they’re under the skin.

They don’t live on humans long term, but will do so temporarily if they overpopulate their rodent hosts, or the hosts die.

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Thanks so much for the information. We must try and get photos now.

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