Roach Articles by Takeshi Yamada, Brooklyn, NY

"HISSER MITES" ARE NOT "HOUSE DUST MITES"

Dear concerning parents with children of asthma,

Following is an excerpt from my article entitled “BAD MITES” IN YOUR TROPICAL PET INSECT TANKS.

“Mite” is a common name for about 30,000 species of extremely small arachnids, usually with oval/round-bodies. Mites resemble ticks in having the head, thorax, and abdomen fused into one unsegmented body. (Ticks are blood feeding external parasites but they are usually much bigger.) Mites often have three pairs of legs in the larval stage and four pairs of legs in the nymph and adult stages. The mouthparts are adapted for piercing. Like most arachnids, mites breathe by means of tracheae (small tubes opening on the surface of the body).

In reality, it is almost impossible to find a place where no mites live on this planet whether it is a sublime high mountaintop, skin burning desert lands, at the deep ocean floors or on/in every single one of our faces. Among them, only a handful species of mites “bug” us. Incidentally, out of over 3000 species of cockroaches, only less than 1% of them live inside of human houses, and considered as “bad roaches”. In this world, almost always the small number of bad ones give bad names to entire communities of their own.

The "House Dust Mites" are one of the most notorious one that linked to asthma. As the name suggest, this terrible creature's permanent residency is house dusts. Their size is about 0.25 – 0.3 mm long and thus, it is virtually invisible to the naked eye. The fecal pellets (feces) which this devil produces and accumulate in home fabrics are allergenic. In short, they are the source of a dust-borne respiratory allergy - asthma.

Fortunately they do not live on Hissers. Hissers have dedicated good “Hisser Mites” on them. See my another article on the subject for details.