Hey guys I need some help.
For several years we cut oats for hay. Really good quality and it was never wasted. A couple of years ago, due to weather, our oats went a little too far before we could cut them. We had more mice than usual in the barn and a rat or two, but the biggest problem was hay itch mites. In warm weather they bite you around your torso, neck and arms. Itch like crazy for a day or two. So small they are invisible. Cool and cold weather knocks them back. I sprayed a general insecticide mixed with water and it seemed to help for a week or two but that is all.
We cleaned all that hay out of the barn in late winter. I sprayed the same insecticide all around the barn. Cut wheat instead of oats this spring for hay. Really clean good quality hay. No problems until late September. Hay itch mites are back. Cooler weather has them knocked back now, but I may have to unload a barn full of hay this winter and buy some hay next year. There is little information that I can find to cure my problem. I have read they infest hay that has a straw in it's makeup. So maybe the solution is cut grass hay and not a grain for hay.
If anybody has any ideas, I am all ears.
Thanks,
Doug Aaron
Manchester, TN