Mites. The word that can make grown gerbil keepers weep uncontrollably, and go hide.

They can come from food, from bedding, from outside, from somewhere where you or someone that handled them in the past week got near a mite. Some have reported them coming in windows through screens!

Scorched Earth Paranoid Cleaning from H*ll and liberal use of pyrethin spray will get rid of them. If you have a lot of cages or manage to get a full house infestation (raise hand, had this twice) it will take a LOT of work to get rid of them, but you can. They have a life cycle of about a week and need to have a meal of red-mammal-blood to lay eggs. Mite Bites ITCH. You must do the clean and be paranoidically thorough about it, and check every day for three days to see if you find any, and one more seven days after you do scorched earth. If you find just ONE you have to do it all over. You want either Defy pyrethin dog dip which you will dilute or 0.06% pyrethin spray. Bird mite spray is 0.03% and will do the job sorta, get it as a last resort. You have to hit and drench the mite to kill it with that. K&M is a small animal mite spray that is just pyrethin... .at the right strength. Walmart sells the bird spray...and they are open 24/7 if you have a SuperWalmart around. I have several mist spray bottles that were originally KM and now I get Defy and dilute and refill my bottles, and keep at least one sitting near your tanks (and out of kid and other pet reach) so if you see a mite you can get started. I would strip to my underwear, as I will be full of mites by the time I get done (and lock the doors with note not to disturb). A new tested clean bag of food, a new factory sealed clean bag of bedding. Lots of mite spray. A couple of good stout garbage bags, and a can with a lid (to hold bag open and help me haul). You can spray spray on yourself, I suggest you spray it on your hand then apply it to you like bug spray. *********************************************************************************************

DISCLAIMER: people react to stuff differently. I don't suggest you take a bath in the stuff, and I don't suggest you go around with mite spray on you for any length of time. And you might react badly to it. I found from experience I CAN stand a short term exposure of having lots of pyrethin on my bare skin. I also go wash it off as quickly as I can! If you REACT TO PYRETHIN SPRAY YOU MIGHT BE IN LIFE THREATENING CIRCUMSTANCES. I take no responsibility as I am merely telling how I deal with it, and have found out that *I* can do what I type here without incident of any short or long term health problems. I've applied it to myself when I could see or feel the mites crawling on me. And you will probably get mites crawling on you as you try to clean things up. Trust me, mites crawling on your face is DISGUSTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, if you spray pyrethin on anything, it may discolor or melt whatever it is. Carpets, drapes, clothing, etc. You may need to do a colorfastness test first in an inconspicuous spot to see if you're going to destroy whatever it is...first.

If you are a minor (under 16 or so) pyrethin may be dangerous to you. In which case you may not want to do this procedure and need to get an adult to help or use something else to kill the mites. Do not spray mite spray in your face or where you can immediately inhale the droplets (it will settle fast) and do not spray it in the animal's faces. Do NOT spray a pup that hasn't furred yet, as it will be chilled too much by the spray. Treat the parents and lightly do a LITTLE mist right over the nest where it can drift in and let the parents get to them to keep them warm. If the pups are before weaning, don't spray them. After they are weaning (3 weeks but before about 6) you can wet your hand and pet them a little to get them sorta damp. Not soaked.

Ok, this is how I do it. Dump all the bedding. Toss all the wood. Dump all your unopened bedding and food. Spray everything with mite spray as you go. Spray everything around the tank or cage (s), walls, floors, what they're sitting on, drapes, carpet, for about six feet (2 meters) around. Even if you have found only one of your tanks or cages with mites, assume that everything is colonized. Take it all, toss it all (bedding, nest stuff, wood, cardboard). Dump it in a garbage bag in the can with a lid. Spray the stuff as you dump it, spray the can. With gloves if you need for biting, pick each animal that's over weaning age up by the BASE of the tail very gently. Spray them dorsal and ventral, not the face. Or, spray into one hand and pet the animal with wet hand to get it all over. If you spray them, you will have to put some on your hand and get the head that way. You want soggy gerbil. Be VERY careful if you are holding a gerbil by the base of the tail. Put them into a temporary holding container, that's bare. Go after that cage or tank and clean it, spray everything. Take waterbottles and food dishes and give them a sink scrubbing. If you leave the area of the tanks, go backwards and leave a trail of spray behind you to wherever you're going, and spray that area afterwards. Put animals into cleaned and sprayed cage, with a layer of the new bedding (opened well away from the contamination area, check for contamination, and put in a layer, and spray it lightly afterwards and before you put the animals back in. If in doubt, spray it. Spray the stuff you're dumping in the bag while you do so. After cleaning all tanks and cages and spraying animals and setting them back up with clean sprayed bedding and minimal cage accoutrements (waterbottle cleaned and food dish if you use them cleaned), then seal up the garbage bag, spray the can as you remove it, spray the outside of the bag, double bag it, spray that, and leave a spray trail as you back to the back door and dump the bag into a sprayed garbage can and seal it with a lid. Outside. Now go back through house leaving your trail to the washer, and whatever you're wearing goes into the wash and wash it right now. Another cover your trail to the bathroom and take a shower with Head and Shoulders shampoo. Use a lot, make lots of lather, do your hair first, and take the lather and use it as a body wash all the way down.

Every day, look carefully for any sign of a living mite. Wrap an animal loosely with some white toilet tissue or paper towelling, leaving the head out. Look around the head for about a minute, at the white stuff. If you see any little specks jumping off, you have to do the scorched earth all over again. It takes just one mite about one week to have a fully infested and showing tank or cage. You may have to do the scorched earth for three days straight to get the population down. You check every day for three days after you do the first one, then check at the 7 day mark. ONE mite, start over.

Prevention... Quarrantine new animals. Use hand sanitizer. Freeze all your food for at least 7 days at 0F. Freeze bedding for that long too if you have room (I personally know of Carefresh having infestations, and all the pet stores in town got a contaminated shipment one spring). If you go anywhere and see signs of an infestation, dump all your clothes in the washer and wash them, then wash yourself immediately before going near your animals. Yes, Head and Shoulders shampoo will kill them on you (start by washing your hair, use lots of it, and use the lather as body wash and go all the way down). Walgreens and Walmart sell a 2% topical hydrocortisone cream, or Walmart has Blue Ice Ocean Potion (blue clear aloe vera gel with the topical LIDOCAINE) that will help with the itch on you, if you can stand the ingredients.

Others have gone to the veternarian for Ivermectin injectable for treating the mites...it does work but some serious side effects have been reported.

Still others have gone to the drastic thing of using Head and Shoulders Shampoo on their gerbils. I strongly don't suggest it because it's difficult to give a gerbil a bath, you still don't address the loose mites still in the environment the gerbil lives in, and if groomed off the fur may cause complications (sickness or death). You can use Head and Shoulders shampoo on you, though, unless you're allergic.