The oak leaf itch mite – Pyemotes herfsi, first identified just a decade ago – hangs around gall formations established on tree leaves by insects such as midges.

Enter the oak tree itch mites. They eat the flesh of the larvae, and hundreds of thousands of them can burrow inside a single oak leaf gall to feast on a developing insect all summer long.

Oak leaf gall mites or itch mites — formally called Pyemotes herfsi — are between 0.2 to 0.8 mm long, making them “virtually microscopic,” says Floyd Shockley, collections manager for the ...

Experts suspect the nearly invisible invader, measuring 0.00787 of an inch, is the oak leaf itch mite. Advertisement Scientists didn’t even know the oak leaf itch mite existed in America until 2004.

Chigger-like bites on your arms? They're probably from oak itch mites, which are booming right now, perhaps because of the 17-year cicadas. Here's what you need to know about the bugs.

We are likely to see another outbreak of the oak leaf itch mites in the next few years. By then, research may have advanced enough to provide us with more control methods. Until then, keep an eye ...

Yikes: Oak tree mites bring chigger-like bite outbreak from above Millions of the tiny bugs fall from oak trees daily to deliver itchy, chigger-like bites. ... Oak leaf itch mite facts.

Oak leaf itch mites — tiny eight-legged creatures that feed on insects in the tree canopy — drop from oak leaves in late summer and fall. The mites have been known to bite humans when they ...

Many of us may be dealing with mystery bites that swell up and itch like crazy. If it looks like a chigger bite at first, but after a little while starts to change and swell, chances are, you've ...

Oak leaf itch mites are back in Tulsa. ... "There could be hundreds of thousands of mites that fall in a single day from a single tree,” said Dr. Monks.

According to Pratt and Jonathan Larson, assistant professor of extension entomology at UK, oak tree itch mites could thrive in places that have lots of oak trees and had lots of cicadas.

Even if you do not have an oak tree in your yard, you should still take caution. "This is a completely windblown insect and that is another very key point to this. It's just the luck of the draw.