Hay and insects

[holeymoley]

I don’t really know what to title this as I don’t know what they are.

Very very small white insects of some sort, as small as a grain of salt are residing on my hay ?. I probably wouldn’t have noticed if I didn’t have the misfortune of wearing a very bright LeD head torch the other night whilst filling my haynets. I sprayed the bale with apple cider vinegar in the hope they might die but nope. Hay seems fine, actually a really nice bale. I noticed today that other bales have them too? We have 3 suppliers of hay so this is a mix of hay.

Does anyone know what these are? Are they harmless? I soak hay so hoping that that kills them some way or the other. I just can’t help but feel itchy ???

 

[poiuytrewq]

They’ll be mites of some sort I’d imagine.
we had a load of feed at work delivered with mites and they were the tiniest little white dots.
They were really hard to get rid of, the feed bin even emptied and Jet washed still had them for a while.
More commonly found in straw.
I don’t know if they harm horses as such ?‍ Mites are a tapeworm host so you may want to take that into account.
Personally I’d be sending it back.

 

[Nasicus]

Springtails, perhaps? Harmless little dudes, popular as a cleanup crew in bioactive pet/reptile enclosures

 

[holeymoley]

Thank you for the info. I’ve seen them before on a bale but it was a bad bale that had turned hot in the middle so it went back anyway.

I’m not sure about sending it back, reason being they’re on everyone’s hay, and there’s 3 different suppliers that supply us with them so I’m not sure if it’s actually more of a problem with our hay barn! ?

 

[holeymoley]

Springtails, perhaps? Harmless little dudes, popular as a cleanup crew in bioactive pet/reptile enclosures

heres hoping, I will google!

 

[holeymoley]

According to google images, they look like mould mites?