Tiny little white bugs - what are they?

[Vikki89]

The other night i put my horses rug over a big round hay bale to dry, in the morning i took it off and inside the rug was crawling with these tiny white things, looked like dandruf (sp) but was moving.
I know they are not off of him as were not on there before and have checked his stable rug when i took that off that morning.
They are not on anyone elses rugs which are left to dry the same way. I obviously didn't put the rug on him as i dont know what they are.
Anyone know what they are?

 

[Chico Mio]

Sound like white fly - a very annoying thing to have on your veg plants but I don't think they are actually harmful to animals or people. They probably did come out of the hay bale as they could easily have been on the grass when it was baled. If it is, keep an eye on the hay as whitefly produce 'honeydew' which encourages mould gowth.

 

[tasteofchristmaschaos]

Could also be springtails - tiny little white bugs around 2-3 mms long. They breed like anything (I breed them to feed my toads) and are quite often found in pot plants in homes. They shouldn't cause any problems as they are harmless, which is a good job as I don't know anyway of getting rid of them!

 

[Tickles]

But tasteofchaos you do know a way of getting rid of them: more toads! ;-)

 

[Vikki89]

They were smaller than that, someone said it could possible be dust mites but i thought they were too small to be see by the human eye.

 

[tasteofchristmaschaos]

I have seen smaller springtails, around a mil, but not any smaller than that. (Just checked my breeding box and most of mine are around 1.5 mil I would say)
Do they look anything like this? http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl...sa%3DN%26um%3D1

If under a mil, then I have no idea what they are!

 

[touchstone]

I'm pretty certain that they will be mites from the hay, they can cause irritation in humans and are visible with the naked eye. If you google hay mites they should have some pics

 

[posie_honey]

lice?!

 

[miss_bird]

They are lice they come off the hay, worst place to put a rug is on a round bale of hay.

 

[CBFan]

Sound like lice to me!

 

[jendie]

That is a good description of what is known as 'walking dandruff' in dogs. The posh name is Cheyletiellosis and it is caused by mites. It is easy to treat, with dogs it responds to something like Frontline.

 

[Vikki89]

They are not on him and are not on any of his other rugs, just on the rug which was on that bale of hay (which i haven't put on him since), others dry their rugs over the hay bales and have never had a problem with it, it just seems to be this one bale.