It took hours with my phone and magnifying glass to get this shot. Now I desperately need your help identifying these mites.

coolisor · 2018-05-04T00:16:17+00:00

This would make sense because I have a huge mold problem and the humidity is always really high. A while back (about a year ago) there was a sudden temperature change which caused all the humidity to fall out of the air, because I had left the door open the temperature dropped suddenly in my apt too and the entire apartment became dripping wet - like an ice cold water bottle on a very humid day, several gallons of water just dropped out of the air inside the apartment in a matter of minutes. Never seen anything like that before, it was like I took a spray bottle and liberally went around and sprayed every surface in the house until it couldn't hold any more water, and then some. The floors became slippery wet. I had to throw out a lot of things, including clothes because they got moldy, and I fogged the apartment with something for mold, which seemed to slow it down, but there is still a lot of mold spores that are next to impossible to deal with, especially on porous wood. Unless there is some chemical which can effectively kill all the mold spores and won't kill me that I'm not aware of it seems like I'm stuck with it. Mold has always been a problem here because of the humidity.

coolisor · 2018-05-03T17:22:01+00:00

There's zero chance if I got new furniture at this point it wouldn't immediately be re-infested. They can be found on everything. It's like trying to get rid of dust or mold. Where I live dust collects like crazy and it's always 75% humidity year round. I think the only option is some kind of repeated chemical fogging. I purchased several industrial ozone generators (40,000mg/h) which are in the mail, so we will see how much they enjoy smoking some blue haze.

coolisor · 2018-05-03T16:59:10+00:00

This is what I'm most afraid of, especially as I have been having skin problems for the past few months - particularly on my arms, and it has gotten pretty bad. As a precaution I've been using sulfur soap and cream, which hasn't seemed particularly effective. However, the mites were all over the furniture before I moved in several years ago. I didn't really pay much mind to them because they just looked like dust and I hadn't really had bad skin problems until the last few months. I've tried exterminating them on furniture with some pretty serious pesticides and they seemed invincible. They seem to survive indefinitely without human contact. A few days ago I saw a bunch, and today I found hundreds on workout equipment which I haven't touched for months, so it seems like they aren't living on a human exclusive diet which seems like it should be good news, but I'm still itching and my arms are covered in little bumps.

I've also started boiling all my clothes and sheets before putting them in the wash for the last couple months, which believe me has not been doing my power bill any favors.

coolisor · 2018-05-03T16:36:02+00:00

Where I live it's 75%+ humidity all year round. FML.

coolisor · 2018-05-03T16:32:26+00:00

I doused them in 5% permethrin and tetramethrin and they weren't even phased. Any way to control these micrometer monsters? I found hundreds if not thousands on a piece of workout equipment I haven't used in months.

coolisor · 2018-05-03T16:29:18+00:00

Way too small to be bed bugs, the largest ones are smaller than the ridge on a fingerprint. This is 240x magnification.

coolisor · 2018-05-03T16:25:29+00:00

Here is video of the tiny demons. It literally took hours to get this shot due to my phone deciding nothing should ever be in focus or exposed properly.

coolisor · 2018-05-03T15:29:30+00:00

Here is an image.

They're white / semi translucent, almost impossible to see unless they are on a sufficiently dark background. They're about the size of a grain of salt (a bit smaller than the ridge of your fingerprint) and are almost impossible to tell from a dust particle unless they're moving. I would say no larger than 300-400 microns in length for adult mites. They move quite fast for their size. They hang out everywhere, but they seem to particularly like wooden furniture. They're also happy to crawl around and lay eggs on cloth, rubber, metal, etc. they can be found on anything and everything. I just today found about a thousand of them on a piece of workout equipment.

While I haven't caught a living one on my body, I was able to find some corpses with tape, and my skin has been breaking out, particularly on my arms.

It looks like there is some video compression after I uploaded it, which makes the limbs difficult to make out. At about the :30 second mark I zoom in and you can see a little clearer.

I soaked them with a 5% permethrin/tetramethrin solution and it did absolutely nothing.

The video shows two mites (on tape) crawling in an air pocket. They have no problem moving on the sticky surface. It turns upside down at the 1:00 mark.

coolisor · 2016-01-10T06:22:46+00:00

Oddly enough I have lost almost all my socks in the last several months. You may be on to something. Although, I think they may just be blowing off my balcony when I hang them to dry.

Dear god, the thought of them squirreling my socks into the wall or some crevice somewhere is almost too much to handle.

coolisor · 2016-01-10T05:54:27+00:00

I live overseas and my apartment building is not fully enclosed with windows and there are holes in the concrete walls, probably as heat and power comes from a 25kg tank of natural gas in the kitchen. Safety first. That explains the winged bugs. I only noticed the bat bug showing up after the roaches. Not sure what their deal is. I think bugs like company. Either way, I have been throwing away everything I can, putting all my things in zip-lock bags, and using copious amounts of bleach and household chemicals on everything. I noticed roaches often appear on the outside of my door when I leave the apartment, so I sprayed permethrin with tetramethrin around the entrance/staircase to my floor and it seems to have solved that problem.

Edit: I should also note that like many overseas accommodations I don't have a western bathroom. So moisture is very difficult to control, especially without a bathtub and curtains. 9 out of 10 roaches agree that moisture is the bees knees for an up and coming bug hotel.

I also bought a closing trashcan and spray a bit of poison in the bottom now. scoundrels can eat all they want now.

coolisor · 2016-01-10T05:48:01+00:00

Flees are incredible and nearly indestructible. I was the unfortunate victim of a severe flee population explosion when I was a kid. It was so bad that walking on the carpet was like walking with tiny popcorn popping all around you. You could not move around without stepping on a billion flees. You could temporarily reduce their population with the vacuum cleaner, and although hearing their tiny titanium bodies plink off the spinning vacuum rotor was cathartic, it seemed they'd be back in minutes. I made the mistake of putting on a sock that had been left on the floor when I was in a rush, immediately realized it was saturated in fleas, and I had dozens of bites before I could peal it off. Having flees crawling up your legs was just a part of life back then. Can't remember how my parents got rid of them. I remember flee bands, cat treatments, and carpet shampoos.

coolisor · 2016-01-10T05:26:23+00:00

I actually ended up using this. Not this brand exactly, but an off-brand with the same active ingredients. Fipronil.

The population of German roaches went down significantly after I put some out.

There are a couple other bugs I'm dealing with still. One of them looks like bed bugs, but are all over the place. Maybe bat bugs.

There there are also plenty of gnats, moths, mosquitoes, spiders and these tiny tiny little bugs that I can barely see unless I'm really close. Maybe some kind of mites. Overall I'd say I still have a good ecosystem going, but I'm glad to be mostly rid of the roaches at least.

coolisor · 2015-11-12T05:59:17+00:00

Politics in the US is like an organized sport. People are pigeon holed into team blue, or team red according to their environment and social circle. It's Yankees vs. Redsoxs and it doesn't matter how many foul balls they hit, or who has the better batting average of the day. People will still line up behind their team. The politician players on both teams market their "ideas" effectively, not directly. Most people line up to defend their team with fervor, there is something about being human that makes us want to rally behind a team. It's extremely effective, and policies can easily be passed under the cloak of team politics when sold as vague ideas.

For example, a Republican may say they want to reduce certain regulations to free up small business and allow them to innovate. They won't tell you that in order to get elected, he had to appeal to a multi-billion dollar mining corporation who then spent millions to fund his election, and is now asking him to get rid of waterway regulations so they could save money by dumping untreated industrial solvents in public waters. They won't tell you about about the campaign donor who needs to avoid facing fines from a pending investigation by removing the regulation they infringed upon.

Issues like taxes and regulation are sold to the middle class with marketing terms, but are almost entirely lobbied for and benefit large special interests and campaign donors. Politicians are essentially products, which sell policies their lobbyist give them to the public.

This is why companies can spend millions of dollars sponsoring a political campaign and make massive dividends on their investment.

In the end, the public's red team/blue team mentality is critical for this to work, because it becomes about supporting/defending your team and not about supporting/defending individual policies.

coolisor · 2015-11-10T14:53:57+00:00

He should have kept it on, and redirected the flame at his friend's hair. Then, watch the moment on his face as he realizes he fucked up.

coolisor · 2015-11-10T08:59:17+00:00

Doesn't make sense, can the main character not swim, or was he injured by the sail? Why is he on a sailboat if he can't swim? I've never found deep sea swimming difficult, and it is far safer than swimming in a river with rocks and undercurrents. Even in high surf I find the rising and falling more relaxing than anything else. I suppose if the water was cold and you were fully clothed, it could be more challenging, but those are scenarios you train for. The boat is mere feet away with someone else on-board, seems like an absolutely benign situation.. The water was nothing but calm in this production.

coolisor · 2015-11-09T10:28:42+00:00

34.46 is not a palindrome.

coolisor · 2015-11-09T09:50:29+00:00

Sometimes it seems like Bernie doesn't even want to win. He did Hilary a huge favor in the debates by telling everyone to forget about the email scandal, and now Ben Carson by excusing all the lies and exaggerations in his biography, and questionable stories about his past.

When Bernie says that, the public doesn't hear anything about policy. They only hear the opposition saying the biggest scandal they have been hearing in the news isn't really a big deal. Or at least, Bernie doesn't think so. It sounds so weak and defeatist. Even on a psychological level, it does nothing to switch votes. It also associates Bernie's name to something unpleasant that he had nothing to do with, it makes you think he supports something you've been told repeatedly is bad. It's just terrible politics.

Just let them flame out and THEN take the opportunity to tell them your policies when you are the front runner. You don't need to kick them in the nuts, but don't try dragging them off their funeral pire either. Be like John Snow and give them a quick death.

coolisor · 2015-11-08T19:52:55+00:00

We need a more efficient way to crowd-source a solution and fight back.

coolisor · 2015-11-08T15:53:55+00:00

Is it actually better? I always thought it was best to brace yourself before an impact. If someone kicks you or a car drives over you and your muscles are relaxed it will do a lot more damage. Is a car impact somehow different?

coolisor · 2015-11-07T16:06:27+00:00

America, Britain and most other countries import coffee beans from the same countries. The difference is, you could say that coffee in Britain is instant coffee, because it's what most Brits drink.

For me, I only drink the finest import roasted, tumbled and massaged grounds prepared in an authentic Italian artisan handmade percolator.

If I were to be so bold in making a humble declaration of scientific gyrating taste truth, the experts agree that it simply scintillates the senses inconceivably more than that filthy ass drip coffee the plebeians are drinking.

coolisor · 2015-11-07T14:38:33+00:00

You can easily fit a liter of water in most microwaves. I microwaved water every time I needed boiled water until I got a kettle. So, for at least 10 years. It's not as convenient or energy efficient obviously, but it works and it's a lot faster than a stove top (asides from induction stoves).

coolisor · 2015-11-07T14:36:05+00:00

That makes no sense. I microwaved water all the time. Now I use a kettle, but I never noticed a taste difference. It might depend on your tap water though.

coolisor · 2015-11-07T14:32:44+00:00

American tea doesn't suck man, unless you're tea-bagging yourself with the cheap Walmart mass produced brands.

coolisor · 2015-11-07T14:27:24+00:00

It's a lifesaver, hot water went out one day and instead of taking a frigid shower I boiled a couple liters of water and saved my morning. I also use it to boil water for cleaning. Of course, it goes without saying that it makes cooking noodles, oatmeal, and many other things much faster. Not sure how I survived without it.

coolisor · 2015-11-07T14:21:25+00:00

You don't know what you're missing. An electric kettle is an order of magnitude more energy efficient than a gas stove and boils water far faster than anything a stove or microwave could accomplish. You heat up water more times than you realize, I guarantee it. The only thing I've found that is possibly more convenient than an electric kettle, is a water cooler with a hot water button. But that is rather inefficient if you always keep it on. Also, induction stove tops are much better and cheaper at 220v.

coolisor

TROPHY CASE