# Damn Oak Leaf Gall Mites to Hell and Back **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 19, 2007, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-oak-leaf-gall-mites-to-hell-and-back/416155 "2007-08-19T17:23:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-oak-leaf-gall-mites-to-hell-and-back/416155/1 "2007-08-19T17:23:55Z")
This is my pitting. I am covered with lesions from the pesky new pest in IL, one _pyemotes herfis_. This afterthought of evolution (it serves no useful purpose that I can find) is too small to see, but falls on you from oak trees and burrows under your skin. 10-16 hours later, you have large red welts that itch like the devil. Here’s more about them: [Satan’snewinstrumentoftorture](http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/health/chi-web_itchmiteaug15,0,3668262,print.story?coll=chi-sportsbears-ut) I have at least 12 mite bites. I itch all over. Hydrocortisone cream does little. Benadryl knocks me out-useful, but not practical for daily living. I would stomp and pound and swear, but truthfully, I’m too busy scratching. First the cicadas, now this. This summer has SUCKED and needs to end. Anyone else infested with these noxious things? Fuck. (obligatory) ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-oak-leaf-gall-mites-to-hell-and-back/416155/2 "2007-08-19T17:29:47Z")
Holy hell, that sounds _miserable_. We are apparently lucking out here in DFW, as I haven’t heard or experienced this, and I tend to be the first one the biting insects go for. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-oak-leaf-gall-mites-to-hell-and-back/416155/3 "2007-08-19T17:57:15Z")
They were originally found in Kansas, so don’t get too complacent. Don’t they say things are bigger in Texas? 😛 The one that is really bothering me is the one just below my left eye–it is now swollen and red. I look like an alien. Ok, so it’s turned from pitting to pity party. Sue me. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-oak-leaf-gall-mites-to-hell-and-back/416155/4 "2007-08-19T18:48:18Z")
This thread confuses me. Once you have them damned to Hell, why would you want them back? ---
**Author:** ![Scruloose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Scruloose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruloose)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-oak-leaf-gall-mites-to-hell-and-back/416155/5 "2007-08-19T18:58:32Z")
Oak Leaf Gall Mites! Mmm mmm! Sure are fun to scratch! Mmm! Satisfying! [/Ned Flanders] I actually have a few bites, as does my son, and I suspect the little mites are to blame. Fortunately, we only have about three spots each, so it’s tolerable. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-oak-leaf-gall-mites-to-hell-and-back/416155/6 "2007-08-19T19:09:32Z")
Jebus! Now I’m itching and I haven’t even been NEAR a tree in the last week… _squirm_ ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-oak-leaf-gall-mites-to-hell-and-back/416155/7 "2007-08-19T19:53:23Z")
I hate them. My husband has bites, I have them, all of his postal coworkers who walk their routes have them. Bastard bugs. I went to a dermatologist because I had a secondary infection at a bite site that appeared to be working its way up my arm; got some corticosteroids, some antibiotics for the infection, and his sincere wishes for an early fall so they’ll all go away. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-oak-leaf-gall-mites-to-hell-and-back/416155/8 "2007-08-19T20:58:49Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] This thread confuses me. Once you have them damned to Hell, why would you want them back? [/QUOTE] Well, so much for speaking metaphorically. Then again, I picture to hell and back as sort of a pinball approach: the mites go to hell and then just bounce around hell–back and forth. Whatever, they’re not bothering ME anymore. I heard that frost doesn’t kill them, but I’m ignoring that bit of info… ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-oak-leaf-gall-mites-to-hell-and-back/416155/9 "2007-08-19T21:17:20Z")
Holy Festering Pinhead, Batman, you have those? The first night they showed them on the news, they showed some old guy with them all over - then he lifted his shirt and if that wasn’t bad enough, they then zoomed in so that one single sore took up my entire goddamned 36 inch HD picture. And, I was eating dinner. ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-oak-leaf-gall-mites-to-hell-and-back/416155/10 "2007-08-19T21:20:52Z")
Wow another reason oak tree’s suck. I’d never heard of these things. Do I have them in new england and just attribute them to mosquito bites or something? ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-oak-leaf-gall-mites-to-hell-and-back/416155/11 "2007-08-19T21:20:57Z")
C’mere, lemme give you a hug. \ ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-oak-leaf-gall-mites-to-hell-and-back/416155/12 "2007-08-19T21:59:27Z")
My husband and my daughter seem to have them…my husband says they itch like crazy, but so far my daughter hasn’t complained too much, thank goodness (she always seems pretty tolerant of discomfort, for a toddler!) I’m worried I will get them, because I’m the opposite…even mosquito bites make me nuts. When I was a kid, I would scratch them until they bled. I saw a map of the worst areas for these things, and my zip code is right in the middle of it. Yikes! ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2007, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-oak-leaf-gall-mites-to-hell-and-back/416155/13 "2007-08-19T23:05:22Z")
Dunno if they’re in New England, yet–apparently they came to us from Kansas. Thanks, land o’ Dorothy. Mine only itch on and off–but when they itch, it’s like they’re on fire. I am very fair skinned, so any red anything on me makes me looked diseased–you can imagine how attractive I look now. They can be tender to touch, too, so it’s fun all 'round. ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2007, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-oak-leaf-gall-mites-to-hell-and-back/416155/14 "2007-08-20T15:02:55Z")
We’ve got the big fist-sized lumps of oak galls in the trees and on the ground, but I’ve never seen the mites or been bitten by them. And I pick up dozens of these things every week (they come from the oak trees in the neighbor’s yard.) ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2007, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damn-oak-leaf-gall-mites-to-hell-and-back/416155/15 "2007-08-20T21:19:22Z")
Yikes! I have never heard of these things! Please keep them in Illinois. In fact I declare the southern border of Wisconsin CLOSED until you figure out how to nuke them from orbit.