Neem oil (product) for mites in the house?

by Susan
(Massachusetts)

We have recently felt something biting us in the house. We cannot see anything but are pretty sure it is some kind of invisible mite. I have read a lot about treating animals and plants but nothing about spraying furniture, carpeting, the floor or the walls. I would like to use neem but cannot find instructions on mixing for general house spraying.

I am also wondering if it will stain furnishings as it is an oil. Also, how long does it take for the smell to dissipate? Do mites need to ingest it for it to work?

I would appreciate any information you could give me. Thank you.

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Neem oil (product) for mites in the house?

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House mites don't bite
by: Birgit

Hi Susan,

"I would like to use neem but cannot find instructions on mixing for general house spraying."

Insects are insects, mites are mites etc. It doesn't matter where they are, you still need to add soap to warm water and then neem oil to dissolve the oil.

(I do mention on several pages that any left over solution can be on floor boards, rugs, animal bedding etc. Looks like I need to make that clearer...)

How concentrated you make that neem oil solution depends on what pest you are dealing with and not so much where you spray it.

Since you don't know what you are dealing with I can't say much. Mites are usually easy to deal with, but the kind that bite you don't live invisibly in the house. They live on you. The mites that live in the house don't bite.

And no, they don't need to ingest it. If you read through the neem and scabies pages you will see that the traditional treatment for scabies mites is a neem leaf paste that you put on your skin. It works VERY well.

Fleas and lice also respond very well to neem. But in all those cases the first course of attack is to use neem products on yourself.

"Also, how long does it take for the smell to dissipate?"

It can take a few days. It depends on the nature of the materials you are spraying, the concentration of the neem solution, how often and how much you spray (depends on the kind of bug and severity of the problem), but also what else you do in the house, how big it is, how much air flows through it etc.

Depending on where neem oils come from and how they were processed they will have different smells. You may just have to try it out with a little and see how you and your family copes.

Another option is to use neem leaf extract instead, or neem leaf powder or granules. That does not smell. However, it depends what you are dealing with. If you don't know what bug you are fighting then you don't know where exactly it is hiding.
Continued from above...
by: B.

"I am also wondering if it will stain furnishings as it is an oil."

You are not spraying oil. If you look at the recipes, you are spraying water with a little neem oil added and the neem oil is dissolved with soap, so it isn't oily.

That doesn't mean it can't do harm. But it really depends what you put it on. You know what furniture you have and how delicate or precious it may be. I suggest you do a test application on any piece of furnishing that you are concerned about: on the underside of that expensive carpet, the back of that antique chest, a dark corner of the wall in the pantry...

Anyway, mites don't live on furniture surfaces or walls, so this is not something I would spray anyway. It's more the wooly stuff... If you have some parasite infestation, no matter what it is, you need a targeted approach, not a bit of general house spraying.

I think what you really need to figure out first is what you are dealing with. If it is something that can only survive if it feeds on your blood, then the priority is to protect yourself.
neem powder
by: Anonymous

can you use neem powder and mix a paste to combat scabies?
Neem powder paste for scabies mites
by: Birgit

Yes, you can. But do read through all the neem scabies info here.
Scabies can be a hard one to eradicate, but some readers have been quite successful and there are some good tips for persistent cases.
mites that bite
by: Anonymous

Hi Susan,

We have the same problem in our house for several years. There are some invisible bugs that bite and crawl on your body. It seems that they like to live on your bed and in the blanket. We recently found that having the rooms well lighted would reduce their population so we put large neon light in every room. Sometimes we see gnats flying in the house so I wonder if these biting bugs are actually gnats. Hope someone can help answer our questions.
Bird mites do bite!
by: Kathy

I have an infestation of bird mites in my duplex from a bird nest in the fireplace chimney. Once the birds left, the mites decided to come down the chimney and infiltrate EVERYTHING in my home, including my small dog and I. It is a nightmare! Some of them are microscopic and you can't see them without a microscope but you can feel them crawling up your legs and biting you. I have tried many things to get rid of them but have not been very successful so far. Bought some Neem oil yesterday as it was mentioned at www.birdmites.org several times as being helpful. I hope this works or I will have to move and send all my furniture to the dump; truly a heartbreaking thought.

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