Pin Oak Mites!

Yesterday GR's young men were asked to provide service to a non-member sister who needed the leaves in her yard raked. They met up at the church and since I had quilting at the same time (9-11), GR took the girls, and I took Sam. From what GR has told me they raked 13-15 bags of leaves for this woman who was very grateful for their service and it didn't seem to take them very long because, 2 hours later they had not only raked all the leaves, but he'd also taken them all out for breakfast at McDonald's. So they made quick work of a big job.

When I got home around 1:30 Rebecca had suspicious red dots all over the side of her face and neck. I instantly pulled up her shirt to investigate her tummy ... last week the "Chickenpox" letter went out to the PM Kindergarten classes because a child in the other PM classroom had a confirmed case of it ... so although they looked like bug bites, we made calls to the Grandma's to find out what the first signs of chickenpox looks like. And we gave her the first of many doses of benadryl

These bites look very much like chiggers, but they develop a very small white head - like a pimple, and become welts like mosquito bites can.

While at a friends last night I was describing Becca's bites to Steve who said... Ahh, we had the same thing two weeks ago when we were up (NE) at my Mom's. He and Kathy had raked leaves all afternoon and that night tons of little red bites appeared all over the upper portions of their bodies. Turns out they are Pin Oak Mites, and they have been a huge problem in eastern Nebraska and Kansas. They live in the tree and "rain" down when the wind blows and the leaves fall, and my little girl is covered in these horrific little bites.

All of GR's young men have them, but none to the extent that Rebecca has them. Even Emily managed to come home with only 2-3 bites. Becca literally has 50+ on her face (one under each eye, and one on her left eye lid), neck, upper chest, upper back and lower back. She is miserable and looks it too. Kathy put calamine lotion on her bites last night which kind of helped, and this morning we started with benadryl again, which for the time seems to be the biggest help other than total distraction.