Ear mite infestations are a nightmare for any cat or dog owner to deal with, without even mentioning the distress the poor afflicted animal goes through. However, in our rush to have the pet's ears treated and disinfected, we often overlook the potential for reinfection from ear mites that have been shaken off into your home's carpets or furniture. Ear mites can only live for a relatively short period when not attached to a living host, but they can reinfect a recently-treated pet alarmingly quickly. They can also be spread very rapidly to any previously unaffected cats or dogs you may have - needless to say, it's important to remove these fugitive ear mites, wherever they may reside.
Disinfecting your carpets
Because ear mites and their eggs are microscopic, a simple vacuuming will not have much luck dislodging mites from their tiny hiding places. As such, it's best to apply more rigorous cleaning techniques. These can include the following:
- Shampoo: A simple carpet shampooing is generally effective enough to scrub away the remaining active mites in a carpet, but for added safety you should ditch the cheap at-home kits and rent a carpet shampooing machine. Alternatively, you can call in professional carpet cleaners from a pest control company that uses powerful anti-septic shampoos to thoroughly cleanse your carpets.
- Diatomaceous earth: Diatomaceous is an incredibly fine powder, consisting mainly of the fossils of ancient algae, that has a wide range of applications. When used against mites living in your carpets, a light, even coating of the powder will quickly sink into the fibres of your carpet. Once there, the microscopic grains of earth kill passing mites by lacerating their exoskeletons with their minuscule, jagged edges. Diatomaceous earth is available for home use or can be applied by pest management professionals but needs to be thoroughly cleaned away once the mite infestation has been eliminated. Make sure that the earth used is always food-grade, as less refined grades can cause serious lung damage to humans and animals.
Removing mites from pet beds, couches, cushions and other soft furniture
Any mites lucky enough to find themselves in the shelter of an armchair or bed can survive longer than those shed onto the carpets, so it's important to take thorough measures to eliminate them quickly. Naturally, this is even more important when it comes to disinfecting your pet's own bed, where the largest concentrations of surviving mites are likely to be hiding.
- Selamectin-based treatments: Selamectin is a safe and effective chemical used in pesticidal treatments, and most reputable anti-mite treatments contain selamectin or selamectin derivatives. These treatments can be applied topically for small areas, but larger pieces of furniture or fabric will need to be washed in pesticidal solution, or professionally cleaned.
- Suffocation: Some larger pieces of soft furniture, such as couches and mattresses, are obviously impractical to clean. Having them professionally cleaned and disinfected is one option, but you can also kill off sheltering ear mites yourself by covering the piece of furniture in an airtight material, such as a latex mattress cover, or even ordinary trash bags. Once the oxygen supplies within the enclosure are depleted, the mites will rapidly die off - make sure to leave the furniture covered for at least three or four days, and clean it thoroughly to remove dead or dying mites.
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