Help.Good time and bad times.............

[Guest]

Come home today from a week in Orlando and found 23 eggs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Pretty good start for a second year newbie huh.And I have many many nests that are in the process of being completed.......now the bad news..nasty mites.before I went to Orlando I dusted for them and still found a few..alot less than2 weeks ago.I am assuming they are mites(pink little bugs very small on the outside of the gourds)How do you get completely rid of them and what is the best procedure????

[Mary Dawnsong]

Bird nest mites are black and that's the kind I have experience with.
See this article "What's Bugging your Birds".
Scroll down towards the end and see the mites covering a man's hand:
http://www.purplemartin.org/update/Parasites.html

I don't know what the pink insects are. Possibly some variety of southern mite or other arachnid? Are they inside the nest or just outside?

[Sigundo]

I have the pink ones here too. Never found them inside the martins nests, but they are all over anything near my dogwood tree (the only tree I have on the property, and the main source of martin nest padding for my birds).

I have no clue what they really are, they dont bite but I don't like them at all, they were all over my little goldfish pond and everything, except actually IN the water (though the goldfish would have eaten them if they landed in the water). The fact they were under the dogwood tree makes me think they hatch in it.

[Guest]

Mary they are not mites....they are pink and very small and I have only seen them outside the gourds.they would be very hard to see if you do not look closely.........who knows????I will try to get a pic tommorrow during nest checks.

[Mary Dawnsong]

I did a quick google search and found lots of info on European Red Mites and Southern Red Mites. They look like what you described. They are leaf eaters. The European Red Mite is an introduced species that apparently causes a lot of damage in orchards.

If that's what you have, then there is probably no need to take steps to protect your martins from them.

[Guest]

Brought in with the green leaves to the nest maybe????

[Mary Dawnsong]

Could be!

Here are photos of European Red Mites:
http://www.hortnet.co.nz/key/stone/damk ... mftcx1.htm

Maybe just Good Times!!!