Hi all, I am really looking for some advice and hoping someone has an answer!! Sorry for the long post, the TLDR questions are at the end if you want to scroll past.
I live in Tokyo in a sharehouse, it is not very old and has wooden floors and the rooms have proper bedframes and mattresses, no tatami or futons. I like to think I’m a clean and tidy person (I hoover weekly and wash my bedding weekly) but this week I got an infestation of mites (I think). They are absolutely tiny and I noticed them first on the wall and windowsill near my bed. I was worried they were coming out of my aircon unit so stopped using it for the past 4 days. It was only a few mites at first but then on Wednesday (3 days ago) I woke up with 2 crawling on my face, 5 on my glasses that were on my windowsill, and multiple others on my sheet and pillow. They were crawling across my phone and also on my desk on the other side of the room. After googling, I surmised they are most probably dani (ダニ), Japanese dust mites. I think they are not bed bugs because they are simply too small, I have no itchiness or recognisable bed bug bites, there are no markings anywhere around my mattress and no blood on the sheet. So on Wednesday I hoovered and mopped the floors, washed the walls and windows, washed all my curtains, my bedding (pillow case & duvet cover) and bought dani asu (ダニアーススプレー). I sprayed down the mattress, duvet, pillow, curtains, window sills etc multiple times. I had not turned the aircon on since Tuesday and left it off. On Thursday, after these efforts, I saw only one on the wall all day. Yesterday (Friday) again, I only saw one again. I thought I had hopefully made some good efforts towards fixing the problem and had bought the preventative sticky sheets etc. I had also bought a Barusan (バルサン) fumigation cannister but thought perhaps I had sorted it without resorting to extreme measures.
However, as I had realised I mostly saw them coming down the wall from my aircon unit, which I had only started turning on for the first time about 2 weeks ago, I told my landlady who sent someone round to deep clean it today. He said they weren’t dani (because they crawled instead of hopping about?) and he didn’t know what they were, he also said they probably didn’t come out of the aircon unit. However, after cleaning it he turned it on full blast. This was the first time it had been on since Tuesday. He has just left and I have immediately found 6 on my bed, 2 on my window sill and 1 on my fridge (on the other side of the room). I am so certain they are from the aircon from this. I don’t know what they are or how to exterminate them! So your advice and knowledge is greatly appreciated.
QUESTIONS:
1. Does anyone have any experience with these bugs? I tried my best with the photos / videos to get the size scale. Some have been near white, some darker in colour. My best guess is dust or mould mites (the aircon technician said the aircon was very mouldy). Also I have not really noticed many obvious new bites of the same size (I have a few bites of different sizes in various places but it is nearly summer and I sit on my balcony a lot so don’t want to blame the tiny bugs without proof) so dust or mould mites makes sense as they don’t bite. If you know what they are, that is the best first step!
2. I have bought a Barusan (バルサン) fumigation canister for the room but the information online encourages removing so many things from the room when you fumigate, including clothes. If the mites have travelled across to my fridge, they are certainly on my clothes (my ‘wardrobe’ is an open railing right by my bed) so I want to fumigate the clothes if possible but I’m scared of damaging things. Has anyone used Barusan and, if so, did you leave clothes / toiletries / anything valuable in the room?
\^ I can’t wash most of my clothes at the needed temperature to kill dust mites so can’t use that solution.
3. If I am correct and these things are gusting in whenever I turn the aircon on, I am at a loss as to how to stop it being a reoccuring issue all summer… any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much for your help, Reddit!
by Ok-Restaurant7175
