Sheffield Daily Telegraph – Friday 19 October 1928

Red Mites.

Expert’s Report to Swinton Urban Council.

It was reported some time ago that houses on an estate belonging the Swinton Urban District Council were infested with insects. Specimens of the pests, which caused householders considerable alarm, have been submitted by Mr. Horace Birks, Councils engineer and surveyor, to Mr. J. W. Baggaley, Curator Weston Park Museum, Sheffield, whose report will doubtless of interest other local authorities experiencing similar trouble.

Mr. Baggaley says;— The creatures you submitted for examination are red mites (Bryobia praetiosa). There is nothing in the occurrence of these mites in houses that need cause the slightest alarm to occupants. They are quite harmless to human beings, to household goods, and property. In habit they are strictly vegetarian, feeding the juices of plants, grass, and other herbage, and they are inclined to be very abundant about land that is uncultivated. Warm dry weather is favourable to the rapid increase in numbers of those mites, and many find their way into houses.

They soon die, however, but in dry weather their numbers are frequently replaced by fresh invasions from outside. The point to bear in mind is that they do not breed in houses, and that fresh entry is constantly being gained when conditions are favourable for their increase out of doors. As new estates get settled red mites tend disappear, as they find that proximity to the habitation man is not conducive to their welfare. Fumigation and similar methods simply destroy those already in the house, but not prevent fresh invasions afterwards, therefore there is no necessity to cause the discomfort and annoyance this procedure entails.

“The simplest plan, as a remedial measure, is to wipe up the creatures when seen in the window bottoms, etc., with a damp cloth, and to do this as occasion requires.”