Hay mites?

On another thread, a member posted that she had purchased ordinary hay one time and that it had been infested with hay mites.

I researched and hay can indeed carry the little varmints.

Pet store/rabbit food company hay didn't get the same kind of thumbs down. I'm wondering if the companies treat their hay since it wouldn't make sense that the mites would avoid a bale just because it was in an Oxbow warehouse. I'm wondering where briefly freezing a section of hay in a large chest freezer (in a bag) would put the varmints down.

Any thoughts/ideas/experiences?

No matter where you buy hay, its from a field. A field that probably houses rabbits/cats/foxes/cockroaches (even in the UK!)/mice/rats/mites/fleas/lice etc. Hay mites are also known as 'Granary Mites' or 'Flour Mites', they usually infest pantrys and cupboard that have oats/bran/cereals in them, they need 2 things, humidity and food. Hay can be food for them at a push, and its often kept in a bag/box which increases humidity so you create the perfect envoirment for hay/flour/granary mites. Take the hay out of the box or bag it comes in, if its in the box give the box to the bunnies , store it in a pillow case/duvet cover or similar and store it in a dark, dry place. Hay should also be kept out of sun as much as possible as well as it degrades nutrition.

Hi,

Parasites such as mites, fleas, etc. actually come off rodents such as mice and rats that are present in barnswherehay is stored. This is usually found at farms that store hay long term. The commercially available (store brand) hays are not usually stored in this manner. The large hay providers have better controls. I buy a lot of local farm hay.....and have never experineced any parasites. I buy from people that have hay for very expensive horses....and that is the key to getting good local hay. Buy it from high end horse people. Some horses are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and more so nobody would risk a horse's health on a seven dollar bale of hay.....horse people are going to have clean, high quality hay.

It would not be advisable to freeze hay. Mycotoxins, which are deadly, can form due to temperature extremes (high or low). Mycotoxins can affect any brand of hay or any natural product. The majority of my hay comes from three providers that I have found are superior to other brandsand I have never had a complaint or problem with the quality of hay (other than the shipping costs which isn't in the control of the hay people) and they are Sweet Meadow Farm (even our cottontails and squirrels will eat this), Bunny Bale and Kleenmama.

The best way to avoid these problems are to buy a high quality hay from a large provider of hay or buy from high end horse barns.

Randy