Question

Bathroom Mite   We recently found mites in the office bathroom on the 8th floor of our building in Pittsburgh PA. They are mostly located on the urinal. One of our team picked some up using tape and took them home to look at through his digital microscope. Attached is the image he returned with today. Can you identify this mite? What steps should our building manager take to kill them off? Could this have been caused by someone's bad hygiene?

Answer
Josh,

I think this mite may have come from outside. These mites are associated with bird and rodent nests and move into building when nests are abandoned by the host animals. See http://www.livingwithbugs.com/bird_mites.html for more details about these mites. Cleaning is usually all that is necessary to eliminate the mites once the animal nests are removed.

Jack DeAngelis