Hay lice

[lyrasdemon]

Hello folks, this is my first post and I have been trying for a little while to get an answer to my question, maybe here I have struck lucky.

I grew up on a farm in Lancashire and used to 'help' with the haymaking or at least get as involved as I could. I remember taking my pumps off at night and as well as a small pile of hay and dust, a lot of hay lice would be there. My brothers still farm and very occasionally make hay, but I haven't seen any hay lice since I was a girl.

These hay lice, for such they were called, were a tan brown and about 2 or 3mm long as far as I remember, and they were more like beetles than lice. I only ever saw them in hay.

Can anyone tell me what they were?

[Johnny Redgate]

Hi Lyrasdemon
I'd like to know the answer to this too. I slept in a hay barn once when I was a lad on a walking trip in The Peak (nearly 30 years ago). Those lice got absolutely everywhere - in my food, clothes, rucksack, sleeping bag the lot. Never slept in a hay barn since, straw everytime for me. I make my own hay every year now and I don't see the lice either.

[lyrasdemon]

Hi Johnny
Thanks for the reply; strange how such very common creatures are so difficult to identify, or have they died out....? They have or had a very particular niche, I suppose, being only seen in freshly made hay.
Teresa

[Johnny Redgate]

Hi
a quick bit of googling and it seems that adult harvest mite Trombicula autumnalis is the most likely culprit. It has not died out by any means. One web page suggests that they are more common in chalky (and presumably limestone) areas which would explain my unpleasant night in the Peak Distirct (near Tissington) and also why I'm not seeing them on the farm here which is moderately acidic soil. Maybe someone else will know more. The larvae can be a pest and cause skin irritation.

[lyrasdemon]

Hello again,
I just googled trombicula autumnalis and it is not, I'm pretty sure, the insect I remember. In fact to call my remembered insects hay lice is a misnomer because they were like tiny beetles with no legs sticking out like the pics for trombicula have. Also they were harmless, did not bite, and they were narrower and longer than the trombicula, about 2mm long, which is bigger, I think.
Back to the drawing board. I am going to ask anyone I know who makes hay (2 people!) if they see any these days, a picture would be invaluable.
Thanks for looking though and for teasing more information out of me! I'm thinking that what you saw in Derbyshire were trombicula if they bit you...
Best wishes
Teresa

[Johnny Redgate]

Isn't it justthe larvae that bite, not the adults?

[lyrasdemon]

Ah yes, you're right, either way I wasn't bitten by anything around hay back then, thankfully, just scratched a lot.