What the heck is this please

[nathmurr]

My girlfriend thought she was bitten the other night so I did a top to bottom search of everything in the bedroom, I looked around every crevice of the mattress and found nothing so I don't think she was being bitten in bed, may just be an allergy or something.
I did however notice a small beetle type bug moving on the skirting board, I found 4 of them, they were under 1mm and very difficult to see, they didn't jump but crawled very slowly, I got some sticky tape and caught them and looked at them under the microscope. They look like ticks but I would have thought are too small to be a tick. Would anyone be able to help me Identify them please? You have to remember that they are very very tiny, I would not have found them if I wasn't really looking, I used a powerful microscope and the pictures are looking through sticky tape so are a little blurred. Yuck I feel itchy now. Thanks in advance

[nathmurr]

I Should have mentioned when I said they are under 1mm they are about 0.5mm-1mm in size

[Tringa]

They do look slightly different to the ticks I am familiar with - a bit too elongated, but they have 8 legs which means they are arachnids, just like ticks. The ticks I have seen recently have also been very small.

Another possibility are mites, which are also eight-legged, but mites are very small and I think even less easy to see.

I'm sure someone with more knowledge than me will be able to help.

Dave

[JRsbugs]

They look like mites, I have some similar which live at the base of my south facing wall. They are usually around 0.5 to 1mm long.

Janet

[Jason Green]

Morning Nathan, and welcme to WAB!

Yes, mites - no idea which though! What microscope are you using? Seems very useful.

Take care,

Jason

[nathmurr]

Thank you, so it is a mite/arachnid, makes sense. my search of google doesn't seem to match this particular mite, at a guess I would say it doesn't feed on humans/animals, the closest I got to a match was a harvest mite but I'm not really sure it is.
i am using a Veho discovery 400x usb microscope, I got it for work as it is useful for investigating electronic defects, you can pick them up for around £50-80. It only has a set magnification though so is sometimes limiting. I will take some better pics later. Thanks for your help I am starting to get a bit closer to identifying it.

[Jason Green]

There seems to be little information around on the UK species as well as size-limitations, and not a group I have a real interest in.

Great shots - I somehow suspected Veho, I've heard a lot about the 400x model. Yes, shame about the two fixed mags, 20 and 400. Maybe an upgrade's in the pipeline, I wouldn't mind one...

[Miss Caretaker]

Whatever they are, just be grateful they aren't the dreaded bed bug!
Jo

[nathmurr]

well it turns out that a lot of people where my girlfriend works has been bitten lately and that there may be an infestation where she works, they don't know what though so they are going to fumigate the place, maybe this is where they came from. I checked the whole bedroom again and can't see anymore of them.
I managed to capture a slightly better image of the underside but it was a bit disconcerting as it was still wriggling around on the sticky tape and moving its head, I managed to capture a video . Still no idea what type of mite it is though.

[jaguarondi]

Looks like an oribatid mite, though I'm no expert. I think occasionally they can accumulate in large numbers on walls, etc. but I've never heard of them biting people.