This guide will reveal the causes of clover mites in bed.
You’ll find out why clover mites enter homes and how they get onto your bed.
Plus, there are also hacks to get rid of clover mites from your bed and prevent them from coming back.
Primary Causes For Clover Mites In Bed
Clover mites reach your bed when they’re inside your house and looking for food and shelter.
Clover mites are active during the spring and fall months.
When the temperatures start to rise or drop, these mites start to look out for alternative hiding places.
That’s when clover mites enter homes.
Another reason for clover mites to move inside human homes, and spread to unlikely places like bathroom and bedroom, is when there’s a population outburst of clover mites at your outdoors.
Too many clover mites, and limited food sources cause the clover mites to migrate to other places.
And they’ll sneak inside the house through the gaps and cracks on the walls, doors, and windowsills.
Clover mites, being tiny red bugs in bed, can trick you into thinking that they’re bed bugs.
Later in the post you’ll find out how to differentiate between clover mites and bed bugs.
But before that let’s get into how to get rid of clover mites in bed.
How To Get Rid Of Clover Mites In Bed?
Cleaning the bed with a vacuum cleaner is the best way to get rid of clover mites in bed. Also, follow it up by washing the bed linen in hot water.
You can also use an insecticide spray on the clover mites to neutralize them. But with clover mites in the house, insecticide sprays are not necessary.
Clover mites secrete a red fluid if they’re crushed. They’re tender bugs. So, you might crush them while vacuuming the bed.
The red liquid that splashes out of clover mites cause red stains that are hard to remove.
So, be a bit cautious while using the vacuum cleaner to ensure that you don’t crush these tiny red mites.
If there are clover mites in your bed, then chances are there are more clover mites elsewhere in your home.
So, clean your furnishings like couches, curtains, drapes, wooden furniture, rugs, and carpets to remove possible clover mites hiding in them.
The key to prevent clover mites in your bed is to prevent them from entering your home.
Here’s how you can do it.
How To Prevent Clover Mites?
Use a miticide spray directly on the clover mites at your outdoors. You must use this method only if the infestation is heavy.
Using a strong jet of water on the clover mites also kills clover mites. And it’s the best method when the there aren’t too many clover mites.
Clover mites use the thin gaps and tiny holes on the walls, windows, and doorways to get inside the house.
So, seal those cracks.
Also, use a repellant like peppermint oil spray on the windowsills and doorways.
Create a barrier by spraying the peppermint oil two feet high on the wall from the ground and two feet wide from the base of the house on the ground.
They hate the smell of the peppermint and keep away from the places that smells minty.
Clover mites use the branches and twigs that are touching the home’s windows and walls to get inside the house.
So, remove unnecessary shrubs and bushes along the home’s perimeter. And chop off any twigs or branches that are close to the windows.
You might have to repeat these steps few times in a week during the fall and spring when the clover mites are active.
Are Clover Mites Harmful?
Clover mites are harmless bugs. They don’t bite and they don’t cause any diseases either.
They’re nuisance pests that enter homes and leave those reddish stains if they get crushed.
Bed Bugs Vs. Clover Mites
Clover mites in bed can trick you into thinking that they’re bed bugs.
It’s because both are tiny. And the red fluid that clover mites secrete when you crush them can make you believe that it’s a bed bug that had its blood meal.
However, you can easily distinguish between clover mites and bed bugs by noticing the following points –
Shape
Bed bugs are flat and oval. They look like an apple seed.
Clover mites are not flat. They’ve got two long frontal legs that are noticeable. Bed bugs don’t have such legs.
Color
Bed bugs are reddish brown. Clover mites are dark red and can appear tiny red dots.
Size
Bed bugs are bigger than clover mites. An adult bed bug is 3/16 inches in size.
And it can look bigger if it had it’s bloodmeal.
Most bed bugs are invisible during the day because they’re nocturnal.
Only in case of severe bed bug infestation you can see bed bugs during the day.
In comparison, clover mites are tiny. They’re 1/30 inches in size.
And clover mites appear as tiny moving dots on the bed.
If you hold a magnifying glass on a clover mite, it’ll resemble a spider.
Bites
Bed bugs bite to feed on your blood. The bites leave itchy red welts in the form of lumps in clusters.
Clover mites don’t bite.
Active Season
Clover mites are active during the fall and spring months. They enter homes during the winter and summer to escape the extreme temperatures outdoors.
Bed bugs are active all through the year. A bed bug infestation can break out in your home no matter what time of the year it is.
Removal
You can get rid of clover mites on your own by using simple methods laid out in this post.
And once removed, clover mites are gone for good.
But bed bug removal is a hassle and expensive. They’re tricky bugs to get rid of.
Also, bed bugs can come back after treatment.
That’s why even professionals use follow up multiple treatments to eliminate them from homes.
DIY ways to get rid of bed bugs rarely work unless the infestation is mild.
Conclusion
Clover mites in bed is the result of clover mites invasion on your home.
Clover mites inside the house, and in your bed, are harmless. They can’t cause an infestation either because they lack food sources and hence, they can’t breed.
Vacuum cleaning your bed and taking the measures laid out in the post are the best ways to prevent clover mites from crawling onto your bed.
Dr. Thomas Orbert, the Microbial Maestro, dances with the tiniest of creatures as an entomologist extraordinaire! With a PhD in entomology, his passion lies in unraveling the secret symphonies of insect-microbe interactions. From minuscule marvels to captivating complexities, Dr. Orbert unveils the hidden world of bugs, igniting curiosity one buzz at a time!