Battling the Yukon Mighty Mites

Okay... so a lot of people I know would generally classify me as a bit of enviro. I'm hardly the equivalent of nature's bible thumper, but I do tend to be fairly proactive on the green front. Unfortunately, this past few weeks has caused me to realize what a fair-weather tree-hugger I truly am. This revelation came about from my battle with the dirty sparrows nesting under the eaves of my house in Haines Junction, Yukon.

The house is pretty good, particularly as field research accommodation goes. The views are spectacular, with a busy beaver pond in our front yard and an amazing vista of the St. Elias mountains beyond. Our big patio offers endless sunshine and the winds of the Dezadeash ward off mosquitoes, making our patio a comfortable place to sit, drink and generally enjoy the long summer evenings.

The only problem, though, has been the proliferation of cliff swallows that have built nests all around the house. While this can provide some pretty cool, up-close bird-watching, the associated mess is not cool at all. Bird crap on its own would be tolerable though. Rather, the dirty little bastard birds are infested with mites. As the season goes along, the mites inevitably find their way in the house.

This year, the invasion began by the computer area. I would be sitting, trying to work, and I'd get a tickley sensation all over. In time, the mites got so bad that they were making their home in the computer itself. You'd turn it on, the computer would warm up, and suddenly, little mites would start to crawl out of the keyboard. Not cool. I took action just before our last trip, spraying the inside with pesticides. It seemed to do the trick, as when we returned from our nine day hike, they were dead. Unfortunately, our bedrooms now had their own infestations. You could see them crawling, like little dirt specks, slowly moving across the white walls. Blech.

The next day, we vacuumed everything, washed everything, smashed down the bird nests (don't worry... the birds flew the coop while we were away!), and sprayed our rooms down with pesticide. Now don't give me all this shit about poisoning myself with pesticides. Screw that! I just needed to stop these dirty little creatures from crawling on me while I slept. And I think we managed.

So far, it seems the problem has been solved and it feels good. The only minor annoyance now is my conscience. Trust me, I'm not overly worried about mite welfare. But my conservationist nature was challenged slightly when I was told by my friend who works for NatureServe Yukon (they are the ones who say if an animal or plant is endangered or at risk) that our mite infestation is only the second recorded report of sparrow mites in the Yukon. While this is likely simply a reflection of nobody tolerating living under a bunch of shitting sparrows for as long as we have, this also means that they could be a locally rare species. Hmmm, certainly something to think about. Oh well, I guess they are even rarer now.