Are Cloth Mites Complicating Your Morgellons Symptoms?

I first learned of cloth mites about ten years ago. There is a segment in my book about them but very sketchy. During our last Sunday call, the subject came ou and my co-host, Robin, shared that in addition to dealing with Morgellons, Collembola, bed bugs, and some other forms of mites, she also dealt with the cloth parasite which left round holes in her clothing. The typical treatments for moths didn't work. I asked her to share how she got rid of them and she wrote the following.

Cloth mites were just one of the kinds of mites I was dealing with at the height of my infestation, which also included Collembola, Morgellons, bed bugs, fleas and bird mites. The cloth mites would eat perfectly round holes in my clothes. Lots of holes.

I finally developed this protocol for cleaning and disinfecting my clothes from all parasites and parasitic bacteria.

First I got a big plastic bin with a lid and filled it with 2” of ammonia. I would soak the clothes overnight.

Then I would wash them. I have a front-loading machine that has a separate presoak feature.

I would add a cup of ammonia in the pre-soak section. The machine automatically rinses after the presoak. If not you need to rinse the clothes before washing (if you are going to use pool shock like I did).

I would add about a cup of borax to the laundry before starting the machine. In the place where you put the soap I would put a quarter cup of enzyme cleaner mixed with a half tsp. of powdered Clorox ExtraBlue Pool Shock. (You need to dissolve the pool shock or it can leave spots on your clothes.)

I then would wash the clothes on a hot setting (colored and whites) with an extra rinse.

Finally, I would dry them on high for 1.5 hours with a washcloth soaked in ammonia and/or dryer sheets sprayed with peppermint oil.

I would then seal clean clothes in airtight Ziploc bags of all sizes to keep them from getting re-infested.

For my closet I bought those big hanging plastic, z
ip up clothes things and sealed any holes with thick plastic and duck tape. Then I hung nuvan strips inside with the clothes. I didn't take them out until last October....thank God they are still clean!

I never got all the rest of my clothes out of plastic bags (probably a good thing). My dressers are filled with individual ziplock bags of my clothes. And my shoes are in ziplock bags as well...

I thank Robin for sharing her experience with the cloth parasite. It's a but mite, I'm not really sure if it causes itching on the skin or if it lives on the skin or if it's main havoc is only wreaked on clothing and fabrics. So I don't know if it's a parasite that lives off of one's skin or if it lives off of cloth like moths. In my book, the only method reported was using only ammonia - as much as a gallon in a load of laundry. Robin's approach makes more sense as she used both ammonia and pool shock which is chlorine based. Caution: do not use pool shock or bleach together with ammonia as it will release deadly chlorine gas which can be lethal - self murder.