Long Island Woman Hospitalized For Bird Mites

Nina Bradica says she can feel the tiny bird mites biting and crawling around on her skin.

Bradica, 47, was in quarantine Friday in a Long Island hospital after being infested with the parasites that live on wild birds.

The hospital says there is no public health concern as the mites live everywhere and do not live long on human hosts.  The mites are aggressive, arachnids that live on domestic and wild birds and survive by drinking blood.

Bradicia is being treated with a topical cream while she is in isolation.

Her doctor says the mites crawl under the skin of birds but not humans.  She says she is itching from the tiny black specks that feel like pinpricks on her chest and pelvis.

One can become infested by having contact with a wild bird and Bradica says she might have touched one when she reached into a bathroom vent where birds had built a nest.

Investigators confirm the mites had spread from the bird nest.

She is not paying the rent on her Levittown home and her landlord is in the process of evicting her.

“I didn’t pay the rent because why should I pay for living in misery?” she told Newsday.

Vacuuming daily reduces mites and sometimes homes have to be fumigated. On humans, nontoxic cedar oil can be used as well as Bayer’s beta-cyfluthrin among other insecticides. #