Hundreds of thousands of the tiny wind-soaring and itch-inducing critters can fall from trees every day and are packed with a venom that can paralyze prey 166,000 times their size.

Enter the oak tree itch mites. They eat the flesh of the larvae, and hundreds of thousands of them can burrow inside a single oak leaf gall to feast on a developing insect all summer long.

Here's what to know: What is the oak leaf itch mite? According to researchers at Penn State, the mite first appeared in the U.S. in fall of 2004 in Kansas, with around 19,000 cases reported.

Oak leaf itch mites are again biting northeast Kansas residents who spend time under affected oak trees, leaving itchy and painful red welts on people. Until freezing temperatures arrive, the best ...

Experts suspect the nearly invisible invader, measuring 0.00787 of an inch, is the oak leaf itch mite. Scientists didn’t even know the oak leaf itch mite existed in America until 2004.

Kansas City, Mo., is seeing an invasion of tiny itch mites, falling from oak trees at a rate of up to 300,000 a day per tree, causing bites that can be more painful than poison ivy.

Local Oak-mite bites: Cicadas may have left D.C. region an itchy gift July 30, 2021 More than 3 years ago Summary By Ellie Silverman ...

While the cicadas may be gone, oak leaf itch mites that feed on cicada nymphs are making their marks now on residents in the D.C. region.

Itch mites, known scientifically as Pyemotes herfsi, are microscopic pests nearly invisible to the human eye whose bites cause red, itchy, and painful welts. One type, the oak leaf gall mite, was ...

Two hard freezes, Patton said, should bring an end to the oak leaf itch mite invasion of 2015. “It’s something we’ll see for several more weeks, I believe,” McKernan said.

The insects, oak leaf itch mites, are in the area for the second year in a row, said Marlin Bates, a horticulture agent at the Kansas State University Extension in Douglas County.

It’s looking like there won’t a big outbreak of the oak leaf itch mites with their very itchy bites in Kansas City this year. But don’t let your guard down.