Ailment: Mites (demodex mites)
Remedy: Cloves / clove oil
You can buy whole cloves in a supermarket or Asian store. Clove oil is available in some health food shops, but is sold more widely as an essential oil. If buying the essential oil, make sure it is made from real cloves and is pure.
Clove oil is one of the richest sources of antioxidants. Place a single drop under the tongue once per day.
Clove oil is an anaesthetic and antiseptic, making it particularly suitable for toothache and infections.
Comment posted by Tretower1 of Whittier, CA, USA on 11 May 2022 at 20:59 5346
YES
I have been using a concoction of filtered water and bleach with a few drops of antibacterial soap in a spray bottle. Whenever the itching becomes unbearable I soak a cotton wool pad and gently rub the area. The itch stops immediately. I think I would be mad if I didn't have this to use. I have also been using diluted Eugenol clove oil with some noticeable effect. I think in about 2 weeks it will be gone.
Comment posted by Babbs of West Linn, Oregon, USA on 20 May 2020 at 8:13 5225
YES
I've started using the hair dryer for Demodex mites. I use the hot setting, high air. I believe that when I'm over an area that has the mites, it feels like I'm scratching an itch, and red dots emerge. When I am over unaffected skin, it doesn't feel like much going on. I keep the hair dryer moving rapidly over a small area and stay there until I feel like it hurts and then move on. I might go back and forth over an area, then give it a break and come back to it. I've only been doing it for 2 days. After I use the hair dryer, I spray hypochlorous acid HOCL which is a non-irritating clear liquid, over the treated areas, rub it in, let air dry, and then finish off with clove essential oil. The trick is exposing them to it, with their heads buried in our hair follicles. I have experimented with tea tree, clove and peppermint essential oils and I have found that clove oil worked best for me. I use full strength over affected areas, keeping away from eyes and mucous membranes. So far, this has proven very effective and I find at least a 50% improvement in the first 2 days.
Comment posted by Lisey of Brisbane, QLD, Australia on 16 May 2019 at 13:11 5146
YES
Turmeric with ginger and garlic made into a paste and scrubbed all over will help, as will clove oil. Remember to stay calm in mind as you have to go through many different stages to get these little buggers under control. I also took turmeric mixed in natural yoghurt to help on the inside. Getting to the beach for a swim or a scrub with sea salt and water also helped me.
Comment posted by Evelyn of Cheney, Washington, USA on 5 June 2018 at 3:53 5022
YES
I have suffered from Demodex mites for several years now. In the beginning I was frantic as bug infestations are hard to stomach. I laundered bedding and towels every day until I realized they live ON me. The mites weren’t terrorizing my partner so that meant it was my weakness resulting in this demodicosis. Unless you can treat them from the inside you will always struggle with external applications. I determined my underlying cause is candidiasis and liver issues which were being aggravated by prescription meds. I started a cleanse with clove, wormwood, and black walnut as the main ingredients in a tincture. I also added some to my shampoo lotion. Cloves are supposed to kill mite eggs. Within a few days my rosacea started to clear up and I haven’t been tormented with their crawling, tickling, itching every night. It is mild less noticeable when I do feel it. It is important to continue treating long enough - I have been reading to continue treatment for 2-3 months and to rotate products. Normally, anything I’ve tried stops working within 6 weeks to 2 months such as the stuff the doctor prescribed for rosacea. I have not had any doctor’s prescription work by so quickly clearing up my skin and the mite activity that has impacted my whole life so negatively. All this made me more stressed during a stressful period I was already suffering. These are old remedies that were used for a reason. I urge you to research them for yourself but thought I would add my words of encouragement.
Comment posted by Kelly of Vermilion, OH, USA on 11 May 2018 at 7:57 4998
YES
Hi there, We've had mites for months now that we got from one of our dogs. I've been using a combination or cedar oil and clove oil for a few days. They are better than all the other cures I've tried. I see to have mites in every orifice of my body and they have nearly killed me. I've had problems with my sight with mites in my eyes, lost twenty pounds and most of my hair. Can't sleep they won't let me. I finally got determined to live and started using straight clove oil in all but ears and eyes. Talk about painful. wow. But yes, they are MUCH less active and I'm praying to God that I can completely eliminate them using these two oils.
Comment posted by Mik of Melbourne , VIC , Australia on 5 October 2017 at 21:29 4781
YES
I’ve had a mite infection since 2012. I developed it before my 44 days of court and was taking drugs with the stress. Idiot, I know. But oh well it’s done now... I suffered, lost my hair line, eye lashes and my freakin mind! Mites were in my nose, under my arms, all over my shoulders my cheeks and eyebrows.
Yeast fungi is related to demodex and so is your immune system and for people like me major stress events caused the initial outbreak. Once you are susceptible to them once, you’ll always be so it’s a matter of maintaining a healthy low sugar anti-candida diet with a few supps and a good shampoo with tea tree oil, coconut oil and clove oil. I used 100 different remedies Ivermectin, TTO, ethanol, sulphurs, multi vitamins, cleaner diet and no matter what I just could not get them fully under control. I tried an anti histamine called aureus, it cured me completely for 6 weeks then all the sudden my body got used to it and they came back worse than ever. I spent all this money on products when all I needed was TTO, clove oil and coconut oil in my shampoo and a herb called Pau d-arco. It’s a bark from the Amazon that controls yeast and fungus on the skin! It regulated my problem on my skin and has completely cured me. I have a problem worth 5 now compared to 100 previously. Mik
Comment posted by Eva of Carson City, NV, USA on 28 September 2017 at 5:38 4775
I totally agree with several of the comments about Clove Oil, which I am just starting to use and take internally. I have suffered from these mites since 2012. Now both of my feet are the sizes of footballs. I have used hydrogen peroxide 3% to spray on my feet, it helps but really stings due to so many applications. I won’t stop using it but hopefully clove oil will be my saviour. Due to 2 knee replacements it is almost impossible for me to be able to get up out of the tub so I have only done showers since 2003 and now with the feet like they are, I purchases a plastic container from Walmart that is just wide enough for two, used to be skinny feet, and deep enough to almost reach my knees. I fill it with as much hot water as I can stand with one cup of HP 3% and 1 cup of Borax, soak in this as long as the water stays hot to warm. Good ole credit cards! You’ve heard stories on how to use them for dozen of things, well I use one to scrape my feet and legs with it after my soak and you sure see a lot of stuff that comes off on the card. I’m going to mix up a mixture of the clove oil with some other oils to put on my feet and legs after the soak and scrape. Here I am, just turned 90 and never had a bug in my life and this is what NV has given me. Never had a bug in Texas and hope I can get back there before my time is up!
Blessings to all of you who have offered your cures. It’s hard to keep your sanity but don t give up. I could wring the necks of a million so called doctors for not going to a medical school who taught about these things!
One thing I would caution anyone who has an old vacuum cleaner with a fan, please be careful if you are using diatomaceous earth powder on your carpets. This stuff is wonderful but don’t use it if your vac has a fan, it will clog up the fan and break it. This happened twice to me before the repair man suggested I stop using DE or not to use that particular vacuum. Each time I used the vac to clean up DE it cost me over $200.00. That kind of money sure could have helped me to buy Clove and other oils for my blasted critters.
Comment posted by Atwitsend of Los Angeles, CA, USA on 9 December 2016 at 8:49 4397
YES
Dear fellow sufferers. I have been dealing with this scourge for going on three months. It all started with maybe 6 or 7 large tender oozing sores in my scalp that I noticed when shampooing my shoulder length hair. They were raised large sores like cysts and eventually came to a head with whitish pus, so I thought at first that it was cystic acne in my scalp. But I also noticed literally clumps of hair falling out in my comb and in the shower. I also had intense itching, burning and crawling sensations at my hairline and on the fine hairs on my cheeks at night. When this all first started, I also noticed that there were raised red welts behind my ears and red areas next to both nostrils and new pimples on the tip of my nose. When I woke up each morning, my pores above and in between my eyebrows were huge and resembled orange peel skin. I have never had large pores even when I had bad acne as a teenager. At night, I would feel an intense burning sensation around my nose and eyebrows and slight stinging. After reading nearly every post on this board, thank you all for your insights, and trying nearly everything short of shaving my head thankfully that is where this infestation is concentrated although I have it milder on my face as well, I tried last night a hair mask of organic coconut oil mixed with 5-6 drops of CLOVE oil, 5-6 drops of lavender oil, and 5-6 drops of tea tree oil. I mixed everything in a bowl and massaged really well into my scalp, behind my ears and in my eyebrows. The TTO and clove oils are extremely irritating and I suggest avoiding eye areas. Be very careful when you put the coconut oil and essential oil mixture on the eyebrows so that it does not drip into your eyes. I used a Qtip to put the mixture on my eyebrows. I then put on a plastic shower cap which covered my ears. You can buy the cheap disposable plastic ones at RiteAid or Walgreens as you will likely want to throw it out after each use. When I laid down to sleep, I felt some moving around under the shower cap above my ears and at the crown of my head especially for the first 10 or 15 minutes or so. After that, all crawling sensations seemed to stop in my scalp and on my face and I got my first 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep in nearly three months. When I woke in the morning, the areas on my face around my nose and eyebrows were not red and swollen as the have been and I did not notice any crawling and biting overnight which would have awoken me. I am thrilled. I will continue this nightly regimen for a few more weeks minimum and keep you posted, but I have to say that whatever was in the oils, it stopped them from at least crawling around last night. I hope that the oils penetrated my scalp pores and killed them! I am grateful for at least one night's rest! I have also taken the precautions of washing pillow case and sheets EVERY night in hot water and 1 cup of borax powder added to laundry. Dryer on hottest setting. My maintenance regimen for the infestation on my face has been that during the day, I use tea tree oil cleansing pads 3 times a day around my hairline, jawline, eyebrows and nostrils. I also have a blemish touch stick that has TTO as well as some other essential oils. I use the touch stick only on the affected areas on my face once or twice a day as it really burns and is very drying. When I first used the touch stick around my eyebrows, no kidding, around 15 minutes later a dried semi transparent whitish carcass of something came crawled out fell out of the hairs. I looked at it under a jeweler's loop magnifier on 45x magnification and was horrified that it was clearly a demodex mite and not a sebum plug or a whitehead. You CAN see these things with a naked eye and you CAN see their stubby little legs and jaws with 45x magnification. Apparently, the TTO had flushed it out of the pore. My conclusion is that clove oil is effective, however, my application was combined with coconut oil, TTO and lavender, so it may have been this combo together that stopped them from crawling about. Too soon to tell if it really got rid of them or just knocked some of them out for the time being.
Comment posted by Debbie of Duluth, MN, USA on 3 December 2016 at 14:19 4388
YES
I used 15 drops of clove oil, 10 drops of rosemary oil, and 10 drops of teatree oil in 1/2 bottle of shampoo. I use this every day on my hair and on my private areas. Everyday out of the shower I mix 25 squirts of lotion with 10 drops each of clove oil, tea tree oil and any other oil I feel like that day - sometimes lemon, grapefruit, frankincense, etc. I lather on face and all over body. I clean the house and clothes as others have discussed. I bring lotion to work the same as I described above and put on my hands after every handwashing. I also rub it into any place I feel an issue during the day. This has been 11 days and it is working! I had this 15 years ago from my work, so I knew what I was dealing with pretty early.
From my past exposure I know what it feels like when it is going away and then being reinfected. This is working better and faster than when I was getting prescriptions from the doctors! I plan on continuing this for another 2 weeks, as there are no side effects, only relief. Also of note, I have not been eating sugar or refined flour, for the most part, for 5 years. I also take multivitamins.
Comment posted by Gina of Houston, TX, USA on 14 September 2016 at 7:57 4255
YES
I adopted a puppy that I did not know had mange as it wasn't noticeable. The mites transferred to me. OMG! Under my breasts from holding the puppy. Puppy was a complete monster from all the itching until I used borax, peroxide, apple cider vinegar baths twice a day. After a week the itching crawling sensations pretty much stopped. The puppy became more like a puppy not just a terror. His attention span returned where he could listen and became trainable. Me...well I had to shower with tea tree oil, eucalyptus, clove oil mixed in my shower gel. I put borax in a spice jar with shaker top in the shower. Wet, wash up, let it sit 3-5 minutes before rinsing. My understanding is that the clove oil also kills the eggs. If you don't kill the eggs you will get reinfested from the new hatching mites that are in your pores. Be careful with clove oil, do not get it near or in eyes or any mucus membranes. Also do not use it in or mix it in plastic. Glass only! Hope this helps
