The source of the skin irritations that have affected students and staff at an Orange County elementary school is a blood-feeding mite that was found in one of the school's playgrounds, according to health officials.
Mite specialist Steve Bennet of the Orange County Vector and Mosquito Control found evidence of 25 mites in a sample of wood chips from one of the three Lake Forest Elementary's playgrounds.
"Everything about this mite fits the bill for what has caused these types of injuries," vector control spokesman Jared Dever told the OC Register.
The mites are from the Mesostigmata order, which feed on blood.
Bennet took samples of wood chips from highly-used areas of the playgrounds. The wood chips were added right around the time the skin irritations started occurring.
"We've asked for those wood chips to be removed from the playground areas to remove the mite physically from property," Denver said.
The campus was sprayed with pesticides several times while health officials worked to determine the source of the outbreak. The campus may need to be sprayed again to target the mites.
News
Top news of the day
About 30 students and 10 staff members have been afflicted with the rashes, concerning many parents and puzzling health and school officials.
The first outbreak was reported on Sept. 15.
Sarah Magner's daughter Harlee was one of the students who reported the skin irritation after she developed what looked like bug bites a few weeks ago.
"She never welted real big, like some of those other pictures," Magner said. "But that's probably because I put a lot of calamine lotion on there and anti-itch cream."
The district said it will work with Vector Control to fix the problem, but were relieved to have likely found the source of the mysterious outbreak.
"The district and all the staff share in the frustration with not knowing what the problem was, and I think there's relief, and we're excited to be able to address the issue," said Tammy Blakely of Saddleback Valley Unified School District.
The infested playground remained blocked off Thursday.
Rick Montanez contributed to this report.
