[Strawbale]Psocids infestation

[lieve van landeghem]

Hi all,

Last May, Andre de Bouter reported Erica Sapir's 'critters' problem.
Chug replied that the critters were probably psocids, and that Kester
Wilkinson had had a similar problem.

A month ago I moved into my strawbale house, and just a few days ago I
noticed that it is infested by tiny insects.  The problem is not their
concentration in one spot as was, I understand, the case in Erica's house.
But they are all over the house : mainly underneath carpets and other stuff
on the floors downstairs and upstairs which are pine planks, and they also
crawl on the white painted plaster panel (gyproc) walls and ceiling of the
bathroom.  Neither do they shun the bed.  (Some of you visited the house
with Herwig Van Soom, I believe on June 10th, when you were on your way to
the congress in Denmark.   Or you can take a look at the webpage that Herwig
made http://nebraska.skynetblogs.be/)

I went searching on the internet and yes, it's psocids, also called booklice
or Liposcelis Bostrychophila.  (for a picture, see
http://www.anticimex.se/?objectid=878).

I did some more reading on the web
(http://www.kcl.ac.uk/ip/bryanturner/other/index-psocids.html and
http://www.sofht.co.uk/isfht/irish_98_psocids.htm) and learned that I have
to "try to deny them the conditions they need to survive and multiply, i.e.
warmth and moisture".  Which is beyond my control, assuming they come from
the straw in the walls.  With the warm weather here and no sun protection in
place yet, temperatures inside the house have been up to 30 degrees Celcius.
I do ventilate the house though, as often as the weather allows.

Can any of you experts give me some advice, or could the people who
experienced a similar problem, feedback on how they dealt with it ?

Many thanks.
Kind regards.
Lieve