But he cut a scheduled interview short when I began to suggest that biowarfare research might inadvertently help to spread the TSE agent. I called one more time and he refused to talk. He has refused to answer a long letter I wrote. I thought it both rude and arrogant, but even with that nonsense, I still believe Bastian's elegant hypothesis is far more rational than any I've studied. The Acari, or mites as they also are called, are small organisms, usually less than a mm in lenght.
Mites occur under the dead body in the soil, during the later stages of decay.
Many mites are transported to the body via other insects, such as flies or beetles. Other mites are soil dwelling forms which can be predators, fungus feeders or detritus feeders. Most species will be found in soil samples from seepage area under the body. These flies does not deposit eggs, but larvae on the corpse. They are, together with the Calliphorids, among the first insects to arrive at the corpse.