But he cut a scheduled interview short when I began to suggest that biowarfare research might have inadvertently helped 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. But all this aside, 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 length.
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. Many species are found in soil samples from seepage area under the body. These flies deposit eggs, that soon become larvae on the corpse. They are, together with the Calliphorids, among the first insects to arrive at the corpse.