Just to let you all know, if you're interested, there are tons of microscopes available on ebay if you want to buy one. The student starter version should be sufficient to detect the mites and I found one as cheap as ?2.60 (about 5 US$) - although I didn't bid for it as I was imagining some poor child saving up his pocket money for weeks to buy it and then me swooping in at the last minute and out bidding him!!!
CJ
Yes, why not?
doesn't need to be a sophisticated one, multiplication up to 40X is enough,
what is important though, is a light system beneath the glass slide, maybe possible to invent something temporarily yourself to do this.
