Organic method for treating chicken lice?

Beekissed said:

The wood ash won't do for long term...the lice come back. You might try sulfur dust or pyrethrin dust, both are natural and safe to use on food animals.

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dottysfarm said:

Thank you all SO much for posting these organic methods! I was really starting to lose hope of finding people with organic advice!!! Maybe we can get the moderators to start an organic link under which we can place out organic methods???? I have become so weary of people hounding those posting asking for organic methods.

Anyway, I had mites on one of my birdies and I put coconut and tea tree oil on her. Next day mites were gone.

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Davaroo said:

Well, there IS that. We like controlled applications in the pest control business!

I personally consider kerosene "organic," although it isn't what we modern folk think of in that sense. We tend to denounce anything to do with the petroleum business as evil. One can make a case for kerosene being at least "natural," though. It comes out of the ground, after all. It is also little processed, other than heating, with few additives.
It could be remembered, too, that the basic things derived from petroleum have been around longer than we have. Before we heard the words "smog," "OPEC," and "climate change," kerosene was tested by our grandfathers in many ways and found useful.

A lot of people will go on about petrochemicals being carcinogenic, and in large or accumulated doses, they may be. Bad news for your average lab rat.
But for a chicken with lice, a few kerosene applications, to both itself and its surroundings, has been a long time method of taming parasitic pests.
It lingers long enough to have its effect, and then dissipates. A periodic application of it in the crevices and crannies where the chicken lice hide has also been recommended for a very long time.

One might also consider the use of old fashioned whitewash, too, otherwise known as 'slaked lime'. Not on the chickens, of course, but the list of things it controls inside the chicken house is long. That might make another, interesting thread.

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chickenannie said:

UPdate: I checked Miss Hen for live lice bugs today and found none! Zero.

There are still eggs/nits at the feather base, but even they seemed somewhat diminished, possibly from the washing. I still plan to do a second washing at the 2-week point.

Miss Hen is still regaining her strength, but she was outside eating grass today and seemed to be enjoying it quite a bit!

Will post again on the progress of the "organic" method.

Is anyone else trying this?

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chickenannie said:

For those of you who don't want to use insecticide chemicals like Sevin or don't want to use DE if you ever have to treat chickens for lice, I thought I'd share this method and my results today.

Basically, I soaked the hen in strong salt water, then bathed her with Dawn dishwashing liquid. Then blow dry! Wa la. I will keep you all posted with the ongoing results in the next weeks.

Here's my "alternative, organic" method I used (in detail).

This afternoon I dissolved 2 cups of salt in 1.5 gallons of very warm water in a large tub and then soaked my hen for 5-7 minutes in it (keeping her head out!). Lots of dead lice floated to the top!

After that, I put about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of Dawn dishwashing liquid in 3 gallons of warm water in a second tub and soaked the hen in that for about 5-7 minutes, making sure that it got everywhere, including her neck. Actually I dunked her body in and out a couple of times (with her head out!) to make sure the soapy stuff was getting through all her feathers. More dead lice in the soapy water.

Then I rinsed her in 2 gallons of warm water, twice, to make sure all the soap was out.

I wrapped her up in one towel for a few seconds. Then a second towel. She had started shivering (I did it outside), so I immediately brought her into my sunroom and used a blowdryer to gently dry her feathers. That took about 45 minutes which was the longest part. I had read that hens are unable to regulate their body temp with wet feathers, even if they're in 80 degrees, so I was concerned to make sure she was completely dry, and it did take time.

It looks like bathing her killed/removed 100% of the live lice from her body. However, there are still many eggs attached at the base of many of her feathers (she had a lot of lice). So I will do this bathing process again in a week or two, presumably they will all hatch by then. I think Sevin has the same results because most folks treat with Sevin again in 2 weeks. Does anyone know if Sevin also kills the eggs?

She didn't love the bath, but she didn't hate it either. I think she was pleased once she was all blow-dried and warm again. Of course when my friend called in the middle of it and asked what I was doing, I had to say "nothing" so as to avoid having to tell her I was blowdrying a chicken in my sunroom who I had just bathed!

The biggest difficulty was keeping the detergent bubbles out of her beak and eyes. I hadn't counted on so many bubbles piling up on top of the water. I kept some fresh water nearby to clean the bubbles off her beak with.

Honestly, I think just the soap would have worked. I just didn't want to have to do again so I used the saltwater too. I had read that applying vinegar will help dissolve the "glue" that holds the eggs onto the feathers, but I didn't want to try that on top of the other soakings and I think you still have to manually brush the eggs out.

And, I have a very purty-smelling hen! She is in a small pen in my sunroom where I am feeding her extra foods so she regains her strength -- she had become weak from the lice.

Please if anyone else tries this, let us know how it works... it would be great to build a body of organic treatments, for those who want them.

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