how to get of lice on chickens

swamperkk · Sep 22, 2014

i have a pet red shouldered yokohama rooster,i notice on his white feathers there are small lice looking bugs crawling around on his feathers,dont know where he got those,is this normal or how to get rid of them? I also have other chickens with dark feathers which i cannot see them,should i be worried?

Judy · Sep 22, 2014

No, it's not normal, and you need to get rid of them. The chickens will eventually get sick from them and can even die with a prolonged infestation. Unfortunately they are very common and carried by wild birds.

You have to treat the whole flock and the coop. Dust or spray everyone, change the bedding, and spray the coop surfaces, including the roost bottoms and with attention to cracks and crevices. Repeat the whole process in 10 days, because this won't kill the eggs and they will have hatched by then. People have been using 5% Sevin dust and Sevin spray for ears, but it has fallen out of favor lately. You can use a permethrin type spray. Adams flea and tick spray works. I'm sure there are other insecticides around, especially out of the US.

Once you get rid of them wood ash in dust baths will help. Many people routinely sprinkle some Sevin in nests and under roosts to control them; this is what I do. I've never actually had to treat the flock.

Some more reading:

http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8162.pdf

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ig140 (good pics)

http://parasitipedia.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2540&Itemid=2816

how to get of lice on chickens

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swamperkk

Songster

Judy

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