Cleaning the coop after mites & lice?

[deuxcoop]

I bought two chickens that turned out to have scaly leg mites and poultry lice. (So much for beginner's luck! ) Anyway, the seller is very nice and has agreed to take them back and potentially exchange them for other chickens from a separate flock.

I feel like I should clean and disinfect the coop and run where they have been living. How long can these mites live? Is there a period of time that I should keep the coop vacant or techniques I should know to clean it? (Coop is bedded with shavings over DE and PDZ, run is sand with PDZ and DE mixed in.)

 

[Judy]

I would toss all litter then spray all surfaces with either liquid Sevin or a permethrin type spray such as Adams' flea and tick, or Spinosad. It's not really a matter of disinfecting, atl least not for lice/mites, it's a matter of killing the eggs. Don't miss the undersides of the roosts.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/818674/are-these-some-kind-of-egg-clusters/0_20#post_11897957

 

[muddstopper]

I would clean the coop and run, then spray with clorox. Follow that spray with a pyrethrin-based medicated spray. Spray every 7 days to kill anything that might hatch from eggs already there and to prevent the mites from matureing to produce even more eggs. When spraying the coop, follow every crack and seam in the walls and floor, including the ceiling. It will take a couple of wks to kill everything, but if you skip spraying for one wk, plan on starting all over. You can get a permerithen liguid that you can mix in warm water for a good dunking of any infected birds. Wear rubber gloves and rub the dip into the birds feathers, paying close attention to the vent area and under the wings

 

[deuxcoop]

Thanks everyone! I decided to actually treat the chickens myself, rather than giving them back to the seller at this point. So $45 later I have all the pyrethrum spray, poultry dust, and scaly leg mite protector that one girl (with two chickens) could need!