Early Mite Treatment: Diatomaceous Earth and Garlic Juice?

[Sandwitch]

Hello!

The other day we picked up new chicks and put them in with our broody mama in a hamster cage in our garage (semi quarantining). We started noticed these past couple days incredibly tiny bigs scurrying around the cage. We are pretty sure it's mites and we are pretty sure we've caught it early and it's from the chicks and isn't in our normal flock. My question is what can we do to treat it while it's still early? We have already put down some diatomaceous earth and it seems to be somewhat helping. Would using diatomaceous earth and garlic juice together be okay?
Thanks!

 

[DobieLover]

Use poultry dust with Permethrin in it.
Clean out their cage, re-bed it and dust each bird.
Repeat in 7 days.

 

[DobieLover]

With it being caught early we are hoping to treat it right away preferably with stuff we have on hand.

But what you have on hand is not going to be effective in treating the mites. I'm all for natural when it is appropriate. I'm also for "minimum effective dose". But this isn't one of those circumstances.

Permethrin is a synthesized pyrethroid that acts like the natural extracts from a chrysanthemum flower. It is safe and effective and the birds won't continue to suffer with mites when ineffective "natural treatments" are tried and then fail. The chicks will suffer the most as their tiny bodies can quickly become anemic. Mites can kill them if the parasites are not removed immediately.

The cats wouldn't be in with the hen and chicks. The dust will be safer for the chicks as it won't chill them.

 

[janiedoe]

@DobieLover has given you excellent advise.
I have cats, 2 of them are outdoors and go in and out of the coops and runs. I do use permethrin for my flock and my cats have not been harmed. I believe it is safe to use as long as you do not apply it directly to the cats.
If you are still hesitant, look into Ivermectin Pour On or Elector PSP. We can help you with dosages for these products. Elector is expensive but it is very easy to use, especially if your flock is large, and it works better than anything I've tried.
DE isn't going to get rid of lice or mites. Neither is garlic.

 

[Ponypoor]

We aren't putting too much DE in with them since we know it can be an irritant. We don't want to use any permethrine products since we have cats. We wouldn't be feeding them the garlic juice we are spraying it on them.

With it being caught early we are hoping to treat it right away preferably with stuff we have on hand.

I have had cats and horses for over 40 yrs and now chooks for about 3 yrs.

The horse bug spray I use has permethrin in it and I have used it liberally on the horses, many times getting the cats sprayed also - cats never had issues. It was only when I got chooks and read here it is toxic to cats - who knew I was trying to kill my cats haha!

Anywhooo you will never get rid of those mites unless you use a proper product to eradicate them. This past summer I brought three pullets here who had lice and infected my gang. I used the horse bug spray, spraying under the wings and their bellies. I also sprayed the roosting and nesting boxes after removing all bedding. Repeated in two weeks and problem solved.

For you, I would do a quick spray under the wee ones wings, belly and especially their legs, make sure it gets to their skin. You can spray some on your hands (wear examination gloves if your chemical sensitive) and rub it on their legs etc if your worried about spraying.

Clean out the whole cage and get rid of the bedding, spray the cage and replace the bedding. Repeat in 2 weeks.

Any horse bug spray will do, I use a Canadian brand called Bronco spray, I am assuming you’re in the US so you can get a vastly greater variety down there.

Good luck! And you should post some photos of your babies I love seeing chickies

 

[nuthatched]

Clean out the DE, it's a respiratory irritant to them and you and use permethrine based powder or spray.
Garlic is more likely to kill the chicks than the bugs, as its toxic to birds.

 

[janiedoe]

@DobieLover has given you excellent advise.
I have cats, 2 of them are outdoors and go in and out of the coops and runs. I do use permethrin for my flock and my cats have not been harmed. I believe it is safe to use as long as you do not apply it directly to the cats.
If you are still hesitant, look into Ivermectin Pour On or Elector PSP. We can help you with dosages for these products. Elector is expensive but it is very easy to use, especially if your flock is large, and it works better than anything I've tried.
DE isn't going to get rid of lice or mites. Neither is garlic.

I reread your post and you say it is chicks that you are treating. I would definitely use the permethrin powder. Anything else may be too potent for baby chicks.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Use poultry dust with Permethrin in it.
Clean out their cage, re-bed it and dust each bird.
Repeat in 7 days.

X2 Permethrin poultry dust for chicks and broody hens.

 

[Ponypoor]

@DobieLover has given you excellent advise.
I have cats, 2 of them are outdoors and go in and out of the coops and runs. I do use permethrin for my flock and my cats have not been harmed. I believe it is safe to use as long as you do not apply it directly to the cats.
If you are still hesitant, look into Ivermectin Pour On or Elector PSP. We can help you with dosages for these products. Elector is expensive but it is very easy to use, especially if your flock is large, and it works better than anything I've tried.
DE isn't going to get rid of lice or mites. Neither is garlic.

I wish I can get Elector up here

But I am eggstatic that I have found my horse spray works so well on mites.

I been spraying it on the ticks on my horses now, when I find a tick I spray it with the bug spray in the evening and next morning I pick the dead tick off.

I need to make trip cross the border and pick up some stuff I can’t get here

 

[Sandwitch]

I totally hadn't even considered horse fly spray lol! I did find some however we weren't 100% confident about spraying them directly so we put some on a paper towel and wiped everyone a bit. We did clean all their bedding and their cage and sprayed all of it however later we will probably need to go out and spray the chickens directly because when we were putting them back I did notice a couple suspicious dots on them.

Here's mama Elmer (like the glue lol) with her new babies!