Lessons learned in my battle with mites

[SIMZ]

Today I'm giving up my dream of ever having a mite-free flock of chickens.

We've dabbled in this mite battle with Northern Fowl Mite for about two years, but fully engaged the battle about a year ago. I've gone through more cans of Sevin and Poultry dust than I care to calculate. I've put it in their numerous dust baths, along with wood ash. I've fed them Feather Fixer feed. I've bathed them, dusted them, and most recently sprayed them with Poultry Protector (don't even ask how much I've spent on that). I've cleaned and dusted the coop (or cleaned and sprayed with Permethrin concentrate spray). Yes, I've repeated all of these things - every few days for several times. Yes, even the nest boxes & under the roosts! Yes, I pull out every single chicken every two weeks to check and spray with poultry protector. I even pull the roosters and anyone that had even one mite out a few times a week to spray until I see none from a vent and wing check.

And yet the mites are always there - always on at least one chicken. (No, I haven't put garlic in the water, used DE, or placed a gargoyle at the entrance of the coop, but that's about all I haven't tried.)

Today I was doing a rooster check and was pleased that he only had a few mites around his vent. That's when I noticed that he had a huge mob of scabs & mites on his chest.....and his neck.....and even his leg.
Apparently, my religious use of Poultry Protector has simply caused the mites to infest unsprayed areas of the chickens.

Not one to give up easily, I pretty much drenched the guy in Poultry Protector. Then I decided to just give him a thorough bath using Dawn soap. I soaked and rinsed all the way up to the tip top of his neck, and this was not a quick bath....it was a good scrubbing, soaking bath. Then I started to dry him with the hair dryer and noticed a mite still crawling on him. I would have never noticed it if I hadn't been using my headlamp and carefully inspecting him. I sprayed every mite I saw for about the next 20 minutes......I found them crawling on his neck, the very top of his neck, under his wings, on his leg, on his wings again, and several on his back, even one trying to escape on his wattle. Once he was dry I thoroughly dusted him with Sevin - but I'm guessing the mites are still crawling.

So, here are my conclusions:

- Chickens have mites and mine are simply always going to have them.

- Poultry Protector works if you don't have mites

- "Good" chicken owners can still have mites. I can't think someone with 25 chickens could do much more than we have to try to eliminate mites & keep things clean and still have "free range" chickens.

- I love my chickens, but they have disgusting bugs that could possibly infest my house. GROSS. I just took another big step towards the farmer mentality with my beloved chickens.

- I have now probably created a strain of insecticide and drowning resistant "Super Mites" in my flock. Surely only the strongest of the strong survived today on that rooster today.

- Finally, I may not be able to kill every last mite, but I can manage them. I will continue to do weekly dustings or sprayings on my flock and pay special attention to my roosters. It has to be better to have several mites instead of several thousand. I've seen what a severe mite infestation can do and its my responsibility to keep them as healthy and comfortable as I can.

Thanks for reading!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Today I'm giving up my dream of ever having a mite-free flock of chickens. ....Today I was doing a rooster check and was pleased that he only had a few mites around his vent. That's when I noticed that he had a huge mob of scabs & mites on his chest.....and his neck.....and even his leg..... Then I decided to just give him a thorough bath using Dawn soap. I soaked and rinsed all the way up to the tip top of his neck, and this was not a quick bath....

So, here are my conclusions:

- Chickens have mites...

- Poultry Protector works if you don't have mites

- "Good" chicken owners can still have mites.....

- I can't think someone with 25 chickens could do much more than we have to try to eliminate mites & keep things clean and still have "free range" chickens.

- I just took another big step towards the farmer mentality with my beloved chickens.

- Finally, I may not be able to kill every last mite, but I can manage them.....

Thanks for reading!

Your first conclusion is correct.

Everything works to prevent mites as long as your chickens are mite free.

Your third conclusion is also correct.

Free range chickens will always get re-infested with free range mites that are picked up from wild birds sharing the chickens environment. This is why caged laying hens are generally mite free.

The farmer mentality would negate bathing a rooster in Dawn dishwashing detergent. Dishwashing detergent is a chemical solvent used to breakdown oil and grease on your pots and pans.
Unfortunately dishwashing detergent also destroys the natural oils that every chicken harvests from its own oil gland and then carefully applies to its plumage to waterproof its feathers and help the feather barbs lock together to create a waterproof barrier around every chicken. The farmer mentality also means that you are unconcerned with killing every single boll weevil, horse fly, and chicken mite on your farm but that you only act when the pest level nears the threshold of a financial loss that is greater than the cost of treating.

Google "integrated pest management" to learn the difference between "control" and "management"

 

[dawg53]

Quote:
The ivermectin pour on has a 2 week withdrawal period, The eprinex doesnt have a withdrawal period. It's a little more expensive than the ivermectin pour on. You can purchase it in a 250ml bottle and has about a 2 year expiration date. Dosage is 1/2cc placed on bare skin on the back of the neck on standard size birds, 1/4cc for smaller birds. It takes a second or two longer to be absorbed through the skin into the bloodstream than the ivermectin pour on. Either will kill mites.
http://www.jefferspet.com/products/eprinex-pour-on
http://www.jefferspet.com/products/ivomec-pour-on

 

[Aniko]

Hi Everybody!

We also had (red)mites and tried everything - chemicals for the coop, dusting the ladies-, but they appeared again and again, so I got really fed up with them. I thought, I rather destroy the hole coop than see my ladies with mites... So I went drastic: got the kettle and washed the hole coop (every part of it) with boiling water.
The wood survived the operation and I haven't seen any mites since a year now!!!!

OK, maybe I just got lucky, but I thought I share it with you.

Wishing you all mite-free ladies!!!!!

 

[Michael Apple]

I've used Eprinex (topical ivermectin) too. It is not an effective dewormer. It is not a very effective miticide compared to Carbaryl, Permethrin, Rabon, Malathion to name a few. DE may sound wonderful to those who "want to believe", but it will not control mites nor repel them. I've tested every one of these products in the last 30 years. Emulsified concentrates do what dusts and other products can't; eliminate and control mites and lice.

 

[jmscheshire]

I've tried everything too for the mites on my chickens, and the most effective applications I've found to help control the mites are sulphur dips (in the summer) as well as putting Vaseline and olive oil on their legs, toes (rub it in well, a chicken pedicure!) and Vaseline on affected areas of skin and even directly on the feathers. Knocks the problem down some, and it needs to be done 2-3 times per week.

 

[capayvalleychick]

I battled mites on my flock for months. Tried everything. Found a product that is expensive but got rid of all the mites with one application to the vent. It's safe, too.

http://www.elanco.us/products-services/poultry/controlling-houseflies-darkling-beetles.aspx

It is expensive, but it absolutely works. I'll gladly buy this product to save all the time & expense of everything else that I tried. I did also spray down the roosts, nest boxes & coops. Here is the least expensive place to buy it. The retailer does not have the new label. It is safe for use on chickens.

http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail....=86672329123&gclid=CKLn3-ThlMMCFQNrfgodzxkASA

I did find one other product that worked. Frontline spray (fipronil) also killed the mites with one application. However, I only used it on one rooster, to test it. Since I eat my chickens and their eggs, this is not a safe product to use. There is no data on it's withdrawal time. The Elector psp has no withdrawal time for meat and eggs.

 

[MCbur-burk]

Being a city boy in the country the locals piled on the scorn and ridicule when I suggested the answer to their chickens' mite problem was to simply throw a clove or two of garlic in the water and change the water regularly. Being a city boy in the country I did first fall foul (teehee) of a very overwhelming mite problem myself - we had to shower after going in the coop for a little while. I sprayed the coop with chemicals twice a week for a month to little avail. So I changed tactics...
We now grow lavender and garlic by the bucketful. Crushed garlic is added to oats soaked in hot water (with a little jam or yoghurt if the girls are being picky) every few days. Any garlic peel gets thrown in the coop and nesting boxes (saw an old Italian fella in the neighbourhood doing this), along with lavender. A good spray of diluted tea tree oil (or lavender oil if my stocks are low) once a week throughout the coop helps, and to reduce the cause the chickens now have a treadle feeder. Mind, my 4 girls are a long way from managing 25. Good luck

 

[Duckie48]

Hello SIMZ,
I know that you are in the states, but, I have recently had a big problem with mites. It is summer here in Queensland.
The temps have been up around 40c but at the moment it is a lot cooler but about to warm up again.
I was crawling with mites myself and I hate it.
I was told to put garlic into the nesting boxes, the stalks, leaves etc.
I didn't have any so I bought some fresh garlic with a bit of stem and leaf on.
I chopped, peeled, diced the cloves and put it in all the nest boxes.
Now I don't have mites. I check every day. Now when I have access to some garlic stem and leaf rubbish I am going to put it in all the boxes permanently.
I know the chooks ate some of the garlic, so that will help too.
TRY IT.

 

[aart]

OH I am SO VERY DISCOURAGED now!!!

I have had chickens for 3 years and we have never had mites. This week we just moved to a new house that already had 2 small chicken houses on the property. Today I just brought my chickens from my Mom's house and put them in the coop. The previous owners had left the house filthy, so we shoveled it out first and put fresh hay down. My daughter just found a mite crawling on her. I know this means we have just exposed our chickens to mites and by tomorrow morning they are going to be covered! I am SO UPSET!!!! What do I do now?

Tomorrow when the sun comes up I can scrub the house with pinesol. But what do I do for my birds?

I'm so sad for them. My poor birdies are going to be itchy with bugs now, disgusting, vile, bugs that cause infections and other ailments. I hate bugs!

I didn't want to have to put poisons on my birds. Is there no hope now? Am I going to have to poison my birds to kill the bugs? CAN they be killed? Reading this thread does not give me any hope. So sad now.

Sparkling in Idaho.

Inspect the coop...especially where there are cracks and crevices, remove some boards where it meet flat up with another board and see what you find.
That's where the type of mite that lives in the structure of coops but only feeds on the birds at night will be living.
Best done well after dark with a strong flashlight/headlight, easier to 'catch' bird and also to check for the mites that live in structure and only come out at night to feed off roosting birds.
Wipe a white paper towel along the underside of roost to look for red smears(smashed well fed mites).
Part the feathers right down to the skin around vent, head/neck and under wings.
Google images of lice/mites and their eggs before the inspection so you'll know what you're looking for.

Chances are pinesol is not going to get the job done, nor will herbs and spices nor DE.... you need an effective insecticide to eradicate an infestation.
I would suggest a liquid permethrin product to spray coop thoroughly, soaking all the cracks and crevices completely.