- Feb 11, 2014
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thank you Scratch'n'peck. My experience with Spinosad leads me to believe it is one of the best kept secrets of the pesticide world. I am definitely going to check out your thread on it. For the benefit of this thread, though, here is what I know about it. Last year when my dogs developed overwhelming flea infestations, I found the vet prescribed product Comfortis; it is an "organic" systemic insecticide that is administered X1 per month, with food, in a pill form. It starts killing fleas within minutes of administration and is effective for one month. It is VERY effective (within an hour, both my dogs were flealess, and for 30days thereafter, they were walking, barking lethal fleabait) AND very expensive (IMO). Comfortis is a pill form of Spinosad, and it is administered according to weight-specific (and published) dosages. My dogs tolerated it well. And so did the chicks I was growing out. You see, I was raising some chicks in my flea infested house, and I did not wish to put them down in the coop if they had fleas; I bought some Spinosad concentrate, made the appropriate dilution, and added it to an amount of feed I was sur e the chicks would consume in a short time. They ate it all and showed absolutely no ill effects (they were several weeks old). So, I was pretty sure when I put them down in the coop, they didn't have fleas, but more than that, I knew that chickens tolerated Spinosad at the recommended dosages published for dogs.
OK, so if you Googled Spinosad, you would find that it is a not so well known organic insecticide that kills, among other insects on plants, red mites, perhaps both topically and when ingested. This is not to say that it will systemically kill chicken mites, but rather that it is an organic MITICIDE for topical application to certain crop plants. I don't have (yet) any obvious mite infestations in my chickens, and I have no experience in using Spinosad for them. I can say only that the concentrated form I used (11.6% in propylene glycol), when diluted to the strength used for fleas in dogs, was safe and well tolerated by my chicks. If I had valuable roosters - and I do - and they had heavy mite infestations, I would not hesitate to isolate them and offer them a meal appropriately spiked with Spinosad.
This is an off label use for Spinosad; it is important to research this product and know that the "inactive ingredients" in the various formulations may or may not be harmful to chickens, and it is important to be able to ensure proper dosages (You need to know your animals' weights); Spinosad's efficacy as a miticide for mites in chickens has not ever been confirmed as far as I know. It can be expensive.
As an aside regarding mites: I recently was bequeathed a box turtle suffering from mites; she hadn't eaten in months and was quite moribund, it seemed; I soaked her in warm water baths containing DE and wiped her down and sprayed her with benzalkonium chloride; we dusted her enclosure and substrate with DE and sprayed it with the BZK. Her mites disappeared, she started eating, and she became lively with no relapses. I think the benzalkonium (Zephiran) helped the most. I would not hesitate to spray it on mite infested rooster legs (it's the "alcohol free" hand sanitizer).
Hope all this was not too hard to read and that it helps. Laurie in BERTHOUD
