Mites on me!!

[mame1616]

I need some help. In my seven years with chickens, I have never had mites - lice, yes, but not mites, and even that was many years ago, before I started using DE everywhere. Now that I know what I have, I've dusted every bird, and added dust to their bathing holes. I discovered the mites when I brought my big cochin hen into the house on Friday because she was acting ill. I looked at her vent, but didn't see anything, but as she's a dark partridge, that may have hindered me. Yesterday I felt like my skin was crawling, and when I looked, there they were! I could barely see them, even under the brightest light! No wonder I couldn't see them on my bird. I ran out today and loaded up on Sevin Dust, and dusted all the birds. Took the bird in my room outside, dusted and changed her cage and her, left my clothes outside, and took a shower. Later, I was wiping up the table around her cage and a few minutes later the bugs are back on me again! Do I have to bomb my room now? I also noticed when I reached in the cage to check the one bird that she still has living mites on her, because they were on my hand and my shirt. How long does it take for this to work?

Will these things crawl all over my house? The bird is too ill to be outside in the cold - what do I do??

 

[ghillie]

This was my first year with mites. DE & Poultry Protector did not work for me. I bathed the birds with Adams Flee & Tick shampoo. I also cleaned out the coop and sprayed it down with Kleen Green from Natural Genesis. I also used the Kleen Green in the house and on myself. I found both of these solutions on here during searches. Good luck, they are creepy little things.......

 

[Beth G.]

Sevin Dust is good for housing, nest boxes, and floors of coops etc... But, I believe with an infestation such as this you need to add Ivomec pour oil base 5% on or I would actually opt to do a injectable water base 1% and get it in the blood stream asap. I've also seen ppl use frontline on chickens bc they could not gain fast access to Ivomec. But, TSC and most Livestock stores carry it.

Then for your house you need to bomb it for fleas and bugs. I think hardware stores sell fogging bomb for different purposes. I have to bomb my house once a year for spiders b/c we store our wood burning firewood in our basement and get way too many spiders in the house. I ususally take all food, face soap, toothbrushes, pets, etc.. outside and leave the house for 4 hours then go back open the windows and air it out. It definitely works.

Good luck I hope you get it under control, nothing worse then getting the hebbie gebbies from bugs!! I hate Ticks!!!

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[bairo]

x2 with beth for ivermectin pour on. see my byc page for help and dosing

 

[mame1616]

Thanks everyone! I Frontlined everyone this morning, and the Ivermec was in the works already as I just wormed them a couple days ago and will be using that for the second dose in a few days. Haven't seen any action on the house-bound hen today, so...

Thanks again for the help! This has been a bit alarming.