Mites or ???

[cashcreekranch]

Hi Friends
I am having a issue with mites or lice or something in my coop and on my chickens. They seem to be white and very very small. I have dusted my chicken with DE and poultry dust and bombed my inside of coop. I have had chickens for over 30 years and never had any issues. I checked w/my neighbors they have no problems.

Please Help
worried about my girls
they are crawling on us when we go in to get eggs

Thank You Dawn

 

[nuthatched]

DE won't do a blessed thing.
Have you clean out your coop completely, treated it everywhere with permethrine, got completely new bedding and litter and throughly treated your birds? Can little birds get in your coop?

 

[Reggan]

Hi Dawn,

I have some very recent posts about this. I'm still getting my butt kicked. They got in my house, our clothes (which really set us back with the hatch cycle - laundry is a whole thing now) on my dogs, in our cars and on us. I swear we are very clean people and so are my birds. It started with a Grackle nest (starling family) nest on our property.
I do believe mine are a tropical fowl mite. They are veracious. I had a short stint with NFM's (from geese being in the field next to us) and it was nothing like this
We are winning very slowly, but it's been a battle for months.

DE does NOTHING.

Hit them and hit them hard with everything. Ivermectin didn't touch them. Eprinex helped a bit.
My girls have been dusted every 3-4 days for months. I feel awful for them. They've been bathed (permethin/enzymes/spinosad), I've used Electrol PSP, you name I've done it.
I actually ended up having to order Exzolt from a UK pest company to attempt to not have to cull my flock and let everything rest for a year.
They ARE not red poultry mites. they are extremely small and live on the birds and... other mammals. They do climb on the walls and the ceilings of my coop (which is 8x15 small barn). I clean & spray my entire coop and enclosure (36x15) every weekend and have done so for months. I use different substances every week to avoid resistance build.
I am finally winning, as they act the exact same way in our home (walls and ceilings), they are a bird mite so they instinctively climb. Apparently because I am auto immune, at some level, they love me too. Brutal.

 

[McChooky]

Dipping the birds in a mix of neem oil and water every 3 days interrupts their reproduction cycle by sterilizing the adults.Hope this helps!

 

[Reggan]

Dipping the birds in a mix of neem oil and water every 3 days interrupts their reproduction cycle by sterilizing the adults.Hope this helps!

Dipping is really the only thing that seems to pack a punch. It's a pain bathing 29 chickens, lol. I didn't dip in NEEM, though I've coated my coop in it several times. I used Captain Jack's
Dusting puts a small dent in them.
Peat moss in their dust baths has seemed to help, maybe because it's so fine. I'm also dumping baking soda in their dust bath too and all over the coop. It works in my house, so I'm giving it a whirl. Areas where I know they don't peck I'm putting laundry borax down before fresh bedding. Iodine table salt is my next move. Salt/sodium/borax are not their friends.

 

[McChooky]

Dipping is really the only thing that seems to pack a punch. It's a pain bathing 29 chickens, lol. I didn't dip in NEEM, though I've coated my coop in it several times. I used Captain Jack's
Dusting puts a small dent in them.
Peat moss in their dust baths has seemed to help, maybe because it's so finer. I'm also dumping baking soda in their dust bath too and all over the coop. It works in my house, so I'm giving it a whirl. Areas where I know they don't peck I'm putting laundry borax down before fresh bedding. Iodine table salt is my next move. Salt/sodium/borax are not their friends.

I never knew what a chicken mite was until I got a 'free' rooster on Facebook. I spent the whole summer reading about them and treating my flock so I could save them from a mite that lived in the shaft of their feathers.I didn't have to cull any of my chickens but it was exhausting! Sorry you're going thru this and wishing you the best!

 

[Reggan]

Thanks. It's a brave new world for me.

 

[cashcreekranch]

Thank You guys for all the great info, I feel so bad for my girls. I am happy weather is changes a bit too. I think between trying some of the suggestions and weather we are seeing a improvement..

 

[Kiki]

Thank You guys for all the great info, I feel so bad for my girls. I am happy weather is changes a bit too. I think between trying some of the suggestions and weather we are seeing a improvement..

https://www.backyardchickens.com/reviews/martins-horse-stable-permethrin-spray.11854/

 

[Reggan]

Thank You guys for all the great info, I feel so bad for my girls. I am happy weather is changes a bit too. I think between trying some of the suggestions and weather we are seeing a improvement..

I'm happy to report after 3 very long months for my chooks, my dogs, myself, my house, my property and my coop/barn all are finally improving. It has been unbelievable, literally. I'm SO glad you are getting a handle on it. I actually am bringing some parasite sample to an entomology lab next week, These things are veracious!
I hit my coop and barn hard with dawn soap/agricultural vinegar mixed with essential oils the last three weeks. It really helped. Of course the birds are 100 times better, the Fluralaner and bathing has saved my animals. So I think it's all improving simultaneously, since the mites want to be on the birds. Using sulfur & boric acid in bedding, which is also helping.
Still fighting them in our garage and garage attic with the help from some exterminators.
Come on winter!!!