Neem oil for mites

[ECiesielczyk]

Hello! Just wanted to add my input on neem oil for chickens.
I have been using it for about 6 months with great results. I haven't used it in the warm months yet so that is yet to be tested, however:
I mixed 1 part neem oil, 1 part macadamia oil and about .05 parts oregano oil and applied one drop under each wing of all my chickens. 2-3 drops under my turkey's wings. I did this once a week at night when they were roosting for 3 weeks and I did not see any mites or lice on them after those three weeks. It seems that in winter it only needs to be applied every other month or one application per month for maintenance.
For heavy infestations, I would suggest an additional drop among the tail feathers (touching the skin) as well as a drop behind the neck.

And so far my rooster is not sterile as we just hatched 14 chicks by him.

Where do you get your neem oil. I seem to be getting answers from the local stores. Is it an essential oil, concentrate, etc? Thanks.

 

[starlingdaly]

Where do you get your neem oil. I seem to be getting answers from the local stores. Is it an essential oil, concentrate, etc? Thanks.

This is where I bought my specific neem seed oil. I have seen it on Amazon as well.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/498004...=US&ga_search_type=all&ga_facet=neem+seed+oil

I saw your PM but I thought it better to answer here for the benefit of other people too.

 

[A HappyHenLover]

to spray on the birds, what are some amounts?


To give them a bathe with neem, how much i used?

 

[A HappyHenLover]

how much of each ingridient to what amount of water? To Starlingdaly

 

[Chukchuk]

Hi,
There are currently a load of the lice eggs on my poor chickens head, she is quite poorly, unable to stand long and not eating much

, maybe there is an underlying cause but the vet didn't spot anything. So, I am about to try neem on her head and have found the following article which might be interesting regarding the efficiency of neem oil on lice and eggs as it is a less annecdotal account. It is presumably regarding human lice.

Summary of "Ovicidal effects of a neem seed extract preparation on eggs of body and head lice."

The eggs (nits) of head and body lice (Pediculus humanus capitis, Pediculus humanus corporis) were incubated for 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 or 45 min into a neem seed extract contained in a fine shampoo formulation (e.g. Wash Away

Louse), which is known for its significant killing effects of larvae and adults of head lice. The aim of the study was to test whether the developmental stages inside the eggs are also killed after the incubation into the shampoo. It was found that an incubation time of only 5 min was sufficient to prohibit any hatching of larvae, whilst 93 ± 4% of the larvae in the untreated controls of body lice hatched respectively about 76% of the controls in the case of head lice. Apparently, the neem-based shampoo blocked the aeropyles of the eggs, thus preventing the embryos of both races of lice from accessing oxygen and from releasing carbon dioxide. Thus, this product offers a complete cure from head lice upon a single treatment, if the lice (motile stages, eggs) are fully covered for about 10 min.

source web address is here

thanks for an interesting read on your thread.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Hi,
There are currently a load of the lice eggs on my poor chickens head, she is quite poorly, unable to stand long and not eating much

, maybe there is an underlying cause but the vet didn't spot anything. So, I am about to try neem on her head and have found the following article which might be interesting regarding the efficiency of neem oil on lice and eggs as it is a less annecdotal account. It is presumably regarding human lice.

Summary of "Ovicidal effects of a neem seed extract preparation on eggs of body and head lice."

The eggs (nits) of head and body lice (Pediculus humanus capitis, Pediculus humanus corporis) were incubated for 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 or 45 min into a neem seed extract contained in a fine shampoo formulation (e.g. Wash Away

Louse), which is known for its significant killing effects of larvae and adults of head lice. The aim of the study was to test whether the developmental stages inside the eggs are also killed after the incubation into the shampoo. It was found that an incubation time of only 5 min was sufficient to prohibit any hatching of larvae, whilst 93 ± 4% of the larvae in the untreated controls of body lice hatched respectively about 76% of the controls in the case of head lice. Apparently, the neem-based shampoo blocked the aeropyles of the eggs, thus preventing the embryos of both races of lice from accessing oxygen and from releasing carbon dioxide. Thus, this product offers a complete cure from head lice upon a single treatment, if the lice (motile stages, eggs) are fully covered for about 10 min.

source web address is here

thanks for an interesting read on your thread.

Very interesting!

Also just in case you haven't read this on BYC, unrefined coconut oil is said to dissolve the nits (eggs) after the bugs are killed (make sure they are killed upon their hatching out at 2 weeks first). The life cycle of poultry lice is such that more lice hatch out around 2 weeks later from what I have read, which makes retreatment at 2 weeks vital. From your article there it might seem that one treatment may be enough but personally I wouldn't chance it.

Some literature recommends retreatment at one week in addition to the two week retreatment, so fewer eggs are laid.

They use the coconut oil so they don't have to cut their feathers off to get those nits off the bird.

 

[purpletree23]

Neem oil in my opinion would be very toxic. Best thing to do is practice prevention like dusting edges of coop floor and inside nesting boxes with Sevin after each coop cleaning. Also dust the perches. Anything rubbed into the skin people and chickens (any animal) included gets absorbed into the body and filtered through the liver. Anything can be toxic.

If you see mites or lice dust the chickens with a poultry dust every 10 days for approx 3 weeks. This is only after you strip the coop of everything inside and put it outside and use a bug bomb or 2 inside. Keep everything closed up tight for minimum 6 hours. Then dust with Sevin and then put everything back ofter it has been either dusted or scrubbed in hot water with blue Dawn dish detergent. The blue Dawn is more toxic to crawlies.

Prevention my friends

 

[Chukchuk]

Thanks, indeed, everything you say is true. As the study showed that there were survivors there could still be a nasty number of the critters left, so I will repeat soon. And bizarely after reading in the thread that oil was useful, I then massaged raw coconut oil into Speckles (she loved all this treatment) and I discovered that some of the clumps that I massaged were breaking up. I must say though it took a hell of a lot of massage into the little clumps for this to happen so I didn't get too many like that.

Anyway fingers crossed.

 

[Chukchuk]

With regards to practising prevention, this is important indeed. Sometimes though I think that there may be an underlying health problem that the presense of lice reveals. I personally try and use the most organic treatments if at all possible to prevent these out breaks so every 2 week my little house - in which I downsized to keep only 3 chickens in - has diatomaceous earth sprinkled in their favourite areas and entrance plus barrier red mite and louse powders. I have only ever had lice pre-existing on new hens bought in and had a red mite infestation once in 9 years. So not too shabby. In case there is any other disease in the house it was hoovered! steam cleaned! and soaked for an hour with 1% hydrogen peroxide as a disinfectant which was then pressure washed off and the house dried nicely in the sun.

With regards to Sevin. This is banned here in the UK (and in alot of other countries) as it's active ingredient is carbarly which is nastily toxic when even small amounts enter the nervous system and is a carcinogen see for instance here. It is not something that I want myself or chickens exposed to.

I have also researched neem oil which has not been banned despite there being a big clamp down on "natural" health products here in the uk and is registered as generally safe to use to spray on crops. That is not to say that it has no toxicity at all. Neem contains an aspirin like substance and the seeds are toxic in large doses in children and deaths have beed reported, but thats not what we are suggesting to do here. Clinical studies show anti-carcingenic properties too. Look here.

Anyway the information here is presented in order to help contirbute towards people making informed choices.

 

[Gallus gallus]

I'm so happy to have found this thread! My hen has had an unusually small Northern Fowl mite infestation for about a month or two now - she's had some irritated skin and tiny blood spots on her crest and face, but although I thoroughly searched her feathers several times, I only spotted the actual mites today - and at that, after parting all of her feathers, I only found a few across her entire body. I'm not sure why this is; the only preventive I use is a plain dust bath, though I do generously add baking soda to the litter. Nonetheless, I don't expect the population to remain stable.

I was thinking that Neem oil mixed with Coconut oil and smothered all over the body would work well to paralyze and suffocate the mites- I figure it's safe and would help heal the skin - plus I happen to have a surplus of Coconut oil! Any thoughts?