Poultry ticks (Argas persicus) creepy coop ticks--check your crevices

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:
Thank you so much for telling me this. I'm a relative newbie and I wasn't expecting any molting until next year. I just came back from the coop and I see that my CM is now loosing feathers more too. It's easy to assume causality because of the timing, but I certainly don't know. It could be entirely coincidental.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

emvickrey: Last night I killed them with a nail file. It was perfect for poking into tight areas and I could stab them to be sure they were dead. I would probably use a good set of tweezers to grab them and drop them into a jar. I didn't want any escaping. Mine were surprisingly close to the chickens. On the level where the chickens were, I never found one more than 1' away. Also, don't stand below the roosts. I think I'll be itching for days.

howlinggood: I think you might be nearer the outer limits of their distribution. They prefer warm climates and can be found worldwide. I read something about their temperature tolerances and I don't think they survive a freeze well. Of course, I only learned about these things yesterday, so I don't know much.

drdoolittle: They are definitely ticks, not mites. The biggest ones were 3/8" long. Fortunately, they were very easy to spot in my coop.

I went out last night again between midnight and 1 am and found three more ticks (all right away). This morning at 5 am, before sunrise, I found one more. It's going to be a busy day in the coop.

 

[BayouPoules]

Quote:
Thanks,.. added this to list of things to be on guard against,..

the way you care for (spoil) those hens and with the cooler weather coming,. I know they will be back to themselves in short time!

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I spent yesterday de-crevicing my coop. I completely dismantled the roosts and at each point where two boards overlapped I found masses of ticks that had escaped my earlier poking, stabbing, jabbing, spraying and vacuuming:

I would estimate that before I started killing them, there were as many as 500 ticks in my small coop. I cleaned up everything well and vacuumed it. I put the roosts back, but this time I added a layer of caulking sealant (DAP 3.0) between each board so that nothing could ever get between them again. I then proceeded to seal up every place where two boards meet. I finished everything above waist high and all of the roost end, from bottom to top. I made sure to finish applying the caulk in time for it to dry before the chickens returned to roost. I also put a 1/2" thick layer of DE on the ground below the roost and dusted each bird very well (Pillow case and DE method). I watched carefully for a couple hours after sunset and I found only two ticks, compared to the 51 I had killed the night before. I'm hoping those two ticks were simply ones that I missed in the clean-up seal-up. I went out and looked for an hour before sunrise this morning and I didn't find a single tick.

When I spoke with the folks at the Veterinary Diagnostics Lab. they said the standard treatment was organophosphates or pyrethrins, but that they were often ineffective in the long run (you have to deal with the crevices). They also reinforced something I'd read in the primary literature, that the poultry ticks were becoming resistant to the pesticides. It makes sense, unless you get the pesticide deep into that crack where they hide, they can escape poisoning. It's a situation tailor-made for developing resistance. The Vet. at the lab. was keen to find out what the people at the feed store were doing on the practical level. So, I went to my feed store and asked them and they said use DE. Now, I know the guys at the feed store are super helpful, but I don't have a whole lot of faith in the depth of their knowledge of poultry pests. As I noted earlier, I went with the DE, what could it hurt right?

I am a bit skeptical of the effectiveness of the DE against the ticks. So, to find out if it kills the ticks I decided to do a little study. I had collected a jar full of ticks when I was cleaning out the roosts and I put 50 into each of two jars. One jar has soil in it, the other has an equal volume of DE. I'll look to see what the mortality looks like tonight.

I'll also note that I got 4 eggs yesterday. Everybody laid except the two molters.

 

[speckledhen]

One thing you may want to try is Orange Guard. It's safe around animals, smells wonderful and gets in all the crevices just fine. It is orange oil based and seems to work well. ACE hardware sells it and if they don't have it on the shelf, they can get it. I get the gallon with sprayer which adjusts for spray or stream.

DE is not instant. It drys out the insect and it dies, so you can see that it isn't instant and it can't get into cracks that well.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:
I'm very interested in the Orange Guard, it sounds great. I've been wondering if the DE works primarily as a desiccant. If that's the case, DE wouldn't be very effective against these ticks because they are very resistant to desiccation. I don't have any cracks now, so I don't worry about getting the DE into them. Thanks for the info!

 

[speckledhen]

Yes, DE does work as a dessicant on soft bodied insects, so Orange Guard would be a better choice for your problem.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I don't recall which feed store you said you use, but there are a couple in Tucson who do know chickens as the owners raise and exhibit birds, and have for years. I reacll a conversation from about a year ago when I think the term "blue bugs" was mentioned. I asked, and their description sounds pretty much like what you are finding. I wonder if fogging a coop would get far enough into crevases to kill the bugs? I do know that rotating through a variety of pesticides is a good way to deter resistance to a specific product. I wonder if ivermectin is effective against these ticks? Or frontline?

 

[iluvsedward]

KILL THEM!! evil vermits!!!

 

[docente borre]

Dear Sir:
I ask you permission to reproduce the excellent photographs of Argas persicus who posted on this page. They would be used in an atlas that teachers Parasitology, Faculty of Medical Sciences of the National University of Cuyo (Mendoza, Argentina) are developing. It will be used as teaching material for students in the medical career. The atlas does not bring economic benefits to authors. Since then I will inform the origin of the images.
Grateful
Carlos G Borremans