Treating w/ permectrin II (permethrin), can't eat the eggs, right?

[SueBaby]

My girls have fleas.

Many have told me chickens don't get fleas. Maybe they're stick tight fleas, I don't know, but they jump and have a flea's shape- they're definitely not mites. I tried using DE, but had no luck, and now it is truly an infestation. We are going to spray the girls with permectrin and the coop and surrounding area too. Sad to use pesticides, but have come to terms with it.

So my questions for those of you in the know...

1. The bottle says do not reapply within 2 weeks, but do I need to reapply when 2 weeks are up? If I don't, won't more eggs hatch and start the cycle all over again?

2. I saw some other posts that said you could keep eating the eggs if it's an external treatment. It seems to me that this is a poison that is going to get everywhere and that we should not eat the eggs. So, in that case, would we avoid eating the eggs for the whole 2 weeks and then another 2 weeks after the second application? Or just avoid eating them for the first week after applying? Is there a rule of thumb on this?

3. And if we don't eat the eggs, can they be fed back to the chickens for protein/calcium or will that just increase the length of time that the poison is in their systems?

Thank you for any feedback you can give. It's so stressful to have sick girls and not know exactly how to proceed.

 

[Judy]

1. Yes, I would, to kill critters from eggs that have hatched, as the eggs will not be killed from the first application. You also need to treat the coop and bedding both times (or change the bedding.)

2. Most sources I checked said no meat or milk withdrawal. One said 5 days for meat if applied to pigs. Not unexpectedly, I didn't see one for chickens. A 2 week withdrawal is a pretty widely accepted "safe guess" for many meds. This would apply to both dosings. If there is a definitive answer available, I didn't find it.

3. For medications for which a withdrawal is recommended, it is always recommended to discard the eggs.