desperately trying to get a handle on controlling red mites. help!

Date sort Score sort
jdibs

jdibs

Hatching
10 Years
Jun 16, 2009
9
0
7
My silkie hens have been suffering the ravages of red mites for a couple months and I can't seem to get rid of them. The vet gave them three injections (2 weeks apart) of ivermectin. A few days after final injection, one hen had mites again on her vent. I've been cleaning coop (even used bleach), changing bedding often, and have been dusting them with pyrethrin. I've also dusted area in and around coop with DE.

What else can I do? The dusting doesn't seem to do a thing. I dusted them well three days ago, but went out today to find one hen suffering in the coop and her vent teeming with mites again.

I live in Los Angeles. It's hot and dry and I don't know if that contributes to the problem. Seems like it's not that much of a problem for others on the boards. My vet said the mites could come from wild birds or rodents. Sparrows are at the chicken feed all day long, so could be where they're coming from.

What can I do? Any suggestions or information would be so appreciated.
 
You have to literally paint the coops with a whitewash made of the permethrin and mineral oil or water. You have to get in all the little cracks of the wood that makes the structure, not just the bedding.

And don't feel bad - mites are notoriously difficult to get rid of.

When you dust, you're still not getting where they lay their eggs - in the cracks in the roosts, wood, etc. So maybe this will help!

Are you useing pyrethrin or PERMethrins? Poultry dust?

Added: by the way, make sure to super-boost their nutrition as mites will not only irritate them and stress them into lowered immunities, but literally make them anemic. So really make sure evveryone is getting lots of good food. You can feed them boiled/mashed eggs to help facilitate that. I also like to give a little yogurt as it helps the body's bacteria to make food more absorbable and more thoroughly used. I figure they need every bit out of their food that they can get.
 
Last edited:
Definitely work over the cracks and crevices. You might consider the Ivermectin cattle pour-on instead of the injectable. It is much less stressful and easier to apply.

On the old board, a member ended up having to disassemble the coop before the mite problem was resolved.

Weakened tea tree oil and/or, in a pinch, Ivermectin pour-on rubbed into the roosts could be of benefit. If you have a magnifying headset and a good light you can probably find out what's moving where by checking the coop after they've gone to roost.

I'd probably separate the most egregiously infested hens into clean/treated temporary digs until the buggers are dead.

This is information on the actual kill times of various acaricides on a human mite (similar, nasty, chitinous, blood sucking, arthropods):

Resistance of Sarcoptes scabiei to various topical therapies has been described, but clinical assessment of treatment failure is problematic and in-vitro assays are generally not available. We describe a simple in-vitro analysis used to evaluate the relative efficacy of a range of topical, oral, and herbal treatments available in Australia for the treatment of scabies. S. scabiei var. hominis mites were collected from skin scrapings obtained from 7 crusted scabies patients over a period of 2 years (1997 and 1998). Larvae, nymphal instars, and adult mites were tested within 3 h of collection and continuously exposed to selected commercially available treatment products until death, with the elapsed time recorded. Neem was the only product to show little acaricidal activity. Survival curves indicated that, of the other agents, 5% permethrin (Lyclear) had the slowest killing time, with 35% of mites still alive after 3 h, and 4% still alive after 18–22 h of constant exposure. In contrast, no mites were alive after 3 h exposure to 25% benzyl benzoate (Ascabiol), 1 % lindane (Quellada), 5% tea tree oil and 100–8000 ng/g of ivermectin (Equimec). Despite the slower killing time with 5% permethrin, there was no evidence of any mite tolerance in vivo or treatment failure in any patients or contact cases.

As Threehorses said, keep the girls well fed or they'll succumb to anemia and attendant problems.

Good luck!​
 
I *love* that diluted tea tree oil idea for the coop!

I also agree that ivermectin pour -on applied to the skin is, to me, a better choice. It's just very easy to use. I buy generic because I can often find smaller containers and the price isn't the high Ivomec brand name price.

My last bottle was 250ml by Aspen at $13.95. Since it's one to seven drops per bird, it lasts ages.

And I'm certain that he treated twice to catch whatever hatched. Mites can lay eggs in one day and they hatch rather quickly. They really are rough.
 

Similar threads

MaeM
How to get rid of red mites?!
Replies
7
Views
731
BDutch
BDutch
F
Mites or Mini Molt?
Replies
1
Views
1K
Wyorp Rock
Wyorp Rock
L
HELP- Sick Chicken
Replies
5
Views
232
Lake2sea
L
Lillith37
    • Like
    • Love
Red mite infestation
4 5 6
Replies
55
Views
5K
Lillith37
Lillith37
Celcampbell23
Please help first time dealing with mites
Replies
3
Views
800
Celcampbell23
Celcampbell23

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom