teeny- tiny little bugs in coop but don't appear on chickens?????

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Litleburgs

Litleburgs

In the Brooder
7 Years
Jul 12, 2012
35
1
34
Hello-

I have a small coop that houses 3 chickens and they free range during the day. Anyways, i clean the coop every other day- pull out bedding, spray down and then once the coop dries i dust with DE and replace pine bedding and do a light dusting again of DE. Anyways, i have noticed when i remove the pine shavings there the tiniest little bugs (not an infestation- just noticeable if i look extremely close and watch for them) that i have ever seen in some places on the wood. They appear to be gray in color and do not fly or jump but they are fast little things. If you touch them they literally smash and you cannot even pick them up to look at them closely. Anyways, i totally examine the chickens pulling back feathers, etc., and do not see them on the birds anywhere.

My question is this: is there a chance these are just little bugs that are normal for a coop OR do these sound like i have a huge problem like lice or mites or something that will eventually be on my chickens?

ANY help on this would be soooo greatly appreciated! Thanks! Mollie
 
Hi there! You would think there wouldn't be bugs but these little ones are still in there!!! ;( Anyways, all i do is power spray it with my hose and a strong spray nozzle. No chemicals or anything- plain water.
 
I found little bugs in my quail tractor. I am in AK and assumed they were lice or mites. I treated it with DE. Poor little quail were poofed. A week later still there. Then when I found them on my garden gate 200 feet away from the birds I decided it must be the wood tractor and not the birds these bugs were after and gave up.
 
You know, the coop floor is wood and after reading your post, maybe that is what is going on with these little things, or at least i hope that is what is going on!!! Im going to check out my wood gate around the property tomorrow. I'll be thrilled if they are not after the chickens! :) Thanks!
 
i really need some help. like you we clean the cages consistantly, new bedding, de, sand baths, treated birds and cages repeatedly but every batch of birds i have gotten have died. we are wore out and sad. i have 3 left again...seem fine one minute dead the next.
opened up one bird that seemed to have no obvious injury, no mites found, some clotted blood inside under the wing area.
few days later miy husband thought he saw a few mites so we started the mite treatments...done everything and this batch died too!
can the mites be coming from my bail of salt hay?
 
flick said:
i really need some help. like you we clean the cages consistantly, new bedding, de, sand baths, treated birds and cages repeatedly but every batch of birds i have gotten have died. we are wore out and sad. i have 3 left again...seem fine one minute dead the next.
opened up one bird that seemed to have no obvious injury, no mites found, some clotted blood inside under the wing area.
few days later miy husband thought he saw a few mites so we started the mite treatments...done everything and this batch died too!
can the mites be coming from my bail of salt hay?
Click to expand...
You might have the kind of mites that hide in crevices around the roosts and feed on the chickens right after sunset and then return to their crevices. Check tonight immediately after sunset with a flashlight.
 
They sound a lot like booklice,,nothing serious,,a lot of people get them from their wood shavings..they feed of the old mold,dust,anything that wood harbors. They won't bother your hens.
Just don't bring them into your house,,they're hard to get rid of if you get an infestation,,and they thrive in humidity. I'm almost positive they're booklice,,look it up on google. :))
 
i just checked, saw some black specks, checked very carefully. but they didnt move...the cage is dusted with garden and vegetable powder to kill mites. i checked a cage that my three birds just died in yesterday and that my husband sprayed this morning with permitheryn, saw small black specs but no movement, they might be them dead...im just soo stumped and dont know how to save the three birds i have left.
 

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