Anything dusty can be a cause for concern. I don't clean my coop. I use deep litter and would not use DE in it. I've heard of neem oil on roosts. White wash helps keep mites out of the crevices also (lyme). Ample dust bath areas are also great. I use wood ash and plain old dirt to keep it from getting airborne. More dirt than wood ash. In summer months they dust bathe outside.
White wash is time consuming and won't have a residual repellent any more than spraying the coop down with an emulsified concentrate, which also penetrates all cracks and crevices. I wouldn't just treat roosts since mites can inhabit any other area of the coop besides the roosts. I believe dusting areas are important also, and a dry area that lasts all year long is beneficial for a dusting area. A large enough yard with a covered area that stays dry is a necessity to me.
Since I remove droppings under roosts every morning (it takes about 5 minutes for 2 coops containing 20 birds each), the coops remain clean. Dropping boards never made sense to me either since the build up of droppings stinks and has to be dried for removal which takes time. Flies have plenty of time to respond. Shavings beneath the roosts dry droppings out, cake quickly, and can be removed easily with a fine rake and scoop. This goes to the compost pile at the other end of the pasture.
The common title of "deep litter method" as it is commonly called today came from built up litter which occurred during labor shortages during World War 2. Litter became built up around many farms due to lack of help. The dietary affect of built up litter showed that B-12, a vitamin produced by the side effect of bacterial action, existed in the litter. This vitamin was not discovered until 1950. When it was, feed mills began adding it to poultry feeds and the supposed benefits of built up litter became irrelevant.
The anti-coccidial properties of built up litter are real, but aren't consistent since it must be kept completely dry. Even then, the inviting environment for mites, lice, vectors for internal parasites are very real. The labor saving benefits of deep litter never outweighed the risks by my reasoning either. When I cleaned the coops out once a year for my Dad as a kid, we had to treat the birds' bodies for mites more often. I used to sprinkle lyme (about 10 lbs for every 100 square feet in the litter). My Dad told me "the parasites don't like alkaline environments". It may have kept down the Coccidiosis, but over the years, I've found a clean coop is a healthy, clean smelling environment with good air quality. That makes much more sense to me.
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