4 weeks of Permethrin treatment and still have mites! Help me please

[pozees2]

Thank you for the suggestion, with the permethrin do you dust or spray? How often have you had to deal with them during your years of raising chickens? Is this just something I should get used to? Also do you ever us DE in the dust bathing areas?

Spray. I have one of those little garden sprayers you can pump pressure into, much easier on the hands I have had mites probably a dozen times in the last 10 years. I have thought MANY times about converting to all plastic coops where I have smaller coops, but I'm just not persuaded they will last here (very intense sun and wind at 5400 feet of elevation, out on the prairie) and my biggest building is a 12x16 wooden shed that isn't going anywhere. Some years I treat once and no more problems the rest of the year, but I had one year I had repeated infestations, I probably treated 3 times, third time I finally figured out I was trying to combat Northern Fowl Mites not the little red mites, and they are a little tougher, had to treat days 1, 4, and 7 to get them gone. I meantime was spraying coops until wet every day and letting them air dry while birds were out free ranging. It was no fun. Luckily that was the only year I dealt with them (knock on wood )

 

[pozees2]

Oh, and DE, I don't use, I don't like airborne particulate around chickens (or me) and I don't believe it works.

 

[HippieAtHeart]

I would try a more concentrated amount of the spray, I would use 0.5%
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Just on the coop or on the chickens as well? It’s just odd because I don’t really see the mites crawling on them, but they certainly . I did see the debris the first week and lice on my rooster, but now I don’t really see much. I’m pretty sure my black australorp is the one with mites still though because she is always dust bathing. I feel bad for my rooster too because I noticed, which he must have had for a long time before I got him, patches of very red, featherless, rough scratchy skin to the sides of his vent and above his legs. Sorry the photos aren’t great, snagged these while he was dust bathing on his side. Do you think this is from mites/lice? If so how could I help him heal?

 

[HippieAtHeart]

Spray. I have one of those little garden sprayers you can pump pressure into, much easier on the hands I have had mites probably a dozen times in the last 10 years. I have thought MANY times about converting to all plastic coops where I have smaller coops, but I'm just not persuaded they will last here (very intense sun and wind at 5400 feet of elevation, out on the prairie) and my biggest building is a 12x16 wooden shed that isn't going anywhere. Some years I treat once and no more problems the rest of the year, but I had one year I had repeated infestations, I probably treated 3 times, third time I finally figured out I was trying to combat Northern Fowl Mites not the little red mites, and they are a little tougher, had to treat days 1, 4, and 7 to get them gone. I meantime was spraying coops until wet every day and letting them air dry while birds were out free ranging. It was no fun. Luckily that was the only year I dealt with them (knock on wood )

So you treated the birds the first day, 3 days later, and then again 3 days later? I have only been treating every 7 days, could this be why they aren’t gone too? Also how did you figure out they were the northern fowl mites?
I find it odd because my mom raises chickens and she said she never dealt with mites, but I feel pike most people deal with them, she swears by the DE but I have read it’s not good for them and doesn’t really work like you said.

 

[pozees2]

So you treated the birds the first day, 3 days later, and then again 3 days later? I have only been treating every 7 days, could this be why they aren’t gone too? Also how did you figure out they were the northern fowl mites?
I find it odd because my mom raises chickens and she said she never dealt with mites, but I feel pike most people deal with them, she swears by the DE but I have read it’s not good for them and doesn’t really work like you said.

My husband found one (dead) and looked at it under a magnifying glass and it was black and white, not red. He called me over to look at it, and I looked up pictures of mites, and realized where I'd gone wrong. Poor birds. I have no idea why they seem to turn up some places and not others. I do know the last few years I've brought in almost no new birds and that seems to have limited me to only having to treat once a year. I just plan to have to treat once a year, possibly more. I know a keeper who lives near me who refuses to treat for them. His position is that he doesn't want to raise birds that can't manage them without intervention. I can't roll that way. Every keeper has his or her own way of managing poultry, many of us try to learn and modify/evolve with new information. That's one of the things I love about this site. All of life is learning, and this place is chock full of it.

 

[HippieAtHeart]

My husband found one (dead) and looked at it under a magnifying glass and it was black and white, not red. He called me over to look at it, and I looked up pictures of mites, and realized where I'd gone wrong. Poor birds. I have no idea why they seem to turn up some places and not others. I do know the last few years I've brought in almost no new birds and that seems to have limited me to only having to treat once a year. I just plan to have to treat once a year, possibly more. I know a keeper who lives near me who refuses to treat for them. His position is that he doesn't want to raise birds that can't manage them without intervention. I can't roll that way. Every keeper has his or her own way of managing poultry, many of us try to learn and modify/evolve with new information. That's one of the things I love about this site. All of life is learning, and this place is chock full of it.

So I just confirmed I have northern fowl mites...ugh. You mentioned doing the treatment every 3 days on the birds the first week, should I also be spraying the coop daily? Also I sprayed yesterday and there are tons still on the coop, how long does it take for them to die?

 

[pozees2]

So I just confirmed I have northern fowl mites...ugh. You mentioned doing the treatment every 3 days on the birds the first week, should I also be spraying the coop daily? Also I sprayed yesterday and there are tons still on the coop, how long does it take for them to die?

The year I had Northern Fowl Mites I treated the coop every day for a week with permethrin spray, even though I had read they only live on the birds, in case there were also red mites, or in case some rogues had opted to bide their time in a crevice. I treated the birds with ivermectin. I've seen some literature that suggested sulfur (sulphur?) dust can be used but it has to make contact with the skin of the affected birds, I'd wear a mask if using it (or any dust/powder), and some people have a negative reaction to it, which of course you wouldn't know until after you had used it, and I didn't feel up to that sort of adventure when pour-on ivermectin is readily available at the feed store and I almost always have some spare 1cc and 3cc syringes around. I also wasn't really finding a whole lot that said permethrin would control them, so maybe that part wasn't even necessary, I was just wanting to be sure to eradicate them as completely as possible.

 

[casportpony]

So I just confirmed I have northern fowl mites...ugh. You mentioned doing the treatment every 3 days on the birds the first week, should I also be spraying the coop daily? Also I sprayed yesterday and there are tons still on the coop, how long does it take for them to die?

Have you tried the more concentrated amount yet?

 

[aart]

I have a picture attached for reference, my zoom isn’t that great. What am I doing wrong?

Not sure that's a poultry mite.

 

[pozees2]

Have you tried the more concentrated amount yet?

Do you know if permethrin is effective against Northern Fowl Mites? I couldn't find anything that said it was, but that means little, it's been a few years since I looked.