Hens go broody when you don’t want them to… and won’t go broody when you do. Hello. I have been dealing with mites for years. They can be seen crawling on the perch and really bother the chickens at night, so I think they are roost mites. I’ve used permethrin, sulfur, lime, Elector, Ivermectin, added a sand box for dust bathing into the coop, and last summer took out the perch ladder, burned it and built another out of 2x4s. Still, they return. I got excited when I came across Exzolt on an internet search for mite control, but it isn’t approved in the US (yet, fingers crossed). I mixed up another batch of Elecor a couple weeks ago and felt discouraged to see mites crawling around two nights later. Since then I have been just squishing all the little buggers I can every night.
Well, the other night I noticed little mite colonies in the screw heads on the perch so after squishing them thoroughly with the tine of a plastic fork, I decided to cover the holes with Vaseline to keep them from returning. I did that with a few other nooks and crannies as well. Well, I started noticing that mites were getting stuck on the Vaselined areas, like a sticky trap for mice. So I have coated the underside of the top two perches along with every joint on the ladder. I’ll work on the rest of the perches when I get more Vaseline. I really hope that this will be the solution to my problems. Maybe this might be helpful for others to try.
Well, the other night I noticed little mite colonies in the screw heads on the perch so after squishing them thoroughly with the tine of a plastic fork, I decided to cover the holes with Vaseline to keep them from returning. I did that with a few other nooks and crannies as well. Well, I started noticing that mites were getting stuck on the Vaselined areas, like a sticky trap for mice. So I have coated the underside of the top two perches along with every joint on the ladder. I’ll work on the rest of the perches when I get more Vaseline. I really hope that this will be the solution to my problems. Maybe this might be helpful for others to try.
