Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[sjturner79]

Hey Friends .. I need your help please?

If you remember, last year I had to deal with what I thought at the time and to this day was a severe mite/lice infestation; but now I have my doubts.  If you remember, these things were all over the coops walls and the lawn and any time I stepped outside I had to wash all my clothes, have a shower, our bedding got washed daily the coop got stripped down and washed thoroughly for a couple of weeks in the row, Neem Oil and Pestene [I know some do not like Pestene and there are side effects, possible Parkinsons] all over the place etc.  I could not put my washing basket on the lawn without it picking up heaps of these tiny little things.

Eventually, any trip outside to near the coop or on the lawn the numbers of these things dwindled and then were gone.  That was November last year.

Since then, as I never wanted to go through that again, while I practiced bug deterrent methods before, I am now paranoid.  The coop gets stripped and Neem Oiled every weekend … I have deep litter dust in the run and as you know, I cover the run at any sign of rain so that I am not dealing with damp earth;  the nest boxes get dusted with Pestene .. the girls have access to 3 or 4 dust baths and they are checked regularly.  Granted I do not actually dust them.

So, nothing until now!  I go out into the garden this morning, feed and water the gals as per usual, come back in and notice I have a couple of these little bugs on me ….  Oh gees no .. not again!

So, I check the coop .. nothing .. I check the nest boxes .. nothing .. I checked an egg that Cilla has just laid .. nothing. 

Then I start to think, is it mite/lice I am dealing with?  If these things are bad enough that they are in the lawn and around the coop, surely I am going to see evidence of them in the coop, nest, egg etc?

Hubby has noticed a couple of bites and is a bit itchy.  He does not pick the girls up at all and he usually sits with them on the deck except in the afternoon when he sits on the lawn with them and hands out meal worms.

Is it a coincidence that it is the same time as last year?
Could I be dealing with some other critter that is not chicken related?

These things are tiny and do not fly but while I can see them moving, they are too small to really make out what they look like.

PS.  I will check the girls and dust them after work today.

Sounds like it "MIGHT" be sand fleas. We get the little buggers at some of the places I have lived, and although I don't know how much they would like chickens I found them nearly impossible to get of us, our cats, or anywhere as there was millions of them coming in on anything that came within 3 feet of the grass.

They bite, and drink blood but breed in soil, and love grass or sandy areas.

Sorry I can't help with how to get rid of them if they are . I only succeeded when I moved.

 

[Teila]

Oh No RodneyRooster I hope your little chick comes back.

Well, I went and sat near the coop and caught one of the creepy crawlies off my leg in a jar. I tried all ways to take his picture but he was too tiny and was just a blur when up close and from a distance, just a dot.

They do not hop, just crawl, so I am thinking maybe not a sand flea.

I do believe I have lice or mite .. not sure if I can go through this again. Granted they are not as bad … yet … but I am feeling pretty disheartened right now

 

[sjturner79]

Streaks before the spa. Not quite as feather blind or clawed as shadows, but also had vent clogging starting.

After

 

[satay]

Rodney I hope you find your little chick and it is ok.

 

[satay]

Oh No RodneyRooster I hope your little chick comes back.

Well, I went and sat near the coop and caught one of the creepy crawlies off my leg in a jar.  I tried all ways to take his picture but he was too tiny and was just a blur when up close and from a distance, just a dot. 

They do not hop, just crawl, so I am thinking maybe not a sand flea.

I do believe I have lice or mite .. not sure if I can go through this again.   Granted they are not as bad … yet … but I am feeling pretty disheartened right now   

Lice are horrible but the only advice I can add is to use the spray Fancy recommends from Woolies. Worked a treat on the marans when they got lice last year and so easy to do.

 

[Teila]

I will get some of the spray today .. how long before they can go back in the coop? Just wondering, if I spray everything at 4pm today while they are outside, they are OK to then go back in at 6pm?

Did you spray your Marans or just the coop? I think I read that Fancy gives the birds a hit also? While I have used Pestene and have some on hand that I could use this afternoon to dust them .. what are your thoughts please?

 

[satay]

I will get some of the spray today .. how long before they can go back in the coop?  Just wondering, if I spray everything at 4pm today while they are outside, they are OK to then go back in at 6pm?

Did you spray your Marans or just the coop?  I think I read that Fancy gives the birds a hit also?  While I have used Pestene and have some on hand that I could use this afternoon to dust them .. what are your thoughts please?

I did both. I gave them a spray under each wing as well as the perches. I did them in their outside yards they don't have a coop as such but a massive outside run.

 

[Teila]

Thank You satay and Fancy

Hubby picked up a can at lunch time.

Hopefully I have caught it early enough and we do not have to go through a repeat of last year

 

[Teila]

Sorry, I am back with a couple more questions.

Turns out the whether to spray or dust the gals was moot because I ran out of surface spray before I got to the gals.

So, I sprayed everywhere I could in the coop, including the roosts and sure enough, some mites showed themselves where the roosts join and some were on the walls etc after the spray.

My questions:

I spray the same places every weekend with diluted Neem Oil; wouldn’t the drenching in Neem Oil also cause them to show themselves?

If that is the case, how come they were not there on Saturday but there were quite a few today?

If the Neem Oil was doing it’s job, they should be sterile and not able to reproduce so quickly?

Should I repeat the surface spray again and if yes, when?

The good news is that there is nowhere near as many as this time last year and as I hoped, I think we were onto this one early.

The bad news is that I am not sure the girls were very impressed with their dusting and may not love me in the morning .. good job the new order of meal worms is due to arrive

 

[tandykins]

Something is wrong with my little pullet Pipper. I found her under our coop (a place with very low clearance) and unwilling to come out. I thought she might have gone broody, but we tempted her out with some food. I found her a few minutes later crouching low, dropping her wings (drooping one more than the other), and not wanting to move around much. I picked her up and looked her over, finding a very hard nugget of poo on her bum and took her in for a bath, hoping that it was causing her discomfort and that was it. I removed it fairly easily but Pipper did not improve at all. She began laying on the floor, slightly to one side. I felt her belly (which was soft) and could feel nothing near her cloaca at all. Her crop, however, was hard and round. I have no idea if it's impacted or if it's because she was just eating before I noticed that something was wrong with her. For the moment, I've separated her from the flock in our hospital crate in a heated room, have dried her, and have offered her water. I'm not sure what to do. I'm wondering if she possibly hurt her wing trying to get out from under the coop (to keep them from laying under there, we put chicken wire along the bottom and she'd pushed through a corner to sneak and lay some eggs).



https://www.instagram.com/p/98BgG2rJ4a