best way to get rid of mites

[tiffanya]

I'm not 100% sure that I have mites, bit have seen small, red round "bugs" crawling in the bedding of the coop, day and night. There aren't a ton of them but enough that I'm concerned. I cleaned the entire coop a couple week ago and put DE in the new bedding but it doesn't seem to be doing any good. Have other people had good luck with DE? I'd love a non-toxic approach, but it has to be effective! Any other suggestions?

 

[TwoCrows]

DE is good to use in coops, however for infestation, it is best to use the hard stuff to rid the coop of them. And from what you describe about red bugs crawling around in your coop, you have mites. You need to really do a good inspection of your coop, roost bars and nest boxes. Mites generally come out at night from their hiding places like under roost bars, nest boxes and such and get on your chickens long enough to suck their blood and then get off and go hide again till the next night. The will lay their eggs under the roost bars, in any wood you have in the coop and any crevices they can find to hide and lay eggs.

I would suggest permethrin spray. It will kill the mites on contact. I don't think it gets the eggs, so you will have to respray again in one week. I will include a link that you can read about mites and there are natural products listed that you can also use. Good luck! And good job on spotting the mites. You have saved your chickens a lot of heart ache if you can control these nasty bugs before they cause trouble for your birds.

http://poultrykeeper.com/chickens/health/red-mite.html

 

[ReikiStar]

For a non-toxic approach, use Manna Pro's "Poultry Protector" spray. It's an enzyme that kills and keeps lice away.

 

[Lollipop]

In my humble opinion, DE isn`t worth the effort to pour it out. Sevin Dust is tried and true. Been using it for decades and it`s safe for broody hens with chicks, so use it........Pop

 

[kathye]

I have 4 Comets with lots of feathers off their backs, but not the aracanas excepts the rooster. Can just a few get infested? Cleaned really well today and used sevin dust on everything. Also can humans get mites and lice from chickens? My peaflow are in an ajoining pen with no problems. I tried to post a pic, but didn't see how.

Thanks,Kathye

 

[TwoCrows]

Quote:
You will have to get a few more post under your belt before you can post pics. However it is possible that for now, only a few have mites, but eventually if you have them, all of them will get them. If the hens are loosing feathers on their backs that is probably due to the rooster mounting them. With mite infestation, the feather lose can be more random and any where on the body. Keep the coop dusted with Sevin. You can even put it in their dust bath area so they bath on it and gets under their feathers.

As far as mites getting on humans, I have never heard of chicken mites bothering humans. I am not sure about lice. The Sevin dust will take care of all that.

Oh and

 

[Orpygal]

Quote:
Sevin is toxic to honeybees. Just a thought if you have a neighboring apiary.

 

[kathye]

Thanks for the help!

 

[tiffanya]

Quote:
I actually picked up a bottle of this at the feed store in town today, before reading the replies to this posting. My thought is that if this non-toxic approach works, great! If not I think ill try the permethrin. Do you need to wait before eating the eggs if you use permethrin? Thanks for the help guys!

 

[TwoCrows]

Permethrin and Sevin work well on mites. However if you have mite eggs in the nooks and crannies, and under the perch, the permethrin spray gets into all the cracks. You can eat your hens eggs while using Permethrin or Sevin.