Bird lice!!! How do I get rid of it!

[RoRoinGA]

Well just a quick thought. All summer when I went into my coop, (Which is totally enclosed) and feed and water my chickens I would get these tee tiny little bugs on my arms and legs. Everyone told me they were chicken mites (lice ?). I treated for that and they were persistant. I cleaned out the whole coop and I have a large hallway inbetween the coops that I keep the feed and some other stuff I need. I realized that the bugs were coming from the feed in the bag and not from the chickens. I bought a big garbage can with a tight fitting lid and emptied the feed into it and keep it tightly closed and dont have a problem anymore. I guess they were somekind of feed bug. Anyway, we are bug free. Just saying.

 

[dawg53]

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You can also put the feed in the freezer for 4 or 5 days, that'll kill them.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Mrs.Puff :

Thanks-- I was thinking of using sevin, but I wasn't sure if it was okay for birds. The pantyhose idea is great. I couldn't figure out how I would manage to dust them without getting it all over the place. Non- food grade DE is okay for external use right? I have my doubts that I could find the other kind in my area.

You can use it, but it won't do anything useful. It might FILTER them (filtering IS what it is used for

), but it won't do anything else.​

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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Then they should read tehir current label. I will say that use on animals will be removed from the label in 2011, but for now, it is an approved use.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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Once every three months and you cannot eat the eggs.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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Well, arsenic and mercury are also natural, as are castor beans. Ricin, the world's deadliest biologic agent is made from minimally processed castor beans. Natural is not the same as "not harmful."

 

[pips&peeps]

and, if you reread, I said it is from natural and synthetic ingredients.

 

[unicornwy]

hmm I'll put in my two cents as well. I never have any lice on my free-ranged birds but they take dust baths every day. I have a spare dog kennel that has a concrete floor and when one got injured I isolated it in there until it healed. When healed I picked it up and immediately got lice all over me. Now when I have to isolate one I take a kitty litter box and mix dirt, sand, DE in it and put it in with them. They love to eat the DE out of it and it gives them minerals while they're locked up as well as eliminating the lice.

Inside the coop I clean when there's no birds in and sprinkle a very thin layer of lime under their bedding right before I lay it down again. It keeps the bugs away but the bedding is so think it doesn't get on the eggs. Also I rinse my eggs anyways.

 

[smiliefase11]

sevin causes terrible diseases in bees wasps and other insect if the powder gets on flowering plants. carbaryl is only legal in the U.S. not any other country. yo are recommended to wear gloves when using and to keep away from the eyes. i dont think anyone should use it. it contaminates water and feed.

i just wouldnt use it.. a man got a third degree burn from the powder touching his sweaty leg.

 

[Oldfort_mailman]

We were using permethrin garden and pet dust on our chickens until we realized our spray that we use in their pens was the same stuff. Now we mix three gallons of liquid permethrin-10 up in a five gallon bucket and dip them. We leave the head and neck out of course but it kills eggs and bugs, both mites and lice and any other crawler. Its also much faster than powdering them. I talked to another member on here and she has been doing it for years. As for DE the only thing i can say for sure about my food grade fifty lb bag is that a cup full will kill a two ft diameter fire ant mound in two days. I think all it does for mites and lice is allow them to build little DE snowmen cause it sure doesnt kill them, at least not here. But man, those fire ants in my yard are history. I have been lazy this year and had fifty mounds and became fire ant free in a week with de.