As Wren said, unless you also treat the environment you aren't going to get a handle on this. Also regarding DE - it's supposed to be effective against soft bodied insects by desiccating them. The diatoms in DE are extremely sharp and they cut into the soft body of the bugs. If these stick fleas are hard shelled, you could put a handful of them directly into the DE container and it won't do a thing to them. That's what makes critters like these so hard to kill - that hard shell that keeps them protected against preventatives like DE. I don't hold too much with DE. I didn't use it for a year and had no mites or anything else. So just not having mites in the coop and on the birds isn't a testimonial to DE - it's just good luck and early into the age of the coop.
This week I've been fighting the battle of the mites after over a year of owning chickens with no problems. Brought them in on a load of straw, and they took over when we used the straw in the nest boxes. Took everything out of the coop, washed it all down with a power washer, hit every surface with Neem Oil, hit the areas near the nests and roosts with Permethryn, and dusted all 28 birds with it too. Will have to repeat the entire process in another week, and then I'll do one more week after that for good measure. There is no magic bullet for these external parasites. Just hard work and persistence, then a good dose of regular preventative care after that. As for what I'm going to do with the infested straw bales? Well, I'm not sure but I think a jar of Vaseline and a trip to the farmer we got it from will be part of the plan. <grrrrrr>
This week I've been fighting the battle of the mites after over a year of owning chickens with no problems. Brought them in on a load of straw, and they took over when we used the straw in the nest boxes. Took everything out of the coop, washed it all down with a power washer, hit every surface with Neem Oil, hit the areas near the nests and roosts with Permethryn, and dusted all 28 birds with it too. Will have to repeat the entire process in another week, and then I'll do one more week after that for good measure. There is no magic bullet for these external parasites. Just hard work and persistence, then a good dose of regular preventative care after that. As for what I'm going to do with the infested straw bales? Well, I'm not sure but I think a jar of Vaseline and a trip to the farmer we got it from will be part of the plan. <grrrrrr>
