Can I kill mites/lice by drowning them?

[cmorg]

My chicken appears to have mites or lice, I bought some powder for it but i'd like to take extra precautions. Could i just submerge the chicken in water for a few minutes (except head, so it can breathe) Would this kill most of the mites or lice? I'm no expert but I don't think they can survive under water can they?

 

[Elite Silkies]

They can survive under water for quite some time. Use the Poultry Dust, it's much faster.

 

[DawnSuiter]

both critters are extremely resilient, I don't believe either will drown.
If they did they wouldn't live so long, lice for instance remain on humans throughout baths & shampooing.

Buy a good flea bath shampoo for dogs and give them a nice long soaking scrub with plenty of the stuff, that will help to stun & kill most of them.

Then powder or spray the entire coop & saturate any wood with spray from your local place.. pyrethrin or permethrin should work. Recommended around here is Adam's Flea & Tick Spray or Sevin dust or the Adam's powder equivalant. Repeat in 10 days

Then after your chooks are dry & fluffy, dust their bodies including under the wings at least every 10 days until your certain they are all gone.

I have found that Selamectin (Revolution for dogs & cats) works fantastically well for mites, but not the lice.

After that keep a dusting area for the chooks with a bunch of the powder so they can maintain themselves. Once the infestation is taken care of, dusting every month or so, and keeping some in the dusting spot should keep everything at bay.

Honestly, the only non chemical way I know of to get rid of any of the mention bugs is a fire.

It's WAR... you MUST win!

 

[purpletree23]

You could give them a bath with flea and tick shampoo. That will kill/drown them. Plain water won't work.

 

[cmorg]

I should have the anti-mite powder in their dust bath? I read that you need to avoid them getting this in there eyes, probably because it's very dry and that's how this powder kills the mites, by drying them up.

 

[CHIC]

No Hartz!!!!

 

[TriciaHowe]

7 dust is how I killed mine when I brought them home from a livestock auction infested with lice. This was about 5 yrs ago so there may be better stuff out there now.
Good luck!!!

 

[ali d 1985]

We put our hens in a hen hotel for two weeks whilst we went away on holiday and they returned with red mite. That was in August, now, nearly Oct and we are still trying to rid the coop fron them! Any advice plz???
We have used the powders, sprays, jet washing, garlic, lavender, every day and still they live :0(

 

[bobhoke]

read me please before you poison your chickens with those recommendations

http://www.fresheggsdaily.com/2013/02/mites-how-to-prevent-them-and-treat.html

 

[Amazingspaces]

I've got a really sick chicken on her deathbed from mites. What would be the fastest way to kill them?