Chicken lice?

[AOconner]

So I am new to having chickens, I have chicks that are about 3 months old and bought two silkies 10 months old. I believe I might have found mites or lice on my silkie, where her crop is. I was moving her feathers around under her neck and saw small light brown bugs on her skin moving when I would move her feathers. What can they be? How can I get rid of them and how long does it take to get rid of them? I’ve read I need to put diamotamacios earth on all my chickens and clean the coop and spray it with permithrin and let dry, and to do it again a week after, will this work

 

[Waves]

Can you post a picture?
Mites and lices are very common in chickens... Try to read this
https://the-chicken-chick.com/poultry-lice-and-mites-identification/

I Personally have lices sometimes on my chickens and on them Diatomaceus Earth works. But i'm not sure it works on all the types of mites. Furthermore it isnt sure if it has a bad effect on their respiratory system, so it must be used with moderation.

Others use permethrine but i dont know well diluition and dosage: let's wait for someone that knows it!

 

[CCUK]

Some of my hens had chicken lice earlier this year. I used ant powder on them with no ill effects. It worked almost instantly. I checked them after a week and redid as necessary. The ant powder has permethrin in and is the same as poultry dust but half the price. DE can be a contentious subject as to its effectiveness.

 

[Folly's place]

Permethrin spray or dust, labeled for poultry. Don't use a product not labeled as safe for poultry!
Wear a N95 face mask, or a respirator, when treating your birds with anything, and when cleaning your coop. All that dust is bad to inhale!
For lice you need to treat all the birds at least twice, maybe ten days apart, or three times one week apart. Cleaning out the coop, spreading a bit of the poultry dust, and then adding clean bedding is good too.
Some poultry mites live in the coop, and lice lay eggs right on their feathers, so retreating is necessary to get them after those eggs hatch.
The permethrin spray concentrate is the least expensive and easiest to use, on the birds and in the coop.
DE is also bad to inhale and has limited usefulness, and is strip mined, not a good story there.
Mary

 

[Waves]

I believe that the reason of the discussion about DE effectiveness is that we use it on different types of mites. I have no more mites problems since i've discovered DE, using it only occasionally
but, i repeat, in an emergency is better to try something not so discussed

 

[cmom]

I agree with Mary. A bonus is there is no egg withdrawal period. Weekly treatment for around 3 or 4 weeks is necessary and thoroughly spraying everything, every crack and crevice where the pest can live and lay their eggs including on and under the roosts. I use shavings in my nest boxes and I put poultry dust in the shavings in the nest boxes. Every over-the-counter (OTC) treatment of head lice contains either pyrethrins (Rid or Triple X) or permethrin (Nix). Both are effective treatment. Both only kill live pests, not the pests eggs.

 

[cmom]

I believe that the reason of the discussion about DE effectiveness is that we use it on different types of mites. I have no more mites problems since i've discovered DE, using it only occasionally
but, i repeat, in an emergency is better to try something not so discussed

As I already posted this, when I had an infestation, I tried DE for a couple of weeks and the birds didn't improve and upon further inspection of them still found mites. I dusted the birds with the DE as well as spread it around in their coop and nest boxes. I did some research and came across permethrin. After about a month of thoroughly spraying the coops and initially the birds, then weekly spraying the coops thoroughly and dusting the birds and putting the dust in their nest boxes, I saw improvement in the birds. At the time of the infestation the birds were molting so at first I thought they were only molting but they didn't seem to be getting their feathers in like they should have so I checked them over and discovered the mites. I felt bad that I didn't discover them before but that was the first time I had ever dealt with mites. I'm pretty sure if I hadn't treated them when I did I may have lost some because they were in bad shape. Now the birds are beautiful again. I have been spraying but not as often because I had some wild birds attemping to build nests in some of the nest boxes in a couple of the coops and think that is where the mites probably came from initially.

 

[Folly's place]

The first time we had a mite infestation, I didn't realize what was happening, and lost three nice hens before I figured it out. Awful! Then, I dusted 35 birds wearing an inadequate face mask, and nearly ended up in the hospital! After Urgent Care and Dr. visits, and months of meds, the asthma settled down, mostly. You must treat the flock and coop, but be safe doing it!
Mary

 

[Waves]

As I already posted this, when I had an infestation, I tried DE for a couple of weeks and the birds didn't improve and upon further inspection of them still found mites. I dusted the birds with the DE as well as spread it around in their coop and nest boxes. I did some research and came across permethrin. After about a month of thoroughly spraying the coops and initially the birds, then weekly spraying the coops thoroughly and dusting the birds and putting the dust in their nest boxes, I saw improvement in the birds. At the time of the infestation the birds were molting so at first I thought they were only molting but they didn't seem to be getting their feathers in like they should have so I checked them over and discovered the mites. I felt bad that I didn't discover them before but that was the first time I had ever dealt with mites. I'm pretty sure if I hadn't treated them when I did I may have lost some because they were in bad shape. Now the birds are beautiful again. I have been spraying but not as often because I had some wild birds attemping to build nests in some of the nest boxes in a couple of the coops and think that is where the mites probably came from initially.

thank you for sharing your experience
What type of mite were them? maybe this is the problem.
I had these horrible animals on mines.
View attachment 2160639

Are yours like mines? just to understand

 

[Waves]

The first time we had a mite infestation, I didn't realize what was happening, and lost three nice hens before I figured it out. Awful! Then, I dusted 35 birds wearing an inadequate face mask, and nearly ended up in the hospital! After Urgent Care and Dr. visits, and months of meds, the asthma settled down, mostly. You must treat the flock and coop, but be safe doing it!
Mary

i really didn't know it could give this effects!
I'm going to think that prevention is the best option and treating only if required because if it has this effects on humans, it won't be very very good for birds