- May 16, 2012
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I have a small backyard flock of 5 hens in NJ. Our polish has been biting at the feathers on her bottom and lower chest, creating a big bald spot. She is the only one showing these signs and looks otherwise healthy and is still laying. I looked all around for mites but at first saw absolutely nothing on her or the coop. I cleaned the coop top to bottom. Then I did see some a few very small grayish bugs in nesting box, but from what I've read, mites are more brown.
We were out of town for a while and the grass (including weeds) right by the coop were very tall. When I stand there now to clean the coop, check on the chicks, after a few minutes I seem to have massive itching near my ankles but see nothing.
I'm not sure if what is going on is mites or maybe something like chiggers. If they were mites, would they be biting me so fast as well? Any thoughts on the small, greyish type bugs? Mites or chiggers or something else?
I cleaned coop, put in DE in both coop bedding and in nest box. Should that be enough to treat the area or do I need something stronger? Does DE kill insects or just prevent? If it is chiggers, do I need to use something like Sevin or something else? I really like to stay with non-toxic simple stuff as much as possible so am trying to be sure what I have and treat as minimally as needed to control any problems.
Advice?
The other things is that when I
We were out of town for a while and the grass (including weeds) right by the coop were very tall. When I stand there now to clean the coop, check on the chicks, after a few minutes I seem to have massive itching near my ankles but see nothing.
I'm not sure if what is going on is mites or maybe something like chiggers. If they were mites, would they be biting me so fast as well? Any thoughts on the small, greyish type bugs? Mites or chiggers or something else?
I cleaned coop, put in DE in both coop bedding and in nest box. Should that be enough to treat the area or do I need something stronger? Does DE kill insects or just prevent? If it is chiggers, do I need to use something like Sevin or something else? I really like to stay with non-toxic simple stuff as much as possible so am trying to be sure what I have and treat as minimally as needed to control any problems.
Advice?
The other things is that when I
