Chickens have lice, again

DE and aromatic oils aren't good to inhale either. Permethrin is toxic for cats, at levels that are fine for many other species. Once the birds and their coop has dried, the cats are safe too. DE isn't really a safer alternative, and doesn't work as well either.
Mary
I agree with Mary. Permethrin worked best for me. I tried a lot of other remedies including DE. You must repeat spraying because it not not kill the pests eggs. I use the permethrin dust on the birds and spray thoroughly in the coop in all of the cracks and crevices where the pests can hide. There is no egg withdrawal period. If you have a TSC they carry the permethrin powder, premixed spray bottles and the concentrate.
 
I have been spraying my coops weekly. So far so good with the added bonus of keeping down the fly population. I've noticed quite a decline of flies around my coops. I'm in the process of cleaning out the poop pits and the coops because I'm getting ready to move birds around so the older chicks will be in the outer coops where the rest of the birds are and I have to separate the males from the females and make some coops I used as breeding coops into bachelor coops. It's been hot and the heat takes the wind out of my sail so I take a lot of breaks. I had a minor outbreak of mites but sprayed and so far none. I don't want them transferred from coop to coop.
 
I dump all of my stove ash into a pile for the birds and goats, thy love to roll and bath in it. The natural lye in the ash helps to kill body mites and pests. In fact it was used for a very long time by Nordic and Germanic peoples to wash hair as it is quite effective at killing lice. Keep in mind it would also bleach the color out of hair in case you try to wash your hair with it. Not that it would make a difference to me mine is already white.

I burn 6 to 8 cords of wood a year though so I always have plenty of ash to make a good size ash bath with. Not going to be the case with everyone else.
 
Thanks everyone for the advice, I’ll definitely get some permethrin if the lice doesn’t clear up soon.

As for how they are doing now, almost all the lice is gone! Before I made this post, I bought a 20lb bag of DE, and I threw a cup in the coop just to see what would happen. Well, I just took everyone out last night to clean the whole coop (this was the soonest I had the time), and almost all of the lice were dead! I counted maybe 3 on my Cornish cross rooster, but other then that, my 4 layers had none! When I made the post, you couldn’t even see their skin it was so bad, and if I went near them, I was covered. I also checked my 2 bantams inside, and they were clean too! I still cleaned the entire coop and sprayed everyone with the garlic/cinnamon spray just in case and to get rid of the last few I saw. I know there are still eggs on them, so I’ll be spraying them every other day for 1-2 weeks just to make sure, but if that doesn’t work (it should, it worked wonders last time) I’ll go get some permethrin. Thanks again for everyone’s advice!
 
DE isn't going to work...neither will cinnamon or whatever...If you want to get rid of the lice before it kills your birds, get some permethrin.


I’ll definitwlt get some permethrin spray if the lice don’t clear up, though, last time I had lice, the garlic/cinnamon spray worked amazingly. But they weren’t out in a coop last time, they were still inside, which is why I didn’t know how I would be able to prevent them from coming back.
 

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