Chickens ticks

Can this be cause by:

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Find that bottle of permethrin concentrate pictured above. READ the directions for dilution as it is VERY important. Make a spray and spray all of the inside of the coop. Not just the floor. The walls, the ceiling .. all of it everywhere. Clean out the nesting boxes and spray in there too. Let it all dry before letting the birds back in and putting clean hay in the nest boxes. Find the dilution for poultry and make that up. It is a different measurement. Make a 5 gallon bucket of it and add 1 teaspoon of dish soap. Make sure it is all mixed in. Take each bird, one by one, by the feet to control them. Dunk each bird into the water and make sure that all the feathers are wet all over to the skin. The whole bird has to be wet with the solution. Do all the birds and let them dry off on their own. This will kill all the fleas on them and kill any later fleas that get on them as well as lice and mites. I do this twice a year. There are dilutions on this that you can also use on your dog but I would save this for just the chickens and get a dog flea shampoo. There is also a dilution on this for the yard and I would make that up and spray where the chickens are going and getting the fleas. Permethrin is safe for animals but very bad for bugs. I even make the dilution for this for clothing and spray my outdoor clothes to kill any ticks that get on me.
 
Sea Wolf said:
Find that bottle of permethrin concentrate pictured above. READ the directions for dilution as it is VERY important. Make a spray and spray all of the inside of the coop. Not just the floor. The walls, the ceiling .. all of it everywhere. Clean out the nesting boxes and spray in there too. Let it all dry before letting the birds back in and putting clean hay in the nest boxes. Find the dilution for poultry and make that up. It is a different measurement. Make a 5 gallon bucket of it and add 1 teaspoon of dish soap. Make sure it is all mixed in. Take each bird, one by one, by the feet to control them. Dunk each bird into the water and make sure that all the feathers are wet all over to the skin. The whole bird has to be wet with the solution. Do all the birds and let them dry off on their own. This will kill all the fleas on them and kill any later fleas that get on them as well as lice and mites. I do this twice a year. There are dilutions on this that you can also use on your dog but I would save this for just the chickens and get a dog flea shampoo. There is also a dilution on this for the yard and I would make that up and spray where the chickens are going and getting the fleas. Permethrin is safe for animals but very bad for bugs. I even make the dilution for this for clothing and spray my outdoor clothes to kill any ticks that get on me.
Click to expand...
The dilution instructions for poultry on the bottle are for lice and mites, not stick right fleas, ;) so if one uses that dilution amount it might not be effective (I tried that first and it didn't work). The dilution amounts I suggested will kill them dead and will not harm the chicken.
 
Sue Gremlin said:
Those are fleas. A terrible infestation of them!
Definitely use a premise spray. If these were my birds, I'd treat them with topical imidacloprid (Advantage) since it will have residual and will prevent re-infestation for some time. Probably a few weeks.
Click to expand...

Would not recommend using Advantage. Despite some saying it is ok for birds, it has been tested and the results were otherwise. At the least it affects how the birds process food causing reduced fat stores and weight loss. At the worst, death. The tests were for oral consumption as birds will consume the topical when they preen their feathers.

"There was no statistical effect of imidacloprid treatment on mortality (Fisher’s exact test, p = 0.512). However, within 24 hours of receiving the third dose, 2 birds in the low imidacloprid dose group exhibited severe respiratory distress and were euthanized (18%), and 2 birds in the high imidacloprid dose group were found dead (17% mortality). None of the control birds died during the study. Symptomatic excess saliva in the crop and foaming at the mouth was observed in 2 low dose birds (18%) and 5 high dose birds (42%), compared to zero control birds (0%). The difference between treatment groups in the proportion of birds exhibiting these symptoms did not formally reach significance (Fisher’s exact test, p = 0.071). Although not quantified, treated birds also displayed general ataxia and lethargy during the dosing period even after a single oral dose. We did not weigh food to determine food consumption rates, however we observed that several high dose birds appeared to stop eating completely and low dose birds noticeably reduced food consumption during the dosing period."
 
casportpony said:
The dilution instructions for poultry on the bottle are for lice and mites, not stick right fleas, ;) so if one uses that dilution amount it might not be effective (I tried that first and it didn't work). The dilution amounts I suggested will kill them dead and will not harm the chicken.
Click to expand...
That is interesting and good information. I don't have issues with fleas of any sort but I would have assumed that the poultry dilution would be good for any bug on the birds. Wondering if they would still die just not right away.
Another thing I do here is dump all the wood ashes from burning into the area where they like to take dust baths and mix it into the dirt. The wood ash in the feathers and on the skin also seems to repel biting bugs. Old farmer swore by it.
 
Sea Wolf said:
That is interesting and good information. I don't have issues with fleas of any sort but I would have assumed that the poultry dilution would be good for any bug on the birds. Wondering if they would still die just not right away.
Another thing I do here is dump all the wood ashes from burning into the area where they like to take dust baths and mix it into the dirt. The wood ash in the feathers and on the skin also seems to repel biting bugs. Old farmer swore by it.
Click to expand...
I started a thread here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...uck-under-construction.1283862/#post-20737850
 
Would diatomaceous earth (DE) work on these things? Also, I have a friend who insists that only food-grade DE should be used on any critter, but before I knew that , I ordered a good-sized box of the kind used in sweimming pool filters. We have dusted our hens with it maybe 2 -3 times when we noticed them scratching, and also dusted the hen house and nesting boxes, and it seemed to clear up any problem there may have been with mites or whatever. This stuff seems to work just fine. Just wear a dust mask and goggles when using and protect the hens' eyes too.

We don't have much trouble with insects in the hen house because we don't use use straw, hay or sawdust for bedding. Instead we use shredded paper DH gets from the bank where he works. It wicks moisture so it stays dry even in our humid climate, and bugs don't seem to breed in it, so we have no fly infestations. Poop dries out and falls out of it so cleaning is easy. Best of all it's free and easy to transport even in his little car! :celebrate
 

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