'Creocote' and chick housing - trying to prevent red mite!

[caralouise1974]

I just want to check...

I had a coop with a bad infestation of red mite last summer. We immediately put it out of use and took the roof off, leaving it open to the elements for almost a year.

Recently, we have been forced to bring it back into use for a broody and her chicks, so I've gone the whole hog... cleaning down with antibacterial solution, spraying the whole thing inside and out with permethrin sprays (two different kinds!), and finally finishing off with painting every millimetre inside and out with 'creocote' (creosote substitute, from the UK). I left the coop to dry and the fumes to evaporate for a week, with the sides taken off and nestbox left open.

Tonight we put Mum and chicks (two weeks old) in there and I'm getting paranoid - will they be okay after I treated the coop with so many chemicals a week ago? We couldn't wait any longer as Mum was stepping all over her chicks in the tiny rabbit hutch she had been brooding in. I hope I won't wake up tomorrow and I find them all suffocated.

Is a week enough time for the creosote fumes to clear?

 

[kathyinmo]

Can you still smell the creosote fumes yourself? If you can smell it, then so can they, and they have an extrememly sensitive repiratory system. The other chemicals (permethrin) are fine, but the creosote concerns me.

 

[caralouise1974]

The creocote fumes are almost gone, but then I'd be waiting months for them to disappear altogether. Mum and the babies all seem fine today, so I'm hoping a week was indeed long enough.

Will keep you all posted...