Do Chicken lice bite people? Something bit me in the coop!!!

[Germaine_11.20]

Hi, I have never had chicken lice, but I went in the coop today and kept feeling little stinging stabs.
When I looked down I saw something that looked like a very small long, ovalish grey bug. Fast too.
Is that a chicken louse? I have read to use sevin. Where can I buy it?

Thanks very much!!

 

[cassie]

You can buy Sevin at the hardware store. A chicken louse might bite a human, but that would be his last meal. People blood will kill a chicken louse.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Thank heavens. I have been avoiding going into the coop this evening after having something bite me out there. At first I thought it was ants, but it wasn't.
I am going to buy sevin in the morning!

 

[Sillystunt]

maybe a mite!

 

[Germaine_11.20]

I thought mites burrowed in to you, not bit you. Could it really be a mite or are you joking?

 

[M To The Maxx]

You can buy it at Home Depot or Lowes.

 

[threehorses]

I suspect mites. I would HIGHLY not recommend Sevin dust. Aim instead for PERmethrin (not carbaryl that sevin is). You can get dusts for poultry at TSC and feedstores already in a shaker can. Read the label.

For mites, they stay in the bedding and wood - not on the bird all the time. So you have to spray the wood. You will use a goat-lice spray that has the active ingredient of permethrin at 10% or less. Livestock lice spray is the same.

You must spray all the wood 3' up from the floor, the roosts' wood, the nestbox wood. Then use the dust on the birds (particularly under their wings and around their vents), under and in the bedding. (Scrape bedding aside - dust - replace, dust bedding, stir in), in the materials in the nest box, etc.

You dust the birds again in 7 days.

Sevin is harmful for birds to eat and you can't paint the wallls with it, so treating for mites will fall unless you do the walls. Lice don't bite humans unless they're sucking lice and you won't get those unless you pull them off of the birds onto you - they're busy eating. Mites do.

 

[Imp]

rusty...

I don't believe chicken mites or lice will bite people,but will admit I'm not 100% sure. Perhaps it's something else. I've been getting chewed up a lot lately too, but not from chickens pests.
I'll add a link to info about them.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html

Imp

 

[threehorses]

Quote:
You're thinking dog/cat lice. Avian mites travel and bite. She was not joking. Mites are a serious problem with poultry and are the ones that will bite.

They will also kill birds quickly as they make them anemic in short time! They're nearly impossible to find on the birds as they travel at night, only get on animals at feeding time, and can go for days between feedings.

Methinks the mite thought the owner was a chicken.

I am silly in the last statement, but cannot stress enough how important it is that the right treatment is done.

 

[Imp]

Quote:
You're thinking dog/cat lice. Avian mites travel and bite. She was not joking. Mites are a serious problem with poultry and are the ones that will bite.

They will also kill birds quickly as they make them anemic in short time! They're nearly impossible to find on the birds as they travel at night, only get on animals at feeding time, and can go for days between feedings.

Methinks the mite thought the owner was a chicken.

I am silly in the last statement, but cannot stress enough how important it is that the right treatment is done.

Threehorses,
They will bite people? Do you know if they leave a welt? or what. This is truly fascinating. Not heard that before.

Imp- By the way Thank you for giving of yourself and your time.

And Good luck rusty...