Here is some mite killing info. (actual kill times) of various products. If the bug was oval in shape and was large enough to be seen easily, I'd suspect bed bugs, did this happen around sundown? They are primarily nocturnal (American southwest/intermountain west)
Anyway, orange guard/tea tree oil worked into roosts can help (don't apply on the birds), but I'd go out while they are roosting and look at their vent areas with a loupe (if you have a rooster check him the closest, Northern Fowl Mites prefer feathered rooster butt to hen fluff), as well as checking the base of feather shafts for lice eggs.
Studies in vitro on the relative efficacy of current acaricides for Sarcoptes scabiei var. hominis
Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Volume 94, Issue 1, Pages 92-96
S.Walton, M.Myerscough, B.Currie
Anyway, orange guard/tea tree oil worked into roosts can help (don't apply on the birds), but I'd go out while they are roosting and look at their vent areas with a loupe (if you have a rooster check him the closest, Northern Fowl Mites prefer feathered rooster butt to hen fluff), as well as checking the base of feather shafts for lice eggs.
Studies in vitro on the relative efficacy of current acaricides for Sarcoptes scabiei var. hominis
Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Volume 94, Issue 1, Pages 92-96
S.Walton, M.Myerscough, B.Currie
Resistance of Sarcoptes scabiei to various topical therapies has been described, but clinical assessment of treatment failure is problematic and in-vitro assays are generally not available. We describe a simple in-vitro analysis used to evaluate the relative efficacy of a range of topical, oral, and herbal treatments available in Australia for the treatment of scabies. S. scabiei var. hominis mites were collected from skin scrapings obtained from 7 crusted scabies patients over a period of 2 years (1997 and 1998). Larvae, nymphal instars, and adult mites were tested within 3 h of collection and continuously exposed to selected commercially available treatment products until death, with the elapsed time recorded. Neem was the only product to show little acaricidal activity. Survival curves indicated that, of the other agents, 5% permethrin (Lyclear) had the slowest killing time, with 35% of mites still alive after 3 h, and 4% still alive after 1822 h of constant exposure. In contrast, no mites were alive after 3 h exposure to 25% benzyl benzoate (Ascabiol), 1 % lindane (Quellada), 5% tea tree oil and 1008000 ng/g of ivermectin (Equimec). Despite the slower killing time with 5% permethrin, there was no evidence of any mite tolerance in vivo or treatment failure in any patients or contact cases.
