Do these look like red mites?

[villiams]

Hi guys, I posted yesterday re my pale combed chook looking for answers. I have been in process of trying clean up to spray and managed to snap these guys. I see them generally on the ground under things.
If any one can a) make out my pictures or b ) be able to tell me if these look like red mites that b awesome.
Thanks

 

[JaeG]

Those are definitely mites - maybe spray yourself down with insect repellent to stop them biting you while you clean. Some people don't have a reaction to their bite (lucky things) but I did and it was horrible. And make sure you strip off, wash your clothes in hot water, and shower straight after to stop you bringing them inside with you when you're finished. Better to be safe than sorry. Good luck with eradicating the annoying little pests.

 

[villiams]

Thanks. Urgh!!

 

[Butterscotchbitesfinger]

Yup that’s definitely red mite just watch that you don’t end up spraying it with a spray that might irritate your hens skin

 

[Butterscotchbitesfinger]

Or yours lol

 

[chickengeorgeto]

It appears that you snapped the photo through a pane of wet window glass. It is impossible to tell anything from the image.

The above image is of all 3 life stages of red mites.

To check for red mites go out into the coop 4 or 5 hours after the chickens go to roost. Carry a plain white paper towel or some Kleenex with you. Vigorously wipe the roost poles down with the white paper paying special attention to the area where your birds are roosting. Any Red Mites that you encounter while doing this will likely already have a chicken blood meal in their gut and when you squash the mites between the roost pole and the Kleenex or paper towel there will be a small red smudge left behind on the paper.

Setting hens especially are prone to extreme discomfort cause by red mites. The mites hide in the cracks and crannies of the nest and then come out at night to suck the hen's blood. I have read that up to 750,000 Red Mites can attack one setting hen each and every night. At this rate it is unlikely that your hatching hen will survive or if she does she will almost surely quit the nest. BTY, Red mites are so tiny that they appear like tiny redish lead pencell dots except that you can see them hauling butt. < the period at the end of this previous sentence is about the right scale for a Red Mite.

Painting your roost poles with used motor oil to which some Permethrin has been added will deprive Red Mites of the opportunity to live and breed in the cracks and crannies of a roost pole. The same is true for the wood frame of your coop.

You have an option. You can either use the used motor oil method to control Red Mites, or you can battle red mites as long as you keep chickens, the choice is yours.