Do you get chicken mites on you often?

[Sylviaanne]

Diatomaceous Earth or DE

 

[blucoondawg]

Filter grade DE doesn't have a dangerous toxin added, it is more dangerous than food grade due to the manufacture process and how the particles are sized and shaped making them more dangerous to inhale, I say MORE dangerous because any animal (including humans) inhaling any grade of it for a long period of time is not a good thing, this sort of thing collects in the lungs and cannot get out causing lung disease, comparable to construction workers who are exposed to constant dust and don't take proper precautions. I don't use the stuff and frankly from the research I have done I find it useless. There are far too many posts on this very forum of people complaining about their DE not getting rid of insect infestations in their coops. It is deadly to certain insects in certain environments with the proper application, but I don't believe it to be overly effective on chicken pests.

 

[Lizard Lady]

Where can I get citrus oil?

 

[Mei&Popcorn]

Where can I get citrus oil?

This might be a stupid idea, but do you think peeling an orange and rubbing it on the areas would work...? (I have a huge mite infestation that I'm trying to get rid of... honestly, whenever you step in the coop, mites swarm all over you. Its gross!)

 

[Busybee1]

Sulphur works very well. We had a very bad might infestation. Nothing worked until I used sulphur.

 

[Sylviaanne]

Sulphur works very well. We had a very bad might infestation. Nothing worked until I used sulphur.

Is sulphur bad for them if they eat it? Where can I get it? We don't have mites but my husband got a really good deal on bags of chicken feed because they had mites on them. The chickens enjoyed eating them but I got bit, no one else, just me and I wasn't dealing with the bags, just walked across them to get to the chicken house. Sylvia

 

[jbs]

For those who use poultry dust/Sevin, how do you treat the walls and ceiling of your coop, or don't you bother?

I have a hen that's been lethargic, puffed up, has diarrhea coated on her backside and hasn't been eating well for 4-5 days. I've brought her inside my house a few cold nights and had her sleep in a cat carrier in my bathtub. It took me two nights to figure out that the fine dust I saw on the top of the carrier was actually mites. Super gross, and I've since found them on my wrists and forearms.

I've got a small flock of 26 and have thus far been organic, but clearly the DE that I've been applying to the coop regularly hasn't prevented this mite infestation. This winter I've spread straw out on top of the snow for the chickens to walk on, and wild birds are in the straw all the time. That may be what brought on this mite issue.

My flock is aging and I won't have eggs to sell this year anyway, so I'm not as concerned about sticking to organic regulations - and since I found mites on ME, I'm seriously about wiping them out. So yesterday I went to TSC and bought poultry dust and dusted my sick hen. She's in the cat carrier in my tub again and there are lots of dead mites falling off her, but plenty of live ones too. I'm a bit concerned about how effective the dust is. I'm going to try putting it in a sock like others have suggested, and maybe I'll be able to get a better coating on her.

This hen may have other issues as well; I'm wondering if the mites got bad on her because she's sick with something else and hasn't been dustbathing. I bought her an oral vitamin with iron and amino acids in case she's anemic from the mites. I've managed to get some of that into her, and she pecks at hard boiled egg, but isn't eating much. I may lose her, but I want to address the mite issue with the rest of my flock.

I have an organic insecticide called Pyganic, which is a 5% Pyrethins solution. It's a liquid and I think it will be easier to treat my flock and inside of the coop. It gives instructions on the label for spraying the walls and ceiling of the coop, says to spray it into all cracks and crevices. It says it's not necessary to remove the chickens while doing this, but to take out food and water. Then follow up by spraying each chicken with a fine mist. That sounds a lot easier than trying to catch all my chickens to dust them. And I can spray everything in the coop - roosts, walls, etc. I'm reluctant to do this when it's cold outside because I don't want to chill the chickens, but I guess it's no different than them being out in the rain. And a fine mist won't get them THAT wet. If I go this route, I'm going to do it tomorrow morning so they have the day to dry off.

So, back to my original question: those of you who do use Sevin or some sort of dust, how do you treat the walls of your coop? Or if you treat the hens and the litter, is that enough to eventually kill the mites? The label on my poultry dust indicates to treat the coop at a rate of 1 lb per 40 sf, but it doesn't give further details. It also says not to use in nestboxes, so I'm not sure how to treat that area.

 

[bigzio]

I use 5% sevin dust with 100% elimination results. If you have them that severe on that poor bird it can actually kill the bird....I dust birds by hand using a powder duster or even a cotton towel in a pinch. Be sure to get the vent and under the wings...I'm careful not to allow the bird to breathe the dust, by making sure you use the wind in your favor if outside while dusting.....you will see dead mites everywhere....repeat in 10 days to kill any new eggs that might hatch.

I apply to the nest boxes and the coop bedding a couple times a year when I replace the bedding.

If you have a dust box or dusting holes outside in decent weather...simply add some to the dusting material and mix in...the will dust themselves that way and you will never have a problem....DE simply doesn't work if you have a problem....Goo Luck!

bigz

 

[jbs]

Thanks, Bigzio. So you don't bother applying the dust to cracks in your coop walls and such? I vacuumed my coop ceiling and walls today in preparation of treatment tomorrow. I don't want to over think it, but also don't want to treat improperly where it's not effective, and I end up with insecticide-resistant mites. I read not to treat more often than once a month, or risk the mites developing resistance to the poultry dust, but everyone says I have to treat a second time, 7-10 days after the first, to get the mite eggs.

I keep bees and treat all my hives for (varroa) mites in fall. I treat my hives with thymol, from the thyme plant, but don't see any way that would work in a chicken coop. I'm absolutely shocked at the number of mites that came off my poor hen. I hope that my bad practices don't kill her.

I think I'm going to sprinkle the dust on the shavings in the coop, and spray the walls and ceiling with my Pyganic spray. I'll hit the birds with either dust or spray, whichever I think I can handle. My husband is out of town this week and I'm not sure that I can catch each chicken on my own, but I don't want to let this go any longer.

 

[gsim]

I've never had them at all in 5 1/2 years of raising/keeping chickens.

However I buy ours from Meyers in Ohio, and have always had healthy birds. I do have an overhead net over our 1900 sq. ft. run, so no wildfowl can ever mix with our hens. I won't accept any free chickens either, for fear of contaminating ours with parasites or a disease. I never use DE being as it is quite expensive. If any of mine had mites, I would come into the coop at dusk and take each one from its roost one by one and dust them thoroughly with 10% Sevin dust. I have used it on our dogs over the years if fleas were suspected and to keep ticks off of them too.

I do replace the litter and bedding (dried grass clippings) once a year in springtime. I add to it periodically all summer and right up to late October when I will add about four or five garbage drums full of fresh dried grass clippings. That takes us through the winter without the coop ever getting stinky any time of the year. If I saw mites I'd clean every ounce of grass clippings out, dust with Sevin, and spray with Diazinon and then refill the coop with fresh clippings. I might force the chooks to sleep out in the run overnight to allow the odor from the Diazinon to dissipate.