Eglu after bad red mite infestation... how easy is it to clean, really?

[PirateGirl]

Yes. Diluted, but yes. It's the same active ingredient in the dust. It's the same thing that's in lice shampoo for people. A light mist from the spray bottle is easy to apply to a bird that doesn't like to be handled. It's not toxic to birds, but it is toxic to mites.

 

[RebsChooks]

I thought of that but the little unspeakables can survive months without a feed so it seemed pointless unless permanently re-housing. Which I can’t do as we only have our big 6ftx6ft run to put them in.

 

[RebsChooks]

What is your permethrin product? We use Smite because we were advised to by the chicken supply place that we use, who are very good and very helpful and have spent ages on the phone to me today trying to calm me down :-/

 

[RebsChooks]

I picture me spraying my girls but surely it just goes on the outer feathers and can’t hurt the mites unless making direct contact?

 

[PirateGirl]

I waited until they went to roost, I spritzed their backs and then spritzed up underneath them into the butt fluff since the vent area is mite prone. I have thought to spray under wings too, but my birds really aren't big on being handled. The mites typically live off the birds then come onto the birds at night to feed. I also sprayed the roost at the same time, so hopefully somewhere in the mites' journey from their hiding spot to the chickens to feed while the chickens roost they will encounter the spray and drop dead. This is what I'm hoping anyway. It's been about a month and things are looking a million times better. I will probably spray things down again when I clean the coop this week to be safe, I will at least hit the nest boxes and the roost anyway.

 

[RebsChooks]

I hate sending them off to bed every night knowing there are still some in the coop, albeit massively, massively reduced in number.

Maybe having the perches wet with permethrin last thing might help?!

 

[PirateGirl]

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/control-solutions-permethrin-10-1-pt?cm_vc=-10005

I think the one I got was a different brand because I don't have a TSC near me, but the bottle looked exactly like this. It's a 10% solution which you have to further dilute in a spray bottle with water. I imagine if you had a big walk in coop you could dilute it in a bucket and mop the floor etc. with it. It was in either the horse or cattle aisle.

 

[PirateGirl]

I hate sending them off to bed every night knowing there are still some in the coop, albeit massively, massively reduced in number.

Maybe having the perches wet with permethrin last thing might help?!

I think spraying the perch right when you check on them/lock them up at night once a week would be a good thing.

 

[MissChick@dee]

Their food source is the chickens

 

[PirateGirl]

Their food source is the chickens

Yes... That is what I meant, the mites hiding in the coop, will come out at night to feed on the chickens while the chickens roost.

This is also why I was wondering if the chickens were temporarily housed somewhere else if it would be easier to kill off the mites in the coop since they no longer have the chickens to feed on... purely speculation though.