- Jan 2, 2013
- 5
- 0
- 7
So I have a pretty huge chicken coop. The ladies go in every night on their own and they always roost. There feathers look good and I never saw them excessively scratch or pick at themselves...
I clean out the whole coop weekly getting all shavings out to the wood floors and put new shavings in. 3 weeks ago I was doing the cleaning and when I was done I felt "something" crawling on me. Quite a few of these grayish bugs were crawling up my hands and arms.. Just small and crawling not able to jump and hard to kill due to small size. I had no idea where I picked them up... After back tracking... I finally went to the coop and saw literally thousands crawling all over the feeders... And then along higher boards...and over the heat lamps and cords which are not in use... I pulled out the nesting hens and could not locate any.. I pulled out and burned the nesting material... No mites... But they were on the ground shavings as after emptying it I saw them in the wheel barrel.
After doing research I have found out they are the red mites... Now I'm in Canada and I have gone everywhere and talked to the service people looking for products recommended on this site. But it seems Canada banns everything and the only thing I can get is the lice powder... Even that is a task and a half!!! And older farmer told me use desiel fuel...
I have powdered all the chickens, I took out all shavings and burned them. I took everything out and bleached and water cleaned them. I then strong bleach and water sprayed the coop down, getting the roof and cracks and crevices... I then put a layer of this very expensive lice powder everywhere.. I then came in later and put another layer of DE... I closed the coop up for 2 weeks..I retreated the birds weekly with the powder. The birds then roosted in our goat pen where they just decided to go and we were ok with that.. We made outside nest boxes with DE in them and shavings.
2 weeks later I check the coop and I found still some mites after me touching different areas.. I checked the new nest boxes.. Swarming with mites... Again cleaned everything out and burned it... And then desiel fueled everything... Burned new nest boxes.. They are now laying in a area of the chicken yard with shavings with the powdered rolled in it.. Seems ok right now.
Week 3 the coop seem to be fine I can't see any and I have touched many areas and found nothing.. Now I know from what I read that they come out at night but maybe the coop is considered darker to them as they were out during the day initially or the infestation was so bad that is why they were out.. I don t know. But I will check the coop at night. I thought starve them but I see they can live 8 months without eating..so I have my fingers crossed that I have won that battle at least there..
Now today I was in the goat pen and put my hand where they now roost since being kicked out of their pens... And guess what... I have smaller itty bitty mites crawling on me.. Not many.. But even 1 is too much..
From what I read the mites crawl on the bird feed and crawl off... Now the hens use to spend all night in the coop... Did some not finish eating and spent the day on them.. I didn't allow them in the coop and so they roosted on the goat board and they crawled off... And now I have an issue there? It just seems like a HUGE problem as I have 3 coops all within close range... All the birds are free range and inter mingle yet go to their own coops at night... Now I have a problem not even all that close to a coop but attached to my barn. Everything is made of wood... I can't be spraying everything!!!
I am at witts end... I am tempted to get rid of all the poultry and just burn the coops down. It's gross them crawling on you and now with another area infested I feel like this is never going to end...
I'm worried though as on some sites they are chicken specific and others say they go on humans and other animals and bite and reproduce... I have tons of animals...
Suggestions please!!!
I clean out the whole coop weekly getting all shavings out to the wood floors and put new shavings in. 3 weeks ago I was doing the cleaning and when I was done I felt "something" crawling on me. Quite a few of these grayish bugs were crawling up my hands and arms.. Just small and crawling not able to jump and hard to kill due to small size. I had no idea where I picked them up... After back tracking... I finally went to the coop and saw literally thousands crawling all over the feeders... And then along higher boards...and over the heat lamps and cords which are not in use... I pulled out the nesting hens and could not locate any.. I pulled out and burned the nesting material... No mites... But they were on the ground shavings as after emptying it I saw them in the wheel barrel.
After doing research I have found out they are the red mites... Now I'm in Canada and I have gone everywhere and talked to the service people looking for products recommended on this site. But it seems Canada banns everything and the only thing I can get is the lice powder... Even that is a task and a half!!! And older farmer told me use desiel fuel...
I have powdered all the chickens, I took out all shavings and burned them. I took everything out and bleached and water cleaned them. I then strong bleach and water sprayed the coop down, getting the roof and cracks and crevices... I then put a layer of this very expensive lice powder everywhere.. I then came in later and put another layer of DE... I closed the coop up for 2 weeks..I retreated the birds weekly with the powder. The birds then roosted in our goat pen where they just decided to go and we were ok with that.. We made outside nest boxes with DE in them and shavings.
2 weeks later I check the coop and I found still some mites after me touching different areas.. I checked the new nest boxes.. Swarming with mites... Again cleaned everything out and burned it... And then desiel fueled everything... Burned new nest boxes.. They are now laying in a area of the chicken yard with shavings with the powdered rolled in it.. Seems ok right now.
Week 3 the coop seem to be fine I can't see any and I have touched many areas and found nothing.. Now I know from what I read that they come out at night but maybe the coop is considered darker to them as they were out during the day initially or the infestation was so bad that is why they were out.. I don t know. But I will check the coop at night. I thought starve them but I see they can live 8 months without eating..so I have my fingers crossed that I have won that battle at least there..
Now today I was in the goat pen and put my hand where they now roost since being kicked out of their pens... And guess what... I have smaller itty bitty mites crawling on me.. Not many.. But even 1 is too much..
From what I read the mites crawl on the bird feed and crawl off... Now the hens use to spend all night in the coop... Did some not finish eating and spent the day on them.. I didn't allow them in the coop and so they roosted on the goat board and they crawled off... And now I have an issue there? It just seems like a HUGE problem as I have 3 coops all within close range... All the birds are free range and inter mingle yet go to their own coops at night... Now I have a problem not even all that close to a coop but attached to my barn. Everything is made of wood... I can't be spraying everything!!!
I am at witts end... I am tempted to get rid of all the poultry and just burn the coops down. It's gross them crawling on you and now with another area infested I feel like this is never going to end...
I'm worried though as on some sites they are chicken specific and others say they go on humans and other animals and bite and reproduce... I have tons of animals...
Suggestions please!!!
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