Feather mites help

[jesskuh13]

I cleaned out my coop from top to bottom, sprayed permethrin, layed down diatamaceous earth, treated all of the girls with permethrin spray and am still stuck with loads of mites. I tried the all natural way first with no results by the way...what else can I do to kick these pests?

 

[roosterhavoc]

Most don’t approve of what I use but I don’t particularly care.
Sevin dust and frontline (fipronil)
There is a longer residual with that drug though.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

Diatomaceous earth is basically worthless.
If they are red mites, they crawl off the chickens and hide in the coop, so spraying your chickens doesn't help a lot. You will have to carefully and thoroughly spray every crevice and cranny in your coop after all bedding, dust and cobwebs are removed. They can be hard to get rid of so it takes persistence.
If they are fowl mites, I'd treat with ivermectin. Were these bugs ID'd by someone?

 

[jesskuh13]

Diatomaceous earth is basically worthless.
If they are red mites, they crawl off the chickens and hide in the coop, so spraying your chickens doesn't help a lot. You will have to carefully and thoroughly spray every crevice and cranny in your coop after all bedding, dust and cobwebs are removed. They can be hard to get rid of so it takes persistence.
If they are fowl mites, I'd treat with ivermectin. Were these bugs ID'd by someone?

Just me and what I read online, i completely gutted my coop and sprayed every nook and cranny and then sprayed the girls only to check them today and still covered in mites...they do free range about a 3 acre area...i can take photos of the mites and post i could have missidentified them, as this is my first experience with mites.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

If you can post pics, please do. You can also stick a piece of clear packing tape to the areas that have mites, fold over on itself, and send to me to identify (free). PM me if interested.

 

[ejtrout31]

Most people frown upon this but it end up being a last option. U will need to find or buy a chicken with lice u can cure lice easily to, the lice will kill the mites and after that u just have to treat the chicken.

 

[jesskuh13]

If you can post pics, please do. You can also stick a piece of clear packing tape to the areas that have mites, fold over on itself, and send to me to identify (free). PM me if interested.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

@jesskuh13
Can you get us a better photo of the mites?

Most people frown upon this but it end up being a last option. U will need to find or buy a chicken with lice u can cure lice easily to, the lice will kill the mites and after that u just have to treat the chicken.

@ejtrout31 Do you have more information about this? I have not seen this information before, so it would be interesting to learn more about lice killing the mites. Can you give us a link to where we can find that?

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Feather mites a.k.a. depluming mites are difficult to control or eradicate. First be sure of the species of mite that you are dealing with. Different mite species have vastly different lifecycles and the best and only way to win at the Game of Mites is to disrupt that lifecycle. BTW, Depluming mites are microscopic in size so you will be unable to see them with your naked eyes.

Disrupting the lifecycle of the red mite is the reason that I use waste or used motor oil to paint the roost poles and coop joints.

 

[jesskuh13]

@jesskuh13
Can you get us a better photo of the mites?


@ejtrout31 Do you have more information about this? I have not seen this information before, so it would be interesting to learn more about lice killing the mites. Can you give us a link to where we can find that?

I can try...I pulled some off and tried to take pics, but they didn't turn out...they are pretty all over the feathers with very few on the skin, and really tiny way smaller than fleas...let me go try to take some more photos.