Grain mites again!

[Onehappykat]

Is anyone else out there running into an issue with grain mites?! Had a huge problem with them over the summer buying Purina and Nutrena from TSC. Got the situation under control but had not gone back to TSC for grain. It’s been over a month and today went to Runnings which just recently opened up here in my area. Brand new bag of Purina flock raiser was bought and when opened it was 40% powder with mites present! Does anyone else feel that this may be an issue with Purina/Nutrena? Any suggestions on another brand of good feed to use for all flock purposes????

 

[2 many chickens]

There's really nothing you can do.
I go to southern states and tsc and they are everywhere. I have told them multiple times and nothing is done about it.
Just wipe the bag down with cleaner. Or do what I do, freeze the bag to kill any mites.
Also you can toss some DE in the food, it does work for grain mites.
I hate the little monsters. I had them all over my button quail enclosures.. I thought it was dust. I had a nightmare job of killing them and getting rid of them!!

 

[kerbotx]

So interesting to see this - just yesterday, I realized grain mites were in the chick feed! Purina Start & Grow Medicated Feed, 50 lb bag, purchased from TSC about 6 weeks ago - probably had about 12 lbs or so left. I used to raise my own mealworms for the chickens, and every so often they'd get infected with grain mites, but I've never had that happen in the feed before! Storage was in a small galvanized can, in the brooder pen of the coop, next to a doorway, on an interior wall. Now, I've never used that can in that location before, but nothing else is around, no food, water, or stores of bedding.Luckily, there are other feed stores in my area - I've been buying a "Mixed Flock" formula from Atwoods, and am happy with it - and thank goodness, all the chicks are old enough for it now

 

[kerbotx]

Forgot something - you should complain straight to Purina, especially if you still have the feed sacks - they'll want info off of them. I was really unhappy last year with what I considered excessive amounts of molasses in their Layena formula - we exchanged some pleasant emails, and I got coupons for 2 free bags of feed. But for layer feed, I just go to the local feed mill now, save 50%.

 

[Ebony Rose]

I freeze all but one week's worth of my birds feed as they only sell it in huge 40Kg (88 pound) bags. I store the grain in see-through plastic totes with lids in a size that holds what I need for a week. Three totes in the freezer and one near my birds. One bag is what I need for a month, but if I don't freeze it, the eggs in the grain hatch and there ya have it, weevil infestation. They're just about impossible to get rid of once you've hatched a batch of them, and apparently they don't taste very good as my chickens will not eat them.

 

[Onehappykat]

Forgot something - you should complain straight to Purina, especially if you still have the feed sacks - they'll want info off of them. I was really unhappy last year with what I considered excessive amounts of molasses in their Layena formula - we exchanged some pleasant emails, and I got coupons for 2 free bags of feed. But for layer feed, I just go to the local feed mill now, save 50%.

Funny thing..... we did go and complain to Purina. At first they said there was no way that that was possible and blamed it on tractor supply until we found some posts on the Internet and pictures of the mites crawling all over the purina bags. Purina did nothing but we did have a settlement with tractor supply for everything that we had purchased and the money spent on pesticides for a period of three months. I have not been back to tractor supply. I’m terrified to go through what we did this past summer. But with finding them at Runnings now in the Purina food I can’t help but think that it’s purina and they have an issue that they need to address. Or at least make the public aware For those that aren’t educated. We have raised chickens for years and honest to God we have never had a problem with mites. This is the first summer where I’ve even seen such a thing And unfortunately it hit us hard when we did see it.

 

[Mybackyardpeepers]

They were bad at FFH this year!

 

[Onehappykat]

There's really nothing you can do.
I go to southern states and tsc and they are everywhere. I have told them multiple times and nothing is done about it.
Just wipe the bag down with cleaner. Or do what I do, freeze the bag to kill any mites.
Also you can toss some DE in the food, it does work for grain mites.
I hate the little monsters. I had them all over my button quail enclosures.. I thought it was dust. I had a nightmare job of killing them and getting rid of them!!

Yes we have been using DE around all the coops now and directly mix it in with the feed. It has helped keep it down. I spent weekends and hours daily after work disinfecting and using pesticides until we got it under control and we no longer had them. We started using Kaltenback feed and The chickens hated it. They stopped producing and just weren’t happy. So we thought we were in the clear and so happy when we had a runnings open up but again seeing them in that bag when I opened it was absolutely terrifying. So for anyone out there who isn’t familiar with mites, if you open up a bag of feed that you haven’t kept stored in a cool place Or in a freezer and you see a lot of dust and powder where the pellets have been broken down, you need to inspect it for mites and be very cautious when using the feed.

 

[Onehappykat]

So interesting to see this - just yesterday, I realized grain mites were in the chick feed! Purina Start & Grow Medicated Feed, 50 lb bag, purchased from TSC about 6 weeks ago - probably had about 12 lbs or so left. I used to raise my own mealworms for the chickens, and every so often they'd get infected with grain mites, but I've never had that happen in the feed before! Storage was in a small galvanized can, in the brooder pen of the coop, next to a doorway, on an interior wall. Now, I've never used that can in that location before, but nothing else is around, no food, water, or stores of bedding.Luckily, there are other feed stores in my area - I've been buying a "Mixed Flock" formula from Atwoods, and am happy with it - and thank goodness, all the chicks are old enough for it now

I also forgot to mention that we also kept the food in galvanized containers inside the coops. But with the heat over the summer all I did was multiply the mites and by the time we realized there was really an issue it was out of control. So it definitely is the bag of food it’s not anything that you did or brought in. I’m very sorry That you are having a problem with them as well. It’s a nightmare. It really is.

 

[Mybackyardpeepers]

I also forgot to mention that we also kept the food in galvanized containers inside the coops. But with the heat over the summer all I did was multiply the mites and by the time we realized there was really an issue it was out of control. So it definitely is the bag of food it’s not anything that you did or brought in. I’m very sorry That you are having a problem with them as well. It’s a nightmare. It really is.

The guy at FFH said you bring them home on the bag unnoticed, sometimes they get inside the bag. You open the bag and heat along with humidity makes them multiply. Like you said it's absolutely nothing they did to cause it.