Grain Mites in feed

[Shay1Bear]

I dont kniw if I will get a response here but im having a huge problem with what I just found out last night was grain mites! About 2 months ago I bought a bag of chick feed and half way through it I noticed little white almost microscopic bugs crawling up my arm when I reached in the bag so we burned the feed in our fire pit and a week ago we got another bag with the same little white bugs and all my newly hatched chicks and up are shaking their heads and scratching at their ears and I was able to see these bugs on my little black chicks!!!! I took the feed back to the store and they replaced it saying it was dust mites but now my entire flock is infested with these nasty bugs!!!! By the way I was keeping the chick crumbles in my house so now that room is infested as well!!! I dont know what to do about my chicks and I dont know how to get ride of the bugs on them. Any ideas would be great!!! Can these grain mites harm my baby chicks?

 

[azygous]

They must not be actual grain mites if they are infesting your chicks and house.

It's common for grain mites to inhabit old feed, but to get an explosion of mites, the conditions have to be exactly right. They require for it to be both warm and moist. Especially moisture. Grain mites quickly dry up and die when moisture is removed from the equation.

Grain mites eat grain dust. They aren't interested in chicks or humans. There are other kinds of mites and lice that are attracted to warm blooded critters and live off their blood. My bet is that you have this kind if you're having the infestation in your house and on the chicks as you describe. Your local feed store probably sells Sevin dust. It won't hurt your chicks to dust them with it. But be sure the chicks actually have mites. If you can, scrape some off a chick and look at them through a magnifying lens to be sure what you're seeing is alive and has moving legs.

 

[Shay1Bear]

I took this pic after I realized they were in the second bad of chick feed and I had already feel them some befor I seen them and felt them on my arm. My husband couldn't see them until he put his glasses on and then he kinda freaked out.

 

[Shay1Bear]

thisbis is mega zoom on my phone and then cropped so they are easier to see. I have looked through a magnifying glass and im not kidding you they were everywhere in the feed!

 

[Shay1Bear]

the red ccontainer that they are in is a coffe can