Has anyone ever been able to get rid of northern fowl mites?

[4Chex]

I've been struggling with northern fowl mites for some time now. I treated the coop with elector psp a few months back, and washed all the birds in a salt bath. However, the mites returned full strength a few weeks ago and seem to increasing in number very quickly. Anytime I touch the coop, mites come streaming onto my hands and up my arms. Starting to become desperate...Has anyone ever been able to defeat Northern Fowl Mites? Any success stories and advice would be incredibly helpful as I'm at a loss on what to do.

 

[Eggcessive]

Lice and mites are worse in wintertime. I have not dealt with mites, but the reason they are hard to get rid of, is that they hatch out from the egg in 5-7 days. Permethrin and Elector PSP kill live mites, not the eggs. So the bird must be treated at least twice every 7 days. Permethrin is very good to use on the birds, and the garden dust is preferred to the spray in cold weather. You can also use the spray or the Elector PSP if they are warm enough. Many people can bring in mites again on purchased straw, so it should be checked over white paper to see if there are mites inside the tubes. I have read where a heat gun or pressure washing is sometimes necessary to treat the coop. Nest boxes and the coop should be emptied of all bedding far away or burned, and the roosts, nests, and coop should be sprayed with the Elector or Permethrin. Then add new bedding. Here are 2 good articles to read:
https://cpif.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/LIce-and-Mites-copy-3.pdf

https://the-chicken-chick.com/poultry-lice-and-mites-identification/

 

[Eggcessive]

Martins or Gordons permethrin 10 concentrate can be mixed with water 5 ml per quart or 20 ml per gallon, and can be used in a spray bottle or garden sprayer. Use that on birds or the coop. It lasts for 30 days inside the coop. I haven’t used the Elector PSP, but have heard that it is good.

 

[4Chex]

Would I have to treat the coop twice a week as well?

 

[Eggcessive]

No, the permethrin lasts up to 30 days in the coop. I’m not sure how long Elector PSP lasts, but it should say on your bottle.

 

[Shadrach]

I've been struggling with northern fowl mites for some time now. I treated the coop with elector psp a few months back, and washed all the birds in a salt bath. However, the mites returned full strength a few weeks ago and seem to increasing in number very quickly. Anytime I touch the coop, mites come streaming onto my hands and up my arms. Starting to become desperate...Has anyone ever been able to defeat Northern Fowl Mites? Any success stories and advice would be incredibly helpful as I'm at a loss on what to do.

Northern Fowl mite lives on the bird and not in the coop. They feed, breed and hatch on the bird. You should concentrate on ridding the birds of the mite. Permethrin should do it but you have to keep going with the treatment every seven days until all the mites are gone. As Eggcessive mentions, Permethrin doesn't kill the eggs.

 

[4Chex]

Northern Fowl mite lives on the bird and not in the coop. They feed, breed and hatch on the bird. You should concentrate on ridding the birds of the mite. Permethrin should do it but you have to keep going with the treatment every seven days until all the mites are gone. As Eggcessive mentions, Permethrin doesn't kill the eggs.

The mites seem to be on the coop as well, but don’t resemble any types of mites other than northern fowl

 

[Shadrach]

I use a blow torch to rid coops of mites. It kills mites and eggs in one go. But, you need the right sort of coop. It can take weeks to rid a coop of mites. Permethrin does work on the coop and the birds but it takes time. with the right sort of coop a blow torch does the job in minutes.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Anytime I touch the coop, mites come streaming onto my hands and up my arms.

This really doesn't sound like northern fowl mites to me...I've had a few run-ins with them due to my chickens getting into rodent burrows (mice carry them). Are you sure you don't have some kind of grain or mold mites instead? Those things get all over anything that can hold moisture and love to be on wood surfaces. They will form piles in corners that look like dust bunnies. However, they disappear in freezing temperatures. Fowl mites will be under the feathers running along the skin. Grain mites can also end up on chickens but tend to only run along the top of the feathers and get stuck in feather fluff. It is possible to have both fowl mites on the birds and grain mites eating the feed at the same time.

If you have fowl mites, Elector PSP works well to get rid of them but doesn't always work 100% in one treatment - sometimes takes two sprays onto the birds a few days apart. You also need to make sure you don't have an in-house source of fowl mites like rodents getting into the enclosure, otherwise the birds will keep getting them once the elector psp wears off.

My experience is that elector PSP basically did not work on grain mites. It kills the ones on the surface of stuff and then they just come back in a while.

 

[4Chex]

Northern Fowl mite lives on the bird and not in the coop. They feed, breed and hatch on the bird. You should concentrate on ridding the birds of the mite. Permethrin should do it but you have to keep going with the treatment every seven days until all the mites are gone. As Eggcessive mentions, Permethrin doesn't kill the eggs.

The mites appear to be on/in the coop and run- whenever I touch the coop my hand comes back crawling with mites.