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

[Eggcessive]

The common roost mite hides in the coop during the daylight time, then gets on the birds at night in the dark. The northern fowl mites are on the chickens 24/7.

 

[4Chex]

The common roost mite hides in the coop during the daylight time, then gets on the birds at night in the dark. The northern fowl mites are on the chickens 24/7.

The Mites are on the chickens 24/7 but on the coop as well. Whenever I hold the chickens, my hands become covered in mites. Whenever I touch the chicken coop, there will also be mites on my hands.

 

[Eggcessive]

I feel for you. This is going to take a lot of persistent treatment. Hopefully, you can get them under control. What type of bedding are you using in your coop, and what is the coop made of? I would spray under and around the coop as well. Check the chickens once a weeks for any mites on them. I am not a fan of DE, but in this case, it might be good to apply some to the floor before you put new bedding inside. Some people use a whitewash on wood in side coops and roosts. It is an old fashioned coating, but may help prevent mites in older wood. There are recipes online, and one here on BYC. Sulfur powder is a good miteacide, and could be something to also consider using inside the coop bedding.

 

[4Chex]

I feel for you. This is going to take a lot of persistent treatment. Hopefully, you can get them under control. What type of bedding are you using in your coop, and what is the coop made of? I would spray under and around the coop as well. Check the chickens once a weeks for any mites on them. I am not a fan of DE, but in this case, it might be good to apply some to the floor before you put new bedding inside. Some people use a whitewash on wood in side coops and roosts. It is an old fashioned coating, but may help prevent mites in older wood. There are recipes online, and one here on BYC. Sulfur powder is a good miteacide, and could be something to also consider using inside the coop bedding.

We use the eco flake shavings with nesting pads in the nest boxes. The coop is made from cedar wood. I have been useing DE under the bedding since before I had issues with mites, so I’m not sure if it really does anything.

 

[4Chex]

UPDATE:
We have replaced all the bedding in the coop and run.
Our local exotic pet vet prescribed permethrin with instructions to dilute in water to treat the coop every week, and to use the same solution to treat the birds every 2 weeks. We completed our first treatment of both the hens and the coop yesterday. Feeling hopeful this will be the solution!

 

[Molpet]

I put a lb of elemental sulfur powder in the dust bath
http://entomologytoday.org/2016/07/18/battling-chicken-mites-with-bags-of-brimstone/

 

[Eggcessive]

UPDATE:
We have replaced all the bedding in the coop and run.
Our local exotic pet vet prescribed permethrin with instructions to dilute in water to treat the coop every week, and to use the same solution to treat the birds every 2 weeks. We completed our first treatment of both the hens and the coop yesterday. Feeling hopeful this will be the solution!

Hopefully, this will at least control them for now. It would be good if they don’t come back. Let us know how they get along.

 

[mg15]

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.

I use diatomaceous earth food grade even for 1 mite. Put it on the floor trays,, in the dust baths and see 1 give her a massage getting the diatomaceous down to the skin. Check her in 2 days and the next if any diatomaceous earth again.

 

[cath_campbell]

I've had a pretty bad red roost mite infestation, where I'd put my hand in the coop and I would pull it out with several mites crawling on it... It was really overwhelming. I think there might have been northern fowl mites because every time I would hold a hen, I would find a couple mites on my shirt... I tried everything: diatomaceous earth, bug foggers, spray cleaning, Permethrin spray, and Elector PSP. The most effective treatment was Elector PSP for my situation. The other stuff, especially the foggers, didn't seem to work very well. At first, I sprayed with Permethrin, and did a fogger every night for 7 days. But I think treating with a Permethrin spray every 7 days is also not sufficient... New mites hatch every day, so in my case, I had tons of new mites crawling in the coop every night, because those products don't work on mite eggs. And that's another tip, is to go out and look for mites in the coop at night. You might not be able to see them during the day, but at night, you'll be able to see them, and find where they are hiding because they start crawling out of those cracks and they fan out...

So I ended up using Elector PSP with more success: I sprayed at night, when lots of mites were coming out. I could see where the main hiding spots were, so I could spray heavily directly into those cracks. I also sprayed everywhere I saw mites, and basically the entire coop. This seemed to be fairly effective, and greatly reduced the number of mites crawling around the next night. But because new mites are hatching every day, I decided to spray again after 2 or 3 days. After about 2 weeks of this, the situation was much less overwhelming. And during this whole time, I had the hens sleep in another area in the yard, in a temporary shelter (modified dog crate). I also sprayed the hens with permethrin to make sure, even though I didn't see any mites on them during the day... Permethrin is safe to use on hens, so I sprayed their vent area and under the wings.

Another tip is to monitor/bait the coop regularly. Since mites are really hard to see, I use corrugated cardboard that I fold and hang right under the roosting bars. Someone else had posted this trick, and it's a good way to monitor the arrival of new mites. If you find them in the cardboard tubes, then you'll know you have more mites! I know Elector is more expensive than the other treatments, but in my experience, it's the most effective and definitely worth it.

 

[Mburrows6653]

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.

I struggled with mites this year. There is a difference between northern fowl mites (these live their full life cycle on the birds) and red mites (feed on the bird usually at night and live in cracks/crevices in the coop during the day). I had red mites (it sounds like you do as well). I straight atomic bombed my coop with permethrin, elector psp, and Bifen IT, multiple times over 3 weeks and the mites crawled through everything alive and charged. I swear it gave them super powers. I cried and sobbed not knowing what to do to get rid of these bugs after spraying and spraying and spraying. Nothing got rid of them. I called a pest control company to ask for advice and they told me Cimexa. Dust it into all the cracks/crevices and roost bars and wait. After 48 hours, i saw a HUGE reduction in the mites, and after 72 hours i didn’t see a single live mite in my coop. In addition to the cimexa I sprinkled the floor with diatomaceous earth. Now I know neither of these are safe for our lungs or theirs, but nothing else worked… and I mean nothing. I wore a mask during application and anytime I went into the coop (I have a big walk in). After the 4th day, I hose out the entire structure with a pressure washer, allowed it to dry and then redusted the roost bars and perimeter of coop inside and outside with more cimexa. Oh, and I also dusted every chicken with DE so that any mites that were on them or made it past the trenches of hell would hopefully die.
I’m happy to report that all chickens are alive and well, appear less stressed, less scratching, etc. I no longer see mites on them or in my coop. Good luck to you. You are not alone in this. It’s overwhelming and exhausting and infuriating. But you can do it