((HELP!!! Chickens Have BUGS))

[chickenlovefever]

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Yes, I remember going to petco and seeing these bottles of stuf for inside parakeets and parrots and the such to stop lice, will this work you guys? And they were little white bugs. I guess the hen is so infested, she is just depressed.

but its scaring me. Can people get them?

 

[goldeneggtees]

I hate pesticides too and the thought of using them on my dogs (or chickens). But sometimes you have to do what you have to do. After having an extreme flea infestation last year in my house, not only did I use advantix topically on my dogs, I also had an exterminator come and spray everything inside and out. I washed all the sheets, blankets and towels, which was a huge job as we have down comforters and duvets on every bed.

If the posters chickens are infested with bugs, then it seems a stronger solution to the problem is warranted. DE does not work once you have an infestation. I believe it is a preventative. DE also isn't good for the bird's lungs or ours.

Recently I was late by about 10 days of reapplying the flea meds on the dogs and saw 3 fleas on my little 10 lb dog just yesterday, I will try the borax idea today, it certainly can't hurt.

Good luck to the OP, dealing with creepy crawlies is a daunting, disgusting task.

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[chickenlovefever]

Well...... What is DE?

 

[goldeneggtees]

it's diatomaceous earth, here is a link…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatomaceous_earth

scroll down to see how it helps with pest control.

 

[welasharon]

No people don't get them...they just like chicken. They may crawl on you from where you pick up the chicken but they are just trying to find out where the chicken went.....They wash off fine. Having chickens are like any other animal...you get extra critters occasionally that you have to deal with.
sharon

 

[chickenlovefever]

Ok, So today i went to the southern states and bought some garden permethrin dust stuf, an i caught all of my chickens with a net, which i was freaking OUT because I was scared i was going to get them so i had on rubber gloves up to my elbows, a face mask, long jeans and a long sleeved shirt. I was a sight to behold

So I managed to dust every bird under the wings, on chest, under their bellies and near the vent. I didn't even try to look to see if the mites/lice were there, and i don't care. I just want them all gone. I caught and dusted everyone but the Cockerel. Icaught him and he attacked me while i was holding him down and took off into the woods. i didn't try after that. I also bought some sevin spray and squirted the inside of the coop and put a little dust and sprayed the inside of the nest boxes. I bought new shavings, but i wasnt going to totally clean that out because Saturday, I have a friend coming over to take the cockerel and 4 hens. Now we had that planned before i found out about the bugs, but i just planned on, before giving her the birds, thoroughly dusting them an then after all of the birds i am ridding myself of, take out all of the shavings and spray the floor and dust it and then put in new shavings.
WHAT else should i try to do in this situation???????

 

[PapaChaz]

the white ones are lice. they might get on you, but as the other poster said, they're only looking for the chicken. if one has them, they all have them, just maybe not as bad. they won't live long if they're not on the chickens, but can be passed one to another in the shavings/straw etc. they mostly crawl from one to the other by contact, i would guess mostly on the roost when they're all huddled up together.

as for poisons....sometimes the only way you can get rid of an infestation is poison. Sevin is a poison. you did fine with the permethrin. i've used it, but a friend of SIL uses ivermectin on ALL his animals, and went over to SIL's house and did his hens too when they found lice. you can get the pour on generic version ivomec at tractor supply, for 15 bucks. that's enough to do 2 or 3 drops on each hen, and the dog, for a couple of years! DW and i just did our 13 hens in about 10 minutes. as for catching them, wait till they've been on the roost for 10 or 15 minutes, enough to settle down, and you can reach in and pick them up one by one easily. we did all of ours, they didn't like being disturbed, but none of them flew down. easy peasy..... that's a whole lot less scary for you and the girls than trying to catch them during the day when they'd rather be down scratchin in the dirt!

 

[Saltysteele]

if your hen is acting depressed, it could (not saying 100% is, but it could) be caused by the lice.

to check for lice, flip your bird over and look around the vent. they like to hang out there, as that is a source of moisture for them. look like little creamy white grains of rice (and they can move quickly if they want to).

DE will not stop an infestation. if you want your bird to continue to decline, you can try DE, but infestations call for stronger measures. sevin will kill them. reapply in 10 days, as by that time the unhatched nits will have hatched, but will not have had time to reproduce on their own, yet. (according to quite a few state ag extensions' information)

i noticed it on my birds, because royal palms were looking kind of pail and just weren't thriving anymore. flipped it over, and sure enough, there were like 4-5 running away from the vent. after dusting them, their growth took off like a bolt of lightning!

it'd be nice if everything were able to be controlled by natural and organic means, but that is not always the case.

to be honest, i'm not sold on DE. i dusted all my chickens with sevin and everything was controlled. sprayed their coops and everyone got new bedding. i've also been dusting the nesting boxes of my older hens with DE. however, a couple weeks ago i was watching my brooding hen and saw a louse run to her eye and away again.

i'm not going to waste my cash on anymore DE for pest prevention. not saying it won't work for everyone, as i believe everyone is entitled to use whatever they sit fit on their own birds (well, hopefully with good judgement), but it didn't work well enough for me. i've been involved and around animal husbandry my entire stint thus far on this earth, and am able to recognize when the battle is being lost

now that they're done brooding, everyone is getting the Sevin again (she got some on the nest, but i didn't want to disturb her to badly)

 

[erinaerina]

Oh god. I just discovered the same thing today. A friend gave us a banty OE roo and hen, they've been locked in their coop for three days so they don't run off. I was in handling them today and I had noticed tons of the roos feathers were on the ground and they are the color of his vent area feathers, so I thought they maybe had started to be 'sexually active'. Then I was holding the hen and I thought it looked like pasty butt, giant hard white clusters in the vent feathers, then I noticed her vent is RED and there are bugs ALL OVER her vent! So soooo gross! Dh went straight to the store for that garden dust stuff, and we used the panty hose trick for a puff, combined with brushing it into the skin with a small, soft paintbrush. We then did the coops. Ugh, sorry op, I felt the way, I thought I was gonna barf! We shall see how they are in a few days. Oh also I plucked all the egg stuff off their vent feathers. I am hoping it works!

 

[Saltysteele]

remember to treat again in 10 days