Help! Lice? Mites?

[parkerpeeps7]

Hi guys!
I'm new to chicken keeping and I have 3 Partridge Plymouth Rocks that have these creepy crawly things around their vents & I've been researching & can't figure out what they are!! I have also checked their heads, necks & under their wings but I ONLY see these critters around their vents. They move really fast, stay in bunches & are yellowish in color. I would love to post pics but this is my very 1st post. I did go and look at the previous topics on here about lice, mites etc & clicked on many links that were offered in those posts & am still at a loss. I did get some info on how to get rid of them which is great but I'd still like to know what they are. I also used some all natural pest be-gone stuff that is for mites, lice & others that did NOT help at all! My girls also scratch and pick at their wings a good bit, but again, I found no sign of the creepy crawlies anywhere but the vent!
Any help would be appreciated!!

Thanks,
Amy

 

[SillyChicken]

Dust them with sevin insect powder in the yellow can. Clean their coops and dust bedding and dusting dirt with sevin as well. A more natural alternative is DE, diatomaceous earth. I'm sure there's other ways too!

 

[sanfordmom]

Sevin dust should do the trick. Put it in the nest box too, so their bottoms get a dose while they do their thing! Mine used to get lice from time to time, but since I started using sevin in the nest box we have no problems, and it does not hurt the eggs.

 

[parkerpeeps7]

Thanks guys! I'm definitely getting the sevin dust or either the DE, whichever my local store has.
sandfordmom- do you think it's lice that my girls have?

Thank you both,
Amy

 

[dawg53]

You're dealing with lice. Go with sevin dust, it's cheaper and more effective than DE. You need to dust the inside of their house, nests and roosts. Then 10 days later, redust everything again including your chickens to kill nits hatched from eggs since the initial dusting. That will break their lifecycle.

 

[parkerpeeps7]

Thanks dawg53, so glad I know what they are now!
Thanks again everyone! Gonna go get these critters off my babies!!