Help - mites have taken over the garden

[sallyfreemantle]

I hope that someone may be able to offer some advice.

I have 3 bantams and a bantam cockerel which live in a coop and large run at the end of my small garden, they are given access to the garden most days.

Recently i noticed their condition to be less than usual; dull feathers, pale comb etc. I detected spider mites in their coop (the ones that fast crawl all over you). Following advice on forums and a neighbour, i pressure washed their coop, applied DE all over the coup and administered ivermectin 1%. During the pressure washing I detected spider mites, northern fowl mites and red mites, the coop was heavily infested.

The next day there were still mites. So i bought a mite killing spray and applied that all over the coop. Since then, i've not noticed mites in the coop and the chicken look allot better already (this was 3 days ago). The problem is that the grass in the garden is now infested with mites. When I step onto the grass my feet are covered in northern fowl mites within seconds, it awful. I have young children and they get covered when playing in the garden.

I don't know what to do - i don't really want to spray the whole garden with insecticide, especially as my children play out there.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

You may have no choice but to treat your yard. It should be usable again with in a week or I would think.

DE is really not all that effective against mites, and it kills beneficial bugs. Get yourself a good pyrethrin based poultry dust, and dust the coop, and your chickens occasionally. Wild birds will bring mites into your yard and on your chickens. Be sure to provide a place for your birds to dust bath in too to control external parasites.

 

[sallyfreemantle]

You may have no choice but to treat your yard. It should be usable again with in a week or I would think.

DE is really not all that effective against mites, and it kills beneficial bugs. Get yourself a good pyrethrin based poultry dust, and dust the coop, and your chickens occasionally. Wild birds will bring mites into your yard and on your chickens. Be sure to provide a place for your birds to dust bath in too to control external parasites.

Thank you - yes, i have since read that DE is not very good. Is there anything you can recommend for treating the grass?

 

[JaeG]

You could use neem oil. It's commonly used in gardening to kill unwanted pests but doesn't hurt bees, birds or pets. It would be easy to spray your yard with.

Here's some information about it:
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/pests/pesticides/neem-oil-uses.htm

I've used neem successfully to treat my coop when I discovered a nasty outbreak of red mites. I painted the inside and it worked brilliantly. There's very little in my country available to battle mites and most of it is based on DE which I found to be utterly useless against mites.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Lose the DE, neem oil, etc. Pyritherin concentrate mixed with water and sprayed directly on each bird or made into a dip is the way to go. Also as a bee keeper i have yet to find a single honey bee working my hens for nectar. In fact Pyritherin is approved for a drench to be applied safely directly beneath a bee hive to kill small hive beetle larva before they can bury into the ground and pupate. Mix the pesticide with used motor oil and paint the inside of the coop and the roost poles with this concoction to control red mites.