HELP! PEST OVERLOAD

[Cane Toad]

LL HELP APPRECIATED!

So two days ago, my family and I noticed a HUGE mite/lice type problem. BAM! Suddenly the ground and chickens are covered in little brown crawly bugs. I mean I had this problem before but it was so small, I sprayed the coop and chickens in live and pest spray and they were gone. Then bam they raise up like zombies from the dead we have drenched our little flock and their coop in pest spray and finally they are off the chooks and the coop. We are going to daily check then over and re apply. But the ground and were the coop was is still crawling with these bugs. It's so bad now that if you stand to long in one place they are crawling on you!! We are going shopping tomorrow for more chicken spray and dust. But what is the best thing to do for the ground to kill them?! I'm think using tea tree oil and spraying it over the ground, as my parents don't want to call out a pest man. We want to spray about 800 square meters, the bigs aren't all over that area but we want to be safe. WHAT CAN I DO?!!? I feel so bad, I should have noticed everything sooner then maybe we could have stopped it :'( PLEASE help! Or I have to get rid off my flock and geese

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

The first thing I would do is remove ALL of the bedding from your coop. Even the nest boxes. Spray everything while its bare. Let it dry and sprinkle some Sevin dust of the floor and nestboxes before you add new bedding. Then do it all again in 10 days to kill any others that have hatched after treatment.
If you've got wild birds hanging out in/around your coop, they are most likely the source of the infestation. If there's feed outside, bring it in. If you're scattering scratch on the ground for them, stop. Don't attract them. If they're nesting in/on/close to your coop, dust them with Sevin as well. You may have to treat your coop more than twice to get them all, but its very important you change all the bedding each time you do. Haul it far, far away from your coop. The creepies like to hide in the bedding and any small cracks and crevices they can find. Don't fret too much, it happens to us all at some point. Keep treating until there's absolutely no sign of them anywhere. Good luck!

 

[Eggcessive]

You may just have mites, not lice. Just look at some pictures of each. Mites are apparently a real headache to get rid of, and howfunky gave some good advice. After you get your cleaning finished you might want to fix a nice dust bathing area for them with a lot of wood ash from a fireplace mixed in it. The wood ash helps to keep the mites and lice off in the future, but it sounds like you really need to dust. Also, you can paint your roosts, and sealing them prevent mites from hiding inside the wood at night.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Lice die quickly when separated from the host animal.
Mites can live for quite some time without even seeing a chicken.
I would say that you have mites.
Lice are kin to spiders and have 8 legs.
Mites are insects and only have 6 legs.
Also lice don't get around much and lice may spend their whole life feeding on just one bird.

if you are serous about killing chicken or Northern fowl mites (OK maybe Southern fowl mites in your case)

nothing works better than permethian insecticide mixed with water at the rate recommended to make a dip or premise spray.

If your chickens frequent the area infested with mites, the mites will only hitch a ride on your chickens and end up right back in the coop with your fowl, swarming out after dark like Zombies to grab a blood meal from your hens. This last information is not good for feather mites, depluming mites, and scaly leg mites because their life cycle is different from the NFM but the same thing will kill these three species of mites as well as lice and ticks on chickens if applied to the bird.

 

[AlyssaK]

Won't permethian harm the birds? Isn't that what makes cats drool and have seizures in flea medications?

 

[ozarkchicks]

remove all the bedding and make sure the nest boxes are cleaned out well. make sure you get the nest boxes and coop really clean then let it dry out well before you put any new bedding in. most likely it's mites, not lice. paint the wood of the coop including the roost to seal the cracks in the wood