Help with mites! I’m not sure if they’re red mites or NF mites?

[bmerb]

We have a HORRIBLE mite infestation all of a sudden. Had chickens for years and never mites. These mites are absolutely TINY, like, pencil dot sized, and leave miserable bites on me, too. Our birds have an 8’ x 8’ coop built into our barn/shed, which is shared by barn cats. They free range and share a very large paddock with goats, and range everywhere in the goat barn too (so LOTS of areas are probably infested), and lay eggs both in the nest boxes and in the goat barn. I’ve spread DE all over inside the coop, put permethrin dust on roosts, floor, etc, and tonight I caugh every chicken on the way in and thoroughly dusted each with permethrin. I’ve heard NF mites are resistant to permethrin though. How can I tell the difference between the mites?? And how best to
Get RID of them with so much space to treat (coop, shed, giant paddock, goat barn, house)???

 

[Shadrach]

We have a HORRIBLE mite infestation all of a sudden. Had chickens for years and never mites. These mites are absolutely TINY, like, pencil dot sized, and leave miserable bites on me, too. Our birds have an 8’ x 8’ coop built into our barn/shed, which is shared by barn cats. They free range and share a very large paddock with goats, and range everywhere in the goat barn too (so LOTS of areas are probably infested), and lay eggs both in the nest boxes and in the goat barn. I’ve spread DE all over inside the coop, put permethrin dust on roosts, floor, etc, and tonight I caugh every chicken on the way in and thoroughly dusted each with permethrin. I’ve heard NF mites are resistant to permethrin though. How can I tell the difference between the mites?? And how best to
Get RID of them with so much space to treat (coop, shed, giant paddock, goat barn, house)???

Northern fowl mite tend to be darker than red mite which are in fact not red until they eaten.
Northern fowl mite are not resistant to permthrin here where I live, not have I read of resistance to permethrin in any other part of the world.
Get a piece of white tissue and wipe it along the underside of the roost bar at night while the chickens are roosting. If you have red mite some will make bloody spots on the tissue.
NFM live on the chicken and not in the coop so you would need to check each chicken for mites.
If you have a serious infestation of red mite you have many weeks of work ahead of you to rid the coop of them.

 

[bmerb]

Northern fowl mite tend to be darker than red mite which are in fact not red until they eaten.
Northern fowl mite are not resistant to permthrin here where I live, not have I read of resistance to permethrin in any other part of the world.
Get a piece of white tissue and wipe it along the underside of the roost bar at night while the chickens are roosting. If you have red mite some will make bloody spots on the tissue.
NFM live on the chicken and not in the coop so you would need to check each chicken for mites.
If you have a serious infestation of red mite you have many weeks of work ahead of you to rid the coop of them.

Is there a difference in size between the mites? Our meat birds (now all butchered this weekend) had mites the worst, when they flapped their wings hard mites would get on me. That’s what makes me wonder if it’s NF mites, because they were on the birds in the middle of the day.

 

[bmerb]

And here is a large one, best pic I could get. They’re tiny and appear silver or gray, unless they’ve just eaten

 

[Reggan]

That is either a NFM or tropical fowl mite. I have been dealing with them for awhile. It's been awful. Watch the bites on you and be VERY careful of them getting into the house/car. They will absolutely try to find another host in your house. I am living proof. After months of extensive research, speaking to people all over the US (exterminators/entomology depts, etc) and overseas, they absolutely will attack other mammals if given a stronghold. My dogs can attest to this too.
My findings are Europe (Italy/UK) and Australia are light years ahead of us regarding these mites and their abilities to jump species. Though I have found some very knowledgible exterminators out west, down south and the upper NE.
I wish someone would have told me to be more careful. All I ever read was they have no interest in people (wrong) and if they get your house, they'll be dead in 2 or 3 weeks. ALSO VERY WRONG.
Though by the time I knew they were in the house I was a few weeks into an infestation (dogs). We all got them from a birds nest on my patio that was in a cabinet (long story).
Because the damn things like me so much now, I may have to cull my flock. I am heart broken in so many ways. Still trying to just get to winter and possibly be able to keep my birds.
It's hard to find exterminators in the midwest (other than IA) who have experience with shit. So we are pretty much on our own. It's a 100x's worse then having bed bugs. So I've been told by the many I've spoke to over the last 2 months.

 

[bmerb]

That is either a NFM or tropical fowl mite. I have been dealing with them for awhile. It's been awful. Watch the bites on you and be VERY careful of them getting into the house/car. They will absolutely try to find another host in your house. I am living proof. After months of extensive research, speaking to people all over the US (exterminators/entomology depts, etc) and overseas, they absolutely will attack other mammals if given a stronghold. My dogs can attest to this too.
My findings are Europe (Italy/UK) and Australia are light years ahead of us regarding these mites and their abilities to jump species. Though I have found some very knowledgible exterminators out west, down south and the upper NE.
I wish someone would have told me to be more careful. All I ever read was they have no interest in people (wrong) and if they get your house, they'll be dead in 2 or 3 weeks. ALSO VERY WRONG.
Though by the time I knew they were in the house I was a few weeks into an infestation (dogs). We all got them from a birds nest on my patio that was in a cabinet (long story).
Because the damn things like me so much now, I may have to cull my flock. I am heart broken in so many ways. Still trying to just get to winter and possibly be able to keep my birds.
It's hard to find exterminators in the midwest (other than IA) who have experience with shit. So we are pretty much on our own. It's a 100x's worse then having bed bugs. So I've been told by the many I've spoke to over the last 2 months.

Omg I’m so sorry! That sounds like an absolute nightmare. In our household I was the only one getting any significant bites (dozens). We have an ozone generator, so we closed off rooms in the house and used the generator to kill off any mites in each room (really REALLY helpful), plus bagged up and/or laundered bedding, clothing, and doused birds heavily with permethrin. I treated all the house pets with selamectin (Revolution), but have yet to treat the barn animals (goats and pigs) with permethrin. As of tomorrow it will be 7 days since our last permethrin treatment for the birds, so I will dust everyone again. We also butchered all of our meat birds last Saturday, and they were the most heavily infested (unsurprising, since they weren’t good at preening, didn’t free range much, etc.). The egg flock seems much healthier, but definitely need to keep treating them. I believe the mites came from the multiple nests of starlings that were between the two layers of the roof above the coop, but I really don’t know. This weekend I’ll dust the birds again, completely clean the coop again and spray it down with liquid rather than dust, and then bag and hot wash anything I was wearing. I can’t burn coop bedding because we have extreme fire danger and extreme heat right now (100 degrees predicted), will have to haul it to the burn pile (which is a long distance from house and all buildings) and burn it in October when it’s safe. We got huge long veterinary type gloves for the process, they’re plastic and shoulder length and make it easier to pick off any mites crawling up, too.

 

[Reggan]

Omg I’m so sorry! That sounds like an absolute nightmare. In our household I was the only one getting any significant bites (dozens). We have an ozone generator, so we closed off rooms in the house and used the generator to kill off any mites in each room (really REALLY helpful), plus bagged up and/or laundered bedding, clothing, and doused birds heavily with permethrin. I treated all the house pets with selamectin (Revolution), but have yet to treat the barn animals (goats and pigs) with permethrin. As of tomorrow it will be 7 days since our last permethrin treatment for the birds, so I will dust everyone again. We also butchered all of our meat birds last Saturday, and they were the most heavily infested (unsurprising, since they weren’t good at preening, didn’t free range much, etc.). The egg flock seems much healthier, but definitely need to keep treating them. I believe the mites came from the multiple nests of starlings that were between the two layers of the roof above the coop, but I really don’t know. This weekend I’ll dust the birds again, completely clean the coop again and spray it down with liquid rather than dust, and then bag and hot wash anything I was wearing. I can’t burn coop bedding because we have extreme fire danger and extreme heat right now (100 degrees predicted), will have to haul it to the burn pile (which is a long distance from house and all buildings) and burn it in October when it’s safe. We got huge long veterinary type gloves for the process, they’re plastic and shoulder length and make it easier to pick off any mites crawling up, too.

Ozone generators have saved us too! To include my work office. I tracked them here too, before I knew. Just awful. I too have the same weekend planned as you all. Again, it's groundhog day.
The whole coop, all the birds and the whole enclosure 36x15, though they free range all day. I've used bifrerin (Taklak), permethrins, spinosads, enzymes, essential oils, of course dust and dust after dust on the birds... I've spent probably $800 and at least 8 hrs a week cleaning and battling them, since week one of June and I can't win. I've never seen anything like it. I grew up in the country, helping on farms, to include my Grandpa's. This is simply baffling to me.
All I can think of is our property is infested (we back up to a river and next to fields). We've sprayed Nature's shield on all 3 acres, 4 times now. I know the dogs keep picking them up.
Something seems so out of balance, to include me, LOL! Good luck!

 

[sandburRanch]

For mites , wood ash dust bath for the hens to enjoy is your friend .

Wipe the roost with a weak solution of dissolved Draino . Formerly known as Lye water .

 

[Reggan]

I've done it all, always have.
I've dealt with NFM before and have never been through this. They definitely are are not PRM's. Way too small and stay on the host.
These are unlike anything I've ever dealt with. They are systemic and the birds/me/ and my dogs' ears are the carriers.

 

[bmerb]

Well, I’ve dusted all the chickens 7 days apart now, and yesterday I completely stripped the coop and SOAKED it in Sevin spray, let it dry, and then let the chickens back in for the night after dusting all the roosts, nest boxes, floor (any flat surface) with permethrin mite dust. Today I will clean again, dust again, and put down vinyl flooring to make cleaning easier. I got one single mite on me(that I was aware of) in all the cleaning, so the coop itself was definitely not crawling with them. Now I’m wondering (worrying) if Sevin is actually effective against the NFM! Sure hope so.

I notice a number of my birds have bald patches on stern or back, but they didn’t look particularly inflamed when I was dusting them, so maybe it’s just seasonal molting? Lots of loose feathers, too.