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)???

 

[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]

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.

 

[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]

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

 

[McChooky]

The eggs are the problem.I recommend using a microscope to identify the mite!
This site was extremely helpful to me when my chickens got mites a year ago. https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poultry/ectoparasites/mites-of-poultry?query=chicken mites

 

[Reggan]

The eggs are the problem.I recommend using a microscope to identify the mite!
This site was extremely helpful to me when my chickens got mites a year ago. https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poultry/ectoparasites/mites-of-poultry?query=chicken mites

Absolutely! I've seen this. It is very helpful.
We definitely have some sort of tropical fowl mite. I have plenty sitting in the rubber maid cabinet (where all this started) from what I believe was a starling nest. I have dealt with NFM before... these are not the same. They are veracious. I'm still working on trying to get an entomology dept from a college to possibly come out to the property. Sometimes they bring resources with them... if they're interested.

 

[Reggan]

I agree. I've been treating them every 4-7 days for two months. All the things. we've bathed them all, you name it, we've done it. I have them on exzolt right now, which is amazing!
I am now fighting the environment (coop/enclosure/Our whole property) and the fact they have chosen me as a host. I get within 2 feet of one of these things it's on me and biting me. It's a nightmare

Yes, I am just heart broken. I love my birds... and now I can barely be around them and when I am I am totally stressed out. I can't believe this happening to this extent. Please know my birds are totally spoiled and my coop & enclosure are very well kept. Cleaned every week for 4 years. Dry and safe. My husband I built the enclosure by hand ($4k on supplies) it's beautiful. Like I said I just can't believe this.

 

[Reggan]

My experience over the last 5 months is DE is useless once you have an infestation. I plowed through 30lbs and it had zero effect. I wish I would have started with the sulfur and boric acid/borax from the get go. The DE put me behind the ball.

 

[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.