Horrendous Mite Infestation

[Debbi H]

Hi, all. Sorry this is long: I have had a horrendous mite problem going on for over a month. The henhouse is crawling with millions of them, so bad that they are crawling on ME when I collect eggs. I check the hens, and there aren't very many on them, although some of the 29 are acting sluggish and not looking very well.
Then our one Silkie rooster, Archie, started getting crusted shut eyes in the morning and the last 2 days, has what turns out to be a respiratory infection. I've been cleaning Archie's eyes each morning and put Terramycin ointment around them. There even started to get bubbles in his eyes.
Contacted a vet from UC Davis. Told him I've tried poultry dusts (diatomaceous earth, permethrin, Sevin, etc) not just on the hens, but throughout the henhouse and shavings, which are changed weekly. And have used poultry sprays on the chickens. I've even been feeding them minced garlic this week, which they love, because I've heard it helps keep the mites off of them.
It's been so bad that I even cleaned out all the shavings and put a Bug Bomb in there only to find them still crawling everywhere!
So yesterday, I cleaned it out again, sprayed to soaking the entire inside of the henhouse and laying boxes with an enzyme spray (mixed Kleen Green and PoultryZyme, both from Natural Ginesis). I let it dry and put in new fresh shavings. And at roost time, I was able to use my little "squeeze puffer" and put DT under the birds' wings and on their behinds. This morning there were still a lot of mites and I thought it wasn't working.
So panic set in again, thinking I may have to just give up and sell off my beloved flock, since the mites were even following me into the house and I've been getting bites.
Then I remembered having to fight off an infestation of spider mites on plants years ago, and recalled I'd experimented for months before coming up with a mixture that worked wonders. So I called around and found the two products that I had used back then: Monterey Garden Insect Spray concentrate (.5% spinosad) and SaferGro PestOut (with cottonseed, clove, and garlic oils). I mixed up gallon batches with the recommended amount of each and it worked wonders back then.
So this time, I'm thinking "mites are mites, right?" I brought home my products, mixed up a small batch and headed to the henhouse. Lo and behold, the enzyme spray had started to do its job by then. I had to remember that the enzymes are not an insecticide; they attack the bugs' exoskeleton and system and cause a slower death. Most of the bugs were dead now.
But because the infestation had been so bad, still went ahead and sprayed around the door and onto the top of all the shavings and the roosts.
Other than the bug bomb, none of the products I have used will harm the chickens.
I wanted to share this with you because I know how frustrating it can be when nothing seems to work.
Oh, yes, and back the vet that I contacted: He told me to add sulfur powder to my chickens' dusting areas, along with the DT and permethrin dust I'm already using. And he also told me to get the Elector PSP (44% spinosad). But for right now, I'm going to use the spinosad product that I tried before since it did do the job and is much cheaper. I'll wait on getting the Elector PSP until I see if my own mixture works.
And for the poor little rooster, because we can no longer get over-the-counter antibiotics to mix in their water, the only thing left to use is a product called Tylan, which he told me to get and to inject it into the rooster's breast every day for 5 days (although I've seen that some people administer it orally). Since our feed store said they don't have anything over-the-counter anymore, I'll be calling my local vet tomorrow to see if I can get the Tylan from her.
Let's hope little Archie gets better. I saw that some people suggest using VetRx for Poultry for respiratory infections, so I'll be getting some of that, too.
I will update this in the next couple of days to let you know what's happening with Archie and with the mite infestation.
I have one final thing I'll be adding to the "dusting holes": wood ashes. I heard they are great to mix into the dust holes because mites don't like the ash. I don't have a fireplace, but luckily, my son does, and he just told me he has lots of them to bring me...nice clean ash from wood only, no trash (paper, plastic, etc).
Good luck to all of you and your flocks.

 

[LittlePip21]

Thank you for posting! I hope Archie gets better! Pests are one of the most stressful parts of having chickens I think. Thank you for keeping us posted, it definitely be helpful to a lot of people!

 

[DakotaDreamer]

Poultry Protector is the only thing that I find works. It is a spray. You put it on your birds and spray it around your coop. It is inexpensive, lasts a decent amount of time and works great. You do have to spray the chickens and coop a couple days in a row to kill the bugs but it is a great preventative as well.

 

[Debbi H]

Poultry Protector is the only thing that I find works. It is a spray. You put it on your birds and spray it around your coop. It is inexpensive, lasts a decent amount of time and works great. You do have to spray the chickens and coop a couple days in a row to kill the bugs but it is a great preventative as well.

Thanks, but unfortunately, Poultry Protector didn't do a thing here. It was like they just laughed at it. I think that the combination of wet winter and nice weather following that has caused all kinds of bug populations to super-explode!
I will post an update soon to let everyone know if my latest attempts are working.

 

[Debbi H]

Just want to give you all an update. And the news is GOOD! I've been mixing up my own magic elixir that I found after months of research a few years back when I had spider mites. It is doing the job. There are no mites crawling on the walls at all anymore. I still have a few in the shavings that I had just put in the henhouse a few days ago right after spraying with enzymes.
Today, I'm going to remove the shavings, totally spray the henhouse again with my mixture, and replace with new shavings. Besides getting rid of the mites, the henhouse now has a very pleasant smell of cloves!
Then hens are already looking better and happier.
As for Archie, I wasn't able to even find the Tylan suggested by the vet from UCDavis, but I happened to find that I still had a bag of over-the-counter oxytetracycline to mix in the chickens' water, so am doing that and changing it daily. Archie's eyes have already cleared up, and no more of that weird "yawning" from him or the couple other hens that were starting to get respiratory infections. Will continue the meds for a week as per directions. Am not throwing the eggs away, but rather scrambling them up and feeding them back to the chickens! No wasted eggs, no wasted meds!
So my mixture is: Monterey Garden Insect Spray (concentrate) and SaferGro Pest Out (a cottonseed, clove, and garlic oil mix). The Monterey contains spinosad. I was able to get the Monterey at a local organic farm/garden supply store, and the SaferGro I found at a Hydroponics store. But I see that you can get both online at Amazon, too.
I use a garden sprayer -- the kind that you fill the jug and then insert the pump unit that builds up the pressure. I mix 1.5 oz (3 Tablespoons) Pest Out and 2 oz (4 Tablespoons) Monterey to a gallon of water. I spray all the walls, ceiling, nest boxes, roosts, floor, etc of the henhouse, until everything is covered and wet. I even sprayed the outside of the henhouse, and beneath it where there is an open area that the hens use in the summer to dust and stay cool when they aren't running around on the property.
Now I can actually grab the door jamb and not find my hand covered with mites! YAY! My henhouse is built of wood (2x12 lumber...I was lucky and got it free from a construction school that had previously used it and was throwing it away) and its dimensions are 6' x 8' x about 7' tall. I have one "window" on one side with shutters that are the same wood and covered with chicken wire to let in the breeze during the day, with the shutters closed at night. It took less than two gallons to do the entire thing.
I sprayed a bit on the chickens feet, too, to keep any mites from crawling up on them at night.
The hens themselves have just had DE, and a light spritzing of my mixture. I'm still going to get wood ashes from my son to add to their dusting holes.
But at this point, I'm ECSTATIC that the mite population has almost been completely eliminated!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Red mites, the kind of mites that I think that your chickens are dealing with live in the cracks and lap joints of their coop. A liberal application of used motor oil mixed with an ounce of permethrin or liquid Sevin is the way to go. The used motor oil will penetrate the cracks and lap joints as well as the wood grain of the roost poles and kill the mite eggs as well as most of the adult mites and make these wood refuges unsuitable for red mites for a good long time. There is nothing wrong with the way that you went after your hens mite problem except that at best it is only a medium time fix.

 

[azygous]

Cheers for finally finding a remedy that works! As I was reading the first post, I kept saying to myself, try spinosad!

Of all the stuff you mixed it with, I believe it's the spinosad that finally turned the tide against your mite problem. I use Elector PSP, and in spite of the cost, I can't say enough good things about it. I haven't had mites, but boy does it ever knock out lice!

Your poor rooster may have a respiratory infection, but did you know that DE is very hard on chicken respiratory systems? It does little or nothing to protect against parasites, but the dust can cause many more problems.

Mites don't live on chickens as lice do, but they sure do have their way with the chickens at night when they crawl up their legs and feast on their blood. There are even worse things that live in the cracks in a chicken coop. Don't lower your guard!

Thanks for posting!

 

[Debbi H]

Red mites, the kind of mites that I think that your chickens are dealing with live in the cracks and lap joints of their coop. A liberal application of used motor oil mixed with an ounce of permethrin or liquid Sevin is the way to go. The used motor oil will penetrate the cracks and lap joints as well as the wood grain of the roost poles and kill the mite eggs as well as most of the adult mites and make these wood refuges unsuitable for red mites for a good long time. There is nothing wrong with the way that you went after your hens mite problem except that at best it is only a medium time fix.

I know that people used to paint used motor oil onto all kinds of things, but it's actually illegal to do that anymore. The used motor oil contains carcinogens and heavy metals. I'm not going to expose myself or my flock to that. People used to paint their barns with it, but it's been shown that, when it rains, the oil still washes off the wood, leaches into the soil, and can contaminate ground water. I'm on a well here and don't want to be contaminating my own water (or anyone else's). The oils that I'm using (cottonwood, garlic, clove) will penetrate the wood just as well and are not toxic. And now the henhouse smells good, too.

 

[Debbi H]

I am hoping to help clear up some misinformation concerning DE, too. A lot of people say that it's "bad for your lungs". But there are hundreds of studies that show that pretty much the only people getting silicosis from DE are the miners, and even then there are other mitigating circumstances.
I used only Food Grade DE, which is not the same as the very sharp-edged DE used in swimming pool filters.
Here is a very good article (out of many, MANY, that I read), that even lists quite a few products that contain DE that we use every day: https://pantryparatus.com/is-diatomaceous-earth-in-your-coop-bad-for-your-lungs/

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I am hoping to help clear up some misinformation concerning DE, too. A lot of people say that it's "bad for your lungs". But there are hundreds of studies that show that pretty much the only people getting silicosis from DE are the miners, and even then there are other mitigating circumstances.
I used only Food Grade DE, which is not the same as the very sharp-edged DE used in swimming pool filters.
Here is a very good article (out of many, MANY, that I read), that even lists quite a few products that contain DE that we use every day: https://pantryparatus.com/is-diatomaceous-earth-in-your-coop-bad-for-your-lungs/

I won't argue but I do wish to point out the same thing about coal dust and black lung disease. And according to many people on this forum, when people painted their out buildings with used motor was back in the golden days of "sustainable" agriculture.