House mites?

[wallawu]

I couldn't find what I was looking for using search, so I apologize if this has been covered. Yesterday when I grabbed the eggs out of the duck house, I noticed one of them has a small 8-legged spec on it. I blew that off and started looking at the pine shavings, which admittedly needed changing. I noticed some of these other reddish brown pests in the shavings, but not in large groups or clumps. I used my extra hour of daylight to empty the shavings, spray it with an all natural cleaner that bugs hate (we use it to keep them off plants), let it dry, and put in a nice amount of new pine shavings. I threw food grade DE in on top of the pile and then spread it out all over the house. It has 3 windows, so I'm not worried about ventilation. They all look healthy and happy. No bald spots or weird patches around their eyes.

Is there more I should do? They have their kiddy pool to preen in that gets dumped and refilled every other day. Is that why they aren't showing signs?

This is my first experience with this in almost 4 years of having ducks, so I'm flying blind here. Any help is much appreciated!

Tried getting pictures but they were too small.

 

[Ratchnick]

The fact that you found a bunch of them is a sign of a full on infestation. If Your birds are happy you could do nothing, if one of your birds looks ratty or under the weather you need to take additional action.

 

[wallawu]

The fact that you found a bunch of them is a sign of a full on infestation. If Your birds are happy you could do nothing, if one of your birds looks ratty or under the weather you need to take additional action.

So will the DE not take care of an infestation? Or at least keep the ducks protected? Would getting some cedar shavings to mix in repel them?

 

[DuckyDonna]

Cedar shavings are bad for ducks!

 

[Isaac 0]

Ducks usually don't suffer from most external parasites, since unlike chicken's they have a more effective way of killing them, drowning them. How deep is the kiddie pool? Do they use it often? DE, in my opinion, is not very effective, I like to use either Garden poultry spray dust or more recently I have been using " Permethrin 10 Livestock and Premise Spray". Dust and spray the birds with these and the coop very well, under the wings and vent especially.
Any excessive preening behavior? I would not use cedar shavings..

 

[wallawu]

Cedar shavings are bad for ducks!

Ducks usually don't suffer from most external parasites, since unlike chicken's they have a more effective way of killing them, drowning them. How deep is the kiddie pool? Do they use it often? DE, in my opinion, is not very effective, I like to use either Garden poultry spray dust or more recently I have been using " Permethrin 10 Livestock and Premise Spray". Dust and spray the birds with these and the coop very well, under the wings and vent especially.
Any excessive preening behavior? I would not use cedar shavings..

I've only put a thin layer of cedar on the bottom and a thick layer of pine shavings on top. Haven't done that in years though.

It's deep enough for full submersion. They preen once or twice a day. When they first get out and then later in the afternoon. All laying eggs and acting normal. I guess I'll just keep an eye on it over the next week.

 

[Isaac 0]

Cedar is fine, just in small amounts. In a well-unventilated coop you may have some problems though. Could you try to post a picture of the mites?

 

[wallawu]

Sorry, that's the best I've got haha

 

[Isaac 0]

View attachment 2049697

Sorry, that's the best I've got haha

What am I looking at?

 

[wallawu]

What am I looking at?

I little red spec in a bunch of brown specs!