Houston we have MITES, normally no big deal, UNTIL …..

TiffanyL22

In the Brooder
Mar 2, 2021
12
6
16
Soooo we recently discovered mites in one of our 3 coops (1 day delayed message from hubby). Who calmly said “we have mites”. I’ve had chickens for 7+years now. We might of had them 3 times total. We always catch them early. Dust chickens. Clean coops. Never ends up being a huge ordeal. It’s more a pain in the Butt than anything…. We always have the mites that live on the birds vs in the coop. However this round of mites has really got me scratching my head.. hear me out.
Im told we have mites by hubby. I don’t panic but scold for not telling me the day before. 24hours in huge in my eyes in regards to mites. While
Im out doing my daily chores I pick up the dust pan for scooping coops and it’s COVERED! Like I’m talking I touched it f 3 seconds not noticing and there are 100 mites crawling up my arms. yUCK! instantly I’m like how did this occur. This man. This fast. The shavings in the garage can were almost crawling there are so many. In all my mite experience I know them, I catch them ASAP. Some am chickens might be covered in them but like this is intenseeeee…
Day 1. Dusted chickens
In every coop. ALL of them. Cleaned infected coop, put DE in all the coop cracks etc… carry on.
3-4days later im out inspecting the infected coop, and I’m still in shock. There are piles of dead mites on the wood sils inside 1/4” high, no exaggeration. Where they would if fallen of birds when roosting at night. Never saw one moving but the sheer amount of dead mites is mind boggling. We usually only have the kind of mite that lives on the birds. But could these be the red mites that live in the coop? How did we not notice them? I clean the coops 1-2x a week minimum. Never saw a mite. And then all of a sudden total infestation??? Like I’m talking the steel roof on the nest box is covered in dead mites!
Help !! What the heck is going on?????

Am I missing something ?
 
Sorry about your mite problem. The chicken or red mite are only on chickens in the nighttime and hide in the cracks and crevices during the daytime. The northern fowl mites are on the chickens both day and night. Permethrin dust or spray is good for treating chickens, and the spray lasts in the coop for 30 days. Bedding should be emptied from the floor and nests, along with treating the empty coop, nests, and roosts. The birds should be dusted or sprayed every 7 days for 2-3 times to end the breeding cycle. Here is some good reading:
https://cpif.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/LIce-and-Mites-copy-3.pdf

https://the-chicken-chick.com/poultry-lice-and-mites-identification/
 
I think the hot weather has contributed to the mites. One year we had a heatwave and my favourite cat died from fleas. They were crazy infesting the animals and were resistant to many insecticides. My cat had several flea treatments and they didn't work.

Keep up with the cycle as Eggcessive has suggested. You've just got to keep 'on it' to keep the numbers down until the weather eases up.

Good thing is, you've caught the problem now and can deal with it.

Post pics if you want to identify the creatures. Lots of different crawlies affect chickens.
 

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