how can you remove lice eggs?

[Eggcessive]

The lice eggs will hatch every 10 days or so, and those lice will be too young to breed yet. So theoretically, dusting or spraying every 10 days should get all of the lice and the newly hatched ones before they lay new clumps of eggs. A couple of good articles to read on lice treatment are TheChickenChick.com, and the one from UCDavis if you Google "mites and lice in chickens."

 

[barbaraearley]

Do you have to remove the egg clusters? Seems they would eventually go away on their own. Or does the presence of the whitish matter on the feathers mean there are eggs that will hatch out? I've been spraying the 'dirty' bottoms once a week (bum and under feathers), cleaned the coop thoroughly, dusted it with permethrin. All birds got a dose of ivermectin as well as a permethrin spray all over twice and I will keep doing the spray once a week until the spots are gone if I have to--I just don't see me bathing a chicken. Maybe the dry shampoo mentioned by bargaraearley..... I have to leave so early in the morning for work that I go to bed 'with the chickens, so pulling each off the roost for a bath would mean getting up around 3 am and even then I don't know that I'd finish the job.

You only concentrate on the area around the vent. Each birds takes 5 - 10 minutes. If you don't remove them they hatch!

 

[Big Cluck]

We have never had them in our flock, but I recently adopted a bird who had a bunch. The woman I adopted from dusted her before we brought her home. I clipped the feathers that had egg clusters and kept her in quarantine for 2 weeks, I used DE in the quarantine cage. I also use DE in my coop and run. Good luck!

 

[ElocinAlways]

Do you have to remove the egg clusters? Seems they would eventually go away on their own. Or does the presence of the whitish matter on the feathers mean there are eggs that will hatch out? I've been spraying the 'dirty' bottoms once a week (bum and under feathers), cleaned the coop thoroughly, dusted it with permethrin. All birds got a dose of ivermectin as well as a permethrin spray all over twice and I will keep doing the spray once a week until the spots are gone if I have to--I just don't see me bathing a chicken. Maybe the dry shampoo mentioned by bargaraearley..... I have to leave so early in the morning for work that I go to bed 'with the chickens, so pulling each off the roost for a bath would mean getting up around 3 am and even then I don't know that I'd finish the job.

I have one hen with heavy clusters of dark, dead nits at her feathers base.she has plucked at them and has almost made her bum bald. So, for me, just leaving them isn't an option. I'll try the above treatments, coconut oil, cowboy soap, first, clip them if I can't get them off. Theve all been treated with the warmer that kills mites, and with pemerethrin. The nits were white, now weeks later, are black, from her dust baths, but they're still clung to her. Best of luck all. And please, research DE, don't use where chickens can inhale. I saw an autopsy pic of cement filled lungs from a hen breathing DE.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I have one hen with heavy clusters of dark, dead nits at her feathers base.she has plucked at them and has almost made her bum bald. So, for me, just leaving them isn't an option. I'll try the above treatments, coconut oil, cowboy soap, first, clip them if I can't get them off. Theve all been treated with the warmer that kills mites, and with pemerethrin. The nits were white, now weeks later, are black, from her dust baths, but they're still clung to her. Best of luck all. And please, research DE, don't use where chickens can inhale. I saw an autopsy pic of cement filled lungs from a hen breathing DE.

Welcome To BYC

Do you have photos?

Try coconut oil to help loosen the nits at the base of the feathers.

 

[RubyLady]

Agreed regarding coconut oil. The caprylic acid not only loosens the nit cluster, it kills nits as well as hatched lice in any stage. It also helps heal raw skin unlike olive oil which does not really get absorbed well and becomes gummy. Also works on human lice btw.

I had a new small Banty absolutely swarming with lice last year with marble-sized clusters. I cut those out as best I could and treated her with coconut oil (and the others a couple of whom had a little lice infestation but not much) and in two days the Banty was fine, couldn't find any living lice at all.

Of course, free-range birds will often have lice but we keep the problem to a minimum by treating them with a coconut oil "massage" 2-3 times a year. It's worth it to keep them healthy and avoid poisons.

DE did nothing for the chickens regarding lice or mites. I do put it in their feed though to keep weevils and moths from reproducing and it seems to work wonders.

 

[ElocinAlways]

I couldn't imagine my chickens holding still for something like an inspection, let alone a treatment LOL
Hope mine never get bugs I guess

Hold them upside down if your bird is not tame. They go limp in this position. Then work fast to cause the least stress. Good luck!

 

[Sally PB]

Hold them upside down if your bird is not tame. They go limp in this position.

They go limp because they can't breathe! Their lungs are on their back. Holding them upside down puts the weight of all their organs on their lungs.

PLEASE do not do this.

 

[RubyLady]

They go limp because they can't breathe! Their lungs are on their back. Holding them upside down puts the weight of all their organs on their lungs.

PLEASE do not do this.

Question then: to apply the coconut oil or check them for lice, we place them on our laps and turn them over laying them on their backs for a bit. Is this causing them to not be able to breathe. They don't seem worse for wear over it. Should we put them on one side instead with them laying on a wing on our lap?

 

[Sally PB]

Not having had to treat for lice eggs, I don't know the best way to do it.

Lying on its back on your lap is different from hanging upside down. But I would lay the chicken on its side to do the treatment.