How do I safely treat my 2-3 day old chicks who have mites?

[Chickens :)]

hello! I recently hatched some chicks under my three broody hens for the first time. They did really well ending up with 8. I have a question though. How do I treat these chicks which have somehow managed to get mites?? The broody hens don’t have a single one just the chicks. I have some DE and pestene. Which one will work best for the chicks and how should I apply it? I would assume that I only need a little bit because of how tiny they are. Is it safe to put in their bedding as well?

Thanks and any response would be appreciated

 

[JaeG]

DE is useless against mites. I found them happily living in a deep bed of it I had in the bottoms of my nest boxes.

I'm not sure about pestene on chicks. You can get a Vetafarm spray that's safe to use on delicate finch chicks and eggs so definitely safe for chicks. It's called Vetafarm Avian Insect Liquidator. It gives up to 6 weeks protection but I'd treat once a week seeing as chicks are growing and molting out all the time, until you are sure the mites are no longer an issue. I know you can use permethrin too but I'm not sure of the dosage rate. The Vetafarm product has permethrin in it as well as two other active ingredients that make the permethrin more effective.

Definitely treat whatever you are keeping them in too as mites generally don't live on the birds all the time but hide in their environment, coming out to feed at night.

 

[Chickens :)]

Thankyou!

 

[aart]

When my broody and her newly hatched chicks had lice I dusted her with permethrin and it transferred to the chicks.

 

[Folly's place]

Vetafarm spray has permethrin and an insect growth regulator that's not approved for use on chickens. Be safer and use the permethrin! As aart said, treat mom and the bedding, and the chicks will get enough product to manage. In fact, you will need to treat the entire flock and coop, and maybe repeat in two weeks. Some individuals may have many more mites than others, but everyone needs to be treated.
Mary

 

[JaeG]

Vetafarm spray has permethrin and an insect growth regulator that's not approved for use on chickens. Be safer and use the permethrin! As aart said, treat mom and the bedding, and the chicks will get enough product to manage. In fact, you will need to treat the entire flock and coop, and maybe repeat in two weeks. Some individuals may have many more mites than others, but everyone needs to be treated.
Mary

It has 3 active constituents:
Piperonyl butoxide is used to treat some food crops and is also in head lice treatments and pet flea and tick products so we are exposed to it in other areas of our lives.
http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/pbogen.pdf

Methoprene
"It is an amber-colored liquid with a faint fruity odor which is essentially nontoxic to humans when ingested or inhaled. It is used in drinking water cisterns to control mosquitoes which spread dengue fever and malaria". It's also fed to cattle to prevent flies breeding in the resulting manure.

And you can read about Permethrin here:
http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/PermGen.html#body

As with anything it's a personal choice and you have to weigh up the risk for yourself.

 

[Chickens :)]

Thank you everyone for your response