How do I treat chicken lice?

[Smr]

I respect you opinion on it's safety, and it's true that it is no longer labeled for use in poultry, but until I see something from the FDA or the EPA saying that it has a lifetime withdrawal I will continue to use it when needed.

That said, my preferred treatment for lice and mites is permethrin or ivermectin.

I tend to be very cautious about using strong pesticides on my food sources.

 

[Helen_Jayne]

The U.S. are really slack on chemical regulation. It seems crazy to me to use chemicals which are toxic on any level when it's so easy to kill lice and mites naturally. I used a bulb of garlic in cider vinegar to kill them, then follow up treating the eggs with eucalyptus citriodora in olive oil, it killed everything no problem. I sprayed the roosting shed with the spray I mentioned in my earlier post and that was the end of the little critters. Honestly you do not need to use chemicals which are banned in most of the world to kill lice and mites.

 

[9876]

Sevin is carbaryl, no longer approved for use on chickens. Don't buy it! Permethrin comes as a dust or spray concentrate, which is approved and much easier to use. As you found out , DE is useless!
For anything, including coop cleaning, get N95 face masks, available in the paint department at the big box stores. Nothing less effective will protect you!
Permethrin dust is usually sold as 'Poultry dust' and will work but is harder to use. Permethrin spray concentrate is inexpensive easy to use, and very effective. It's not the best choice in extremely cold weather.
Go out at night with a flashlight, dust or spray, and hopefully a helper. For dusting, pick up each bird off the roost and treat. For spray, just spray them right on their roost!
Mary

 

[9876]

I use DE

 

[9876]

Also clean the coop boxes well with apple cider vinegar and water mixture. Works well and smells great.

 

[alex5chickens]

Make sure your chickens have access to a dust bath with sand, ashes, and maybe a little bit of DE in it. The dust bath will help your chickens remove lice and prevent the lice from coming back.
Manna Pro sells some non-toxic poultry spray for killing lice, mites, and ticks. I recommend that you get some of this and use it on your birds and coop.
Good luck!

 

[Helen_Jayne]

I agree. This is also a great excuse for getting the kids out around the bonfire outside; you then have a lovely fire pit with ashes for the chickens to get cleaned up in.