How effective, exactly, is Poultry Dust against mites?

[RainbowHen]

So I had an issue with mites in the girls temporary coop (they are just now 4 weeks old) a couple weeks ago. Treated it with permethrin spray no problem, gross little buggers were everywhere. Got their new coop built and it is buttoned up tight! We sealed every crack and crevice. This coop is freshly painted inside and out with latex paint, vinyl floor, wood pellets for bedding, and we just moved it over here a few days ago from a different property. Well I found mites in the coop I believe our yard must be full of them. I see them all over. The bedding is not contaminated. I find they only really hide on the block of wood that I keep under the waterer. I dusted the whole coop and the girls two days ago. Today I lift up the waterer and there are little mites crawling ON the Poultry powder seemingly unfazed. I watched them for a while to see if they would die. They did not. So I squished them. I did take a video but seems the quality is bad.

Our coop still needs some work but here it is

 

[AidKD]

https://morningchores.com/chicken-mites/
Here's this! Hope it helps!

 

[RainbowHen]

https://morningchores.com/chicken-mites/
Here's this! Hope it helps!

Thanks for the link! I've been doing lots of research and finding what is right for us. I don't care for DE. It irritates my lungs and dries my skin out I can imagine it does the same for my girls. They are only 4 weeks old. I don't find DE effective on my garden pests either so I really don't bother with it. I posted this mostly as an interesting observation. I found the permethrin spray to be much more effective than the dust but I like that the dust sits underneath my wood pellets (where we originally found the mites in the previous coop). So far so good. We have a lot of wildlife in our yard. Tons of nesting birds. I'm sure that's where the mites originally came from.

 

[AidKD]

Thanks for the link! I've been doing lots of research and finding what is right for us. I don't care for DE. It irritates my lungs and dries my skin out I can imagine it does the same for my girls. They are only 4 weeks old. I don't find DE effective on my garden pests either so I really don't bother with it. I posted this mostly as an interesting observation. I found the permethrin spray to be much more effective than the dust but I like that the dust sits underneath my wood pellets (where we originally found the mites in the previous coop). So far so good. We have a lot of wildlife in our yard. Tons of nesting birds. I'm sure that's where the mites originally came from.

Probably so. Hope you can get this problem all cleared up! Good luck!

 

[RainbowHen]

Probably so. Hope you can get this problem all cleared up! Good luck!

Thank you!

 

[Mimi13]

I don’t believe those are mites. Mites are much smaller. Those look like baby roaches to me.

Poultry dust does work very well on mites and lice.

 

[RainbowHen]

I don’t believe those are mites. Mites are much smaller. Those look like baby roaches to me.

Poultry dust does work very well on mites and lice.

These guys are teensy tiny. Can barely see them. I got super close with my camera for the video. I know what mites look like. These are little red ones. Blood suckers that feed at night. Never seen a single one on my birds during the day. I also know what baby roaches look like. I used to raise different species of roaches (story for another time lol). I haven't noticed any mites in the coop since I took this video so I do believe the dust is effective, just slower to work than the spray. I believe our yard is infested. We have wild birds everywhere. I feed the birds (far away from the coop) and so do the neighbors. This has been a humid, damp year and with our clay soil it is a perfect storm for mites. I see mites on our garden fence and on almost every wooden surface in our yard. I swapped out the wood board for a glass dish under the waterer and no more mites so far. Soon the water will be fully outside, also. They seem to congregate near the moisture. Will treat with spray again in a week.
I like that the dust sits under the pellets, directly on the floor where the mites hide. I will continue to use it for that purpose. My girls were really suffering for a little bit there. They were so tiny. I'm sure if I didn't find the mites they would have killed them.

 

[Mimi13]

These guys are teensy tiny. Can barely see them. I got super close with my camera for the video. I know what mites look like. These are little red ones. Blood suckers that feed at night. Never seen a single one on my birds during the day. I also know what baby roaches look like. I used to raise different species of roaches (story for another time lol). I haven't noticed any mites in the coop since I took this video so I do believe the dust is effective, just slower to work than the spray. I believe our yard is infested. We have wild birds everywhere. I feed the birds (far away from the coop) and so do the neighbors. This has been a humid, damp year and with our clay soil it is a perfect storm for mites. I see mites on our garden fence and on almost every wooden surface in our yard. I swapped out the wood board for a glass dish under the waterer and no more mites so far. Soon the water will be fully outside, also. They seem to congregate near the moisture. Will treat with spray again in a week.
I like that the dust sits under the pellets, directly on the floor where the mites hide. I will continue to use it for that purpose. My girls were really suffering for a little bit there. They were so tiny. I'm sure if I didn't find the mites they would have killed them.

I am very glad that the stuff is working now. I’m sorry for misinforming you, but they really did look like baby roaches, or whatever they’re supposed to be called, to me.

 

[RainbowHen]

I am very glad that the stuff is working now. I’m sorry for misinforming you, but they really did look like baby roaches, or whatever they’re supposed to be called, to me.

That's ok! I very much like hearing outside input