How often do you spray for mites/lice?

[Qualara]

Just a quick question because I cannot find anything on google. How often do you spray your chickens to prevent mites? Mine have none right now, but I've had a few budgie birds of mine get red mites, so I don't want my girls getting them. I'm using Avitrol.

 

[arkwelded]

for lice we do checks weekly and treat as needed.
for mites i use vasiline on the combs/waddles and legs once a month or as needed. it suffocates the mites. this prevention seems to take care of any issues, and has a secondary effect of keeping their combs soft and healthy.

 

[Folly's place]

Unless your flock is indoors all the time, mites and lice may happen, from exposure to wild birds. I treat the flock when it happens, and check the birds anytime I wonder, or weekly. Mary

 

[Qualara]

My chickens are lap birds, so I do check them daily. I've never had to treat them for lice yet, fingers crossed it stays that way.

 

[MeepBeep]

My birds have full time access to a dust bath that has a small amount of Seven in it, and the coop has hanging 'No Pest Strips' so it's constantly being treated...

 

[jake and pippa]

For what its worth, I once stopped a bad head lice infestation on a family member by smearing a layer of vasoline on the entire scalp. This worked at once, unlike the NIX washes I tried before. I think we left it on for at least several days and it took a few days to get the vasoline all washed out. No second treatment was needed. I also use vasoline to smother ticks so I can remove them easily. They back right out in a few minutes.

 

[Folly's place]

It's bad to apply stuff to the tick while it's attached, because the tick will then inject it's stomach contents into it's host, exactly the wrong thing to have happen. Use a tool, or protected fingers, to grap the tick at skin level and pull it out. Mary

 

[MeepBeep]

Use a tool

I use my fingers/nails but an FYI tick removal tools can be had on Ebay from Asia for $1 delivered, a nice cheap tool to have handy...

 

[jake and pippa]

Folly,

I respectfully disagree. Who told you that? In my experience, as a person strongly allergic to tick bites, who gets a large and painful local inflammatory response if ticks are not removed very promptly, when I use vasoline, I get little to no reaction to the bite, compared to a very significant and painful swelling if I remove the tick with a standard tick loop or with tweezers. This local response can last for a few days, in my case, so I am very anxious to avoid it. We keep vasoline in the car as well as in the house. My understanding is that it takes quite a few hours for a tick to inject lyme's disease into the host, but it seems I am sensitive to other things in the tick. Some ticks, larger wood ticks, are very easy to remove with a tick loop, the smaller ones are very difficult to remove and one often leaves the head in the skin. Fortunately, our chickens and ducks seem to be eating all our ticks, so it is far less of a problem this year!

 

[Folly's place]

If the tick is imbedded in the skin it will leave mouth parts when removed, and that's irritating. BUT the tick injecting 'stuff' into the host when it gets 'annoyed' is not an improvement, and ticks carry several unpleasant diseases besides Lyme disease. The injected gunk is what spreads all those diseases. Right now I'm treating my new rescue dog for two of them; Erlichia and Anaplasmosis. Ugh! Mary