How to treat mites?

[eevans1213]

I am looking advice and information on how to treat mites and what to expect during treatment.

We received our flock about 3 weeks ago from owners who were looking for a new home due to moving. We are very very new to caring for chickens. We didn’t do any examinations upon receiving them because honestly we are pretty clueless and learning as we go. When I noticed a few hens had stopped laying for a few days, and our younger hen was showing signs up vitamin deficiency, I decided to check them for bugs. I quickly discovered there is an infestation of what I think are mites. Easily seen around the vent area. Tiny brown colored bugs moving around. Anyways, we dusted them last night very thoroughly with GardStar poultry dust. This evening I checked a couple of hens and there are still mites clearly visible and moving around. Is it normal for the first round not to completely irradiate mites? Should we do another round right away or wait a few days?

We are also providing powdered vitamin supplements mixed in their water to help aid in further nutrition deficiencies.

I appreciate your alls help and advice so much! Grateful for this forum!

 

[nuthatched]

I am looking advice and information on how to treat mites and what to expect during treatment.

We received our flock about 3 weeks ago from owners who were looking for a new home due to moving. We are very very new to caring for chickens. We didn’t do any examinations upon receiving them because honestly we are pretty clueless and learning as we go. When I noticed a few hens had stopped laying for a few days, and our younger hen was showing signs up vitamin deficiency, I decided to check them for bugs. I quickly discovered there is an infestation of what I think are mites. Easily seen around the vent area. Tiny brown colored bugs moving around. Anyways, we dusted them last night very thoroughly with GardStar poultry dust. This evening I checked a couple of hens and there are still mites clearly visible and moving around. Is it normal for the first round not to completely irradiate mites? Should we do another round right away or wait a few days?

We are also providing powdered vitamin supplements mixed in their water to help aid in further nutrition deficiencies.

I appreciate your alls help and advice so much! Grateful for this forum!

Sometimes it takes awhile for the dist to get all the mites, just give it some time.

 

[Lillith37]

Hopefully it’s Northern Fowl Mites if they are congregating on feathers and skin around the vent. Did you look during the day or at night?

You may need to retreat to kill eggs that hatch.

Under ideal temperature and humidity conditions the NFM female can lay eggs every two days and the eggs will hatch in another 2 days.

I would sprinkle the dust under bedding in the nest boxes or change and burn the old bedding every week until you’ve got them under control.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I am looking advice and information on how to treat mites and what to expect during treatment.

We received our flock about 3 weeks ago from owners who were looking for a new home due to moving. We are very very new to caring for chickens. We didn’t do any examinations upon receiving them because honestly we are pretty clueless and learning as we go. When I noticed a few hens had stopped laying for a few days, and our younger hen was showing signs up vitamin deficiency, I decided to check them for bugs. I quickly discovered there is an infestation of what I think are mites. Easily seen around the vent area. Tiny brown colored bugs moving around. Anyways, we dusted them last night very thoroughly with GardStar poultry dust. This evening I checked a couple of hens and there are still mites clearly visible and moving around. Is it normal for the first round not to completely irradiate mites? Should we do another round right away or wait a few days?

We are also providing powdered vitamin supplements mixed in their water to help aid in further nutrition deficiencies.

I appreciate your alls help and advice so much! Grateful for this forum!

Treat their housing too. Nesting boxes, roosting bars, etc.
Mites can live on the birds and in housing, so even if you treat the hens, you can still have mites reinfesting them if they are not eliminated from housing too.

You can find Permethrin 10 concentrate at TSC. Mix according to the booklet on the bottle. Depending on how large housing is, a garden sprayer may be a good option, just mix it up and spray the housing in 5-7 intervals to break the cycle. Make sure to get into nooks/crannies and crevices, places that bugs hide and lay eggs.

Dust your girls in 5-7 day intervals too.

Hopefully you can get rid of the parasites fairly quickly.

If you have one that is feeling poorly, the vitamins are a good idea. You can also give the hens a little Beef Liver to help with protein and build them back up. Give about 1 Tablespoon each every couple of days for a week. Some give it raw, but I just boil it until it's very soft, then mash it up, feed as a treat. Mine love it.

 

[Newbiechickchic]

We've just discovered a bad infestation in our flock also. 8yrs of hens and never seen anything like this... we go into the barn or near their coop and our clothes get mites on them. We've been getting bit inside the house for the past two weeks and couldn't figure out what was causing it. They're coming in on us and living on us, it seems! I inspect the hens and don't see mites, but I need to be more thorough. I've got the cattle ivermectin liquid to use today, and will order Elector. The hens are in a huge dirt-floor part of the barn, so treating the barn will be difficult. Barn swallow's always nest under the overhang, and this year of swallow babies died. That was the first sign of mites, on the babies. Not sure what type of mite, but they are on us even during the day biting us under our clothes! We have dog's and cat's also! Do we need to treat our house?? Is a lime wash helpful?

 

[Lillith37]

We've just discovered a bad infestation in our flock also. 8yrs of hens and never seen anything like this... we go into the barn or near their coop and our clothes get mites on them. We've been getting bit inside the house for the past two weeks and couldn't figure out what was causing it. They're coming in on us and living on us, it seems! I inspect the hens and don't see mites, but I need to be more thorough. I've got the cattle ivermectin liquid to use today, and will order Elector. The hens are in a huge dirt-floor part of the barn, so treating the barn will be difficult. Barn swallow's always nest under the overhang, and this year of swallow babies died. That was the first sign of mites, on the babies. Not sure what type of mite, but they are on us even during the day biting us under our clothes! We have dog's and cat's also! Do we need to treat our house?? Is a lime wash helpful?

If the mites are active during the day they might be Ornithonyssus bursa, the bird mite. However in a heavy infestation even Dermanyssus gallinae, the red poultry mite, can be active during the day.

It is most likely either of these two if you aren’t seeing many mites on the birds themselves. These two species of mites live in the environment and travel to the hosts to feed.

That means you need to treat the housing structure as well as the birds themselves. Mites love humid, dark, warm environments and hide underneath things and in cracks and crevices.

You can use synthetic and natural chemical controls on the housing e.g. permethrin, sulfur, diatomaceous earth, wood ash, essential oils etc. Mites are tenacious beasties and if you have this severe an infestation you are in for a long battle.

Some people get blow torches or steamers and use heat to treat cracks and crevices. An excellent option if you can do it safely.

You can also put double sided tape or Vaseline around roost edges as a way of preventing mites from reaching your birds. But once enough mites are stuck, the rest will walk over them.

Treating the birds with ivermectin or fluralaner will kill any mites that bite the treated bird. You can get fluralaner dog/cat exoparasite treatments. In Australia it goes under the name Bravecto.

Put pieces of corrugated cardboard underneath roosts and under bedding in nest boxes. You can tap the cardboard and see how many mites fall out. They aggregate together so you will always have greater mites in the cardboard than in your environment at large — but this is a good way of knowing if you have them and once you have it under control, managing future outbreaks.

Under optimal conditions, the mite life cycle can complete itself in as little as 5 days.

Hot wash all your bedding and inside the house and any dog/cat blankets. Start vacuuming more frequently and vacuum any upholstery like couches etc. You can make up a solution of water and tea tree/eucalyptus/thyme essential oils and spray it as a deterrent.

In future always deter wild birds from nesting anywhere close to your chickens or your house. Wild bird nests are a huge spreader of mites; once the fledglings leave and the nest is abandoned, the mites migrate en masse to the next available host.