I have grain mites AGAIN?!?!?!?!

[Annalyse]

And you could try just leaving it in longer (if you're able to) like a week (if you have like a deep freeze with some space). I've seen ants survive our freezer if we put the bag in there overnight (just a few like you said) but the longer we left it in it pretty much guaranteed none were alive (and became a nice little protein treat for the consumer of the feed).

Should we maybe turn the freezer up? It’s at one right now. We only turned because the bucket started frosting up

 

[CFLRanching]

So I know on ours we have it @ 6 I think (do you have a thermometer you can put in it that will show what the internal temp is?). And at 6 it is -10 degrees in our chest freezer. When we only had it @ 4 it was barely at 0. So it probably wouldn't hurt to turn your dial up. Ours is a GE model.

 

[NanaK]

I feel like you only saw moisture because the feed in the bucket was warm (room temp) and the freezer was below 32* but once the contents of the bucket temp evens out to 32 or less that tiny bit of moisture will also freeze. Scoop out what you need, leave the rest frozen if you can. I think the longer its frozen the less chance they are eating the nutrition out and making more mites.
Dry feed also has some moisture content even though it feels dry to your hand. This and the temp change may be part of it.
Hope this makes since. lol

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

You could ask the store about it and see what they say. Maybe the stores in your area will have a better response than the ones in my area. The ones around here just brushed it off and refused to address the issue.

Look closely at that dust on the outside of the bags for any movement. Or, you could swipe your finger across it and feel for them. If it's just dust it should be dry, but if there are grain mites present, you should feel almost a dampness from smooshing them. I'd bet that there are mites on the outside of the bags if they seem dusty, though. The mites are small enough to crawl out through the seams so there doesn't necessarily have to be a hole in the bag for them to get out.

I have a little plastic shed that I store my feed in outside, in clean metal trash cans. If your shed was working fine for you before, I'd say it's fine now since you've confirmed that the mites aren't coming from it.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I just checked for feed stores and the only one that pops up is tractor supply. I can’t find any that’s either in this state or not hours away.

Ah, man, that's tough. Talk to someone at your TSC, then. Hopefully they'll want to address the issue and fix it.

 

[Annalyse]

Ah, man, that's tough. Talk to someone at your TSC, then. Hopefully they'll want to address the issue and fix it.

I’m hoping. I can’t be the only customer having this problem. I know I have neinhirs down the road who have chickens as well, I might talk to them and see if they are having the same issues.

 

[Kiki]

Update: I’m going to go out and buy a small bag of feed those are in the plastic bags so no seams for them to get into like the feed bags. Until I can find a different feed store. But someone told me that this happens to there pig feed and they just let them still eat it. They said it happens during the summer seasons. Should I just let the chickens eat it? I know their harmless but would it being chicken mites later on? The chickens spill their feed in the coop so they’ll be all over . What do you think?

Grain mites very different than the mites that suck the life out of the bird.


There's no reason why you should not or could not feed the green might infested feed to them.

You can sprinkle DE in to the feed If it is completely dry then the DE should kill the grain mites.

 

[Kiki]

DE is okay for the chickens to ingest? How much should I mix in or should I just eye it?

There are a lot of feeds on the market that contain DE in them already for this exact reason.

I don't know how much feed you have left but if you put some in a gallon size Ziploc bag I would sprinkle a few sprinkles of the DE in there and see what happens if you left it overnight.

 

[Kiki]

I am not suggesting that anyone feed DE to their birds for any reason.

I am simply saying that DE will kill grain mites in feed... if it is dry.

 

[Annalyse]

Consider ordering from chewy.com. They have a good selection of feeds. I order 50lb bags that are delivered to my door. Never a quality problem so far.

I might consider it as I’m here at TS right now and even the tiny bags of feed of mites all over them.