ID this critter?

[Hiccup]

Lately every time I handle my Brahmas I seem to end up with these critters on my arms and shirt, anyone know what they are? I haven't seen them from my RSL or Leghorns just the Brahmas. They are tiny the size of a needle eye or so. Black and cream.

 

[3chickchicks]

Lice?

 

[Frost Homestead]

yeah that looks like lice

 

[Hiccup]

Ok, so if my research is correct a few weeks of DE and all should be well?

 

[settingdusk]

Yes, put it in a baby powder bottle and puff it under both wings, on the vent and on the neck near the shoulders. Another treatment is to pick up ivermectin. Its a pesticide you mix 1 part to 2 parts water. Paint it in the same areas with a small paintbrush. Repeat treatment exactly 11 days later. My chickens just got chicken lice treated. Don't worry the lice are species specific and won't attack you. When you paint with ivermectin, paint the patch of skin under each wing, the circle of skin around the vent, and a few dabs on back of neck. Blow the feathers out of the way with your breath so you can paint the skin. The effects are immediate and dead lice will start falling off.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

It looks more like a wingless sausage fly or something like that than any type of chicken lice that I have ever seen. What does the hen look like? Lice are easy to find and ID. Look under the feathers and at the base of the feathers. This is were the lice lay their eggs, sometimes called nits. Also any hen with an infestation of lice will have red, irritated, and rough skin.

 

[Hiccup]

No sign of nits, lice, eaten feathers, mites or even these critters. I only find them after holding the Brahmas though.

 

[settingdusk]

Your brahmas must be digging alot then. If its something other then lice it would be a bug eater with jaws like that. Unless, its a chewing louse. Either way, DE or Ivermectin will kill them.

 

[Henman]

Can any one tell me what these bugs are that I found in a new sack of feed. Omega laying pellets.

 

[browning6]

chewing lice. Order malophaga in the insect kingdom. they are annoying but symbiotic with chickens. they only eat the casings of new feathers. They get very little blood from the bird so they arent really a big deal. and they cant transmit to humans.