Im tired of getting bug bites!!!!

[scarletbaby]

I swear i have like 8 bug bites on me possibly caused by mites. I cant see the little suckers on my silkies but a couple of times i have seen this little black thing crawling on my arms after holding one. My parents bought this spray that is supposeidly organic. I think its just orange oil. well im not sure its killing them. Im not even sure what we are trying to kill. Ugh im just so fed up with being itchy. How do i treat silkies for mites? they are just so fluffy that i feel like spraying them or oiling them up wont work *sigh*. Oh and the feed store i go to sucks. I swear they dont know what they are talking about. We go there looking for chicken food and they told us to get scratch for my egg laying chickens. I told the person helping us that scratch is like candy to chickens but she was so adamant in saying that that was the food to feed them. She was the one that suggested the orange oil to kill the mites as well. Will the orange spray work on the chickens? if not is there anything i can do in the meantime while i look for a new feed store that knows what they are talking about?

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I have dealt with northern fowl mites in my flock- that sounds like what you might have.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html

Sevin dust and Eprinex Pour on (eprinomectin) or Ivermectin (different medication) will kill them. You pour them on the back of the neck of the chicken. You will need to retreat to get the eggs which will hatch.

I would treat every week with Sevin until your itchies are gone. Do a search on here for egg withdrawal times if you use pourable medications. The pourable medications like Eprinex also deworms them.

Dawg53 gives lots of advice on this- you can search for mites threads on here too.

I never saw mites on my chickens- just on ME. And they do bite. Also I noticed my chickens shaking their heads a lot- this went away after treatment.

Orange oil might deter bugs from entering the coop if you spray it there, but for an active infestation IMO you need chemicals. The fowl mite lives ON the birds. You should also clean your coop out- and maybe spray it with permethrin.

Oh you mentioned your parents. If you are a child then I would have your parents treat the chickens if you use Sevin dust. You cannot help but get some on you/breathe it in. It is pretty toxic stuff. But it really works.

If you use Eprinex etc. I wouldn't retreat with that because it is strong. I'd retreat with Sevin dust.