Is this enough to get rid of lice?

[Blue_Myst]

Lice, ugh! If I have to bathe another chicken I'll go crazy! I set up two baths, one with vinegar and salt mixture to hopefully loosen the nits, and a peppermint soap solution in warm water. I'd soak each hen for a few minutes in each, dry a bit, and spray 'Poultry Protector' all over their vent area, under their wings, and at the base of their neck and tail. As for the coop, I cleaned out the whole thing, bought some DE and coated the whole floor of the coop with it, put new bedding in, put Borax here and there, peppermint oil on the roosts and in the bedding (along with more DE), and sprayed 'Poultry Protector' everywhere. Quite an exhausting day.

So, my question is, was this enough?

I'm planning on using 'Poultry Protector' every two or three days on the hens for about two to three weeks to hopefully get rid of the lice that will hatch from the nits I couldn't get out. Is there anything that I'm missing?

Thank you for any advice. I'm just a chicken-nut who wants to take good care of the girls.

 

[kathyinmo]

Here is a copy of one reply (in this thread): https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=226143

Quote:
Actually that product doesn't kill mites and lice - it cleans the area of the eggs, it washes the mites off, but it won't kill them. Mites are very very tricky. It's strictly an enzyme, which will never kill parasites. Please do keep that in mind. It could be a great thing but having had a lot of experience with mites, I'm not sure how effective it would be. They're very careful to say that it washes them off, but it doesn't say that it kills them. Since they're nearly microscopic, I'd be a little worried that it doesn't actually get them all.

The definite no-questions way to treat lice and mites is use permethrin dust on the birds or ivermectin in the older birds (see below about using wazine first), and use permethin liquid (goat lice spray - read the label) on the wood, 3' up from the bedding, and in the eyes and cracks and joints of the wood near nest boxes, on roosts, etc.You can worm the next day and get it all done. Give them all yogurt that day. (Put them out of the coop when you're spraying the wood). The permethrin doesn't penetrate them.

Then in 2-4 weeks, you can use ivermectin (5% cattle pour-on, the blue liquid - I buy generic ivermectin) on your adult birds birds to kill blood-taking parasites. You will want to repeat the wazine treatment for the babies at that time. Wazine is meant to be repeated as it only kills adults. In birds not wormed over six months, I would always recommend wazine first anyway as you don't know the parasite load. Too many parasites (larva and adults) dying at once with ivermectin might be too stressful on them, particulary if they've been battling mites.

You can use ivermectin on them at 4 months old. Use the 5% cattle ivermectin pour-on, the blue liquid. PM me for instructions.

Unfortunately, mites are too dangerous to go with organic methods which will not kill them. I would recommend you use it if it worked. The permethrin dust is a chemical version of a dust that was once made out of flower petals. It's very safe, much different than things like sevin dust. Mites will take birds down very very quickly.

And if you use permethrin, dust them thoroughly. Yes the younger birds can withstand it.

So my suggested game plan:

Day one: Treat the bedding and birds with permethrin dust. Spray the coops with the permethrin liquid, goat lice spray or with the dust made into a "paint" with water. Paint the legs of the birds again with olive oil , possibly with a little tea tree oil in it, just a tiny bit. (Say you make 1/2 cup of oil, use 3 drops of pure tea tree oil). You'll get the leg mites on the 2nd worming.

Day two: Worm with wazine in the water, all birds. Feed them some yogurt.

Seven days later: redust with permethrin to get hatching lice.

Two to four weeks from first treatment.
Worm all adults with ivermectin pour-on. That will take care of the remaining adults, the larva, and leg mites. Retreat the babies with wazine.

When babies are four months: Worm with ivermectin pour-on. Don't re-worm until your twice annual worming.

Thereafter: worm adults and birds "of age" with ivermectin - in the fall and spring is when I do it.

 

[EatonsatCantas]

Being new to all this we have made some mistakes. We discovered red mite when one of our hens just up and died! Inspection revealed she was covered in mites.....as was the house. So we bought a fumagating spray to kill everything, kept the birds out of course, then dusted them and the entire coop with DE. It appears the problem is solved. Have not seen another sign of mites since, thank gawd! The birds must have come with the mites already. Like idiots we never did an initial inspection.

Boy this is a learning experience!