Lice (in Australia)

[Judys chooks]

Hi there everyone,

I have a dual problem with lice on my chooks. I only have 2 now and one recently was found dead in her nest. It was quite sad as she was the loner out of the 3 and had a period of being broody. I'd just brought her out of that and all seemed to be going well. Then I found her dead. However, there was a board standing against the wire that was blown down by exceptionally strong winds. It had tipped the water bowl over and I'm not sure whether it could have hit poor Henny whilst she was drinking. However, when I picked her up to remove her from the coup, she was covered in mites.

I cleaned out all the hay from the chook house and burnt it. I then put Pestene Powder on every part of the house, put fresh straw in and then doused the remaining two ladies - holding them upside down, covering under their wings and on their bodies. I'm due to do another bird dust (its been 2 weeks - delayed by covid lockdown. I was away and couldn't get back home) today or tomorrow.

The associated problem is that the remaining two birds won't even go back and roost in the chook house - they roost outside on a barrel or the house window sill. Whilst not a problem in the warm weather, this will not be good in the cold. How do I get them to go back in the house? Should I lock them in so they can't get out? Or do they know something that I don't about the house? Should I trust their intuition or not? They are now laying in the bushes instead of in their nests and sometimes their eggs are hard to find. I discovered 20 eggs hidden and some even partly buried. I tested them and they were all fresh (I was only away for 10 days).

Any suggestions about how to get my chookies back into their nice safe house please?

Also, is DE ok as long as it is human grade? I could put some out in their dust spots.

 

[The Kooky Kiwi]

I would say that if your hens are refusing to go back in the coop then this is highly suggestive that there are still mites in there.

There are "many" opinions regarding the effectiveness of DE, but I can say that here in NZ (where our climate is similar to yours) I found the DE to be completely ineffective (I even found mites living IN the DE . Our consistently warm climate means the mites can breed all year round and in great numbers so I rely on tougher measures and relegate the DE to a supportive measure only.

I suggest you immediately treat your hens with something like Ivermectin or Exzolt and, while your hens are excluded from the hen house, give that a VERY thorough spraying with Ripcord or some other strong Permethrin product. You may need to go in rather heavy handed to deal with the initial infestation. I then maintain with regular sprayings of Smite (a poultry disinfectant and mite control spray) which I find works quite well as a maintenance option.

Then once you have dealt with the coop and treated the hens, offer some treats in the hen house to "entice" the girls back in. Once they're satisfied it's safe and comfy again I'm sure they'll frequent it again.

Good Luck!!

Edited to add: The pestene product looks ok but will only address the areas you can reach with it and perhaps being a natural product, isn't going to have the "punch" you need to deal with larger numbers of mites. The liquid sprays like Ripcord can be squirted into all those annoying little cracks, nooks and crannies where the red mites love to hide and multiply and will absolutely nuke any nasty!

 

[Judys chooks]

Thank you so much for your quick reply. Really appreciated. I sorta thought that if they didn't want to go back into the house it may still be infected. I'll do another clean sweep - removing all the hay and all the powder that is still all over the place and then spray as you suggested.

What would I do without this site? You are wonderful people. Thanks for your assistance. I'll let you know how it goes. Judy T,