Lice Nits

[aart]

Try over the counter lice shampoo for people. If you want to bathe your birds, every over-the-counter (OTC) treatment for head lice contains either pyrethrins (Rid or Triple X) or permethrin (Nix). They are effective treatment. They only kill live pests, not the pests eggs.

@cmom do you know if these products have any other chemicals in them?

 

[1chip2chicks3cheeks]

I have tried a lot of things but not the homemade bath. Curious as to how it works. Of the many things I tried only permethrin actually got rid of the mites and lice. It did take a few weekly applications of thoroughly spraying the inside of the coops with permethrin, every crack and crevice. When you bathe the birds I doubt you will get rid of them all because once they go back into their coop the pests will still be in there. The pests like to hide in the cracks and crevices in the coop. Most natural remedies don't work. Permethrin is a synthetic version of the organic insecticide, pyrethrum which is derived from the chrysanthemum. Permethrin has all of the safety of natural pyrethrum but leaves a residue that continues to kill. Weekly applications for about a month are necessary to break the pest cycle. The bonus is there is no egg withdrawal period. Good luck...

Well of course you’re supposed to clean the coop as well, before letting them in after the bath Which is why we’re having to wait till the weekend, so we’ll have time to thoroughly clean everything and bathe all the chickens in one day.

 

[1chip2chicks3cheeks]

Hemp bedding is also said to be great for keeping mites/lice and other buggies away.

 

[cmom]

@cmom do you know if these products have any other chemicals in them?

I don't recall. I'll have to look on them and see. I assume if they are safe for human use they must be ok for the birds. Originally when I bathed some infested birds, I bathed them with flea shampoo for pets. After the birds dried I still saw some, in my case mites on the birds. That's when I did my research and found permethrin. As you may recall, I thought the birds were molting but after awhile weren't getting their feathers in like they should and that is when I discovered the mites and the birds were loaded. I was afraid I might loose some birds. They had lost weight and looked terrible. I felt so bad that I let it get so bad, so I tried everything I could think of. I power washed the coops out and bathed the birds with the flea shampoo, scattered DE everywhere but the mites were still there. I found some old sevin dust and it did help but the birds still had mites. I went to TSC and bought poultry dust, the premixed spray and a container of the concentrate permethrin. It took a few weekly applications but the birds started getting better. Originally I sprayed the birds and worked the permethrin into their feathers. It was an ordeal because I have a lot of birds. I originally found mites in a couple of the coops but decided to err on the safe side and treated all of the coops. I put the poultry dust in the nest boxes. I tried some lavender spray because someone told me it would work, but not for me. The permethrin did work but not immediately. It was a couple of weeks and then I saw pin feathers starting to come in on the birds and that gave me hope.

 

[cmom]

One of the benefits was I also had a fly problem and the permethrin pretty mush got rid of the flies and I discovered that some manufactures of cattle ear tags use permethrin in them to help to control the flies on the cattle.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Be careful with ash and diatomaceous earth especially, they can cause respiratory issues in animals and humans. Our chickens have lice too and we plan on bathing all 32 of them in a mixture of castile soap, salt and vinegar. It's supposed to suffocate and kill all live lice and loosen the nits. Seems to work very well from everything I've heard, so we're going to give it a go I believe you're supposed to repeat in a week, to kill any lice that may have hatched.

Here is the recipe:


Chicken Lice/Mite Recipe
5 gallons warm water (comfortable for your birds to bathe in)
2 cups table salt
2 cups white distilled vinegar
2 cups liquid castile soap

First, in a large bucket capable of holding 5 gallons of water (plus a chicken), mix and dissolve the ingredients listed above into the warm water. [Note: it may be easier to dissolve the salt in a gallon of hot water and then mix that to the bath mixture]. Make sure that the ingredients are well dissolved and mixed up. Also, be sure that the water temperature is not too hot for your birds.

Next, one-by-one place your chickens into this treatment bath. Be sure that the bird’s head stays above water. Each chicken needs to soak with their body fully submerged for five minutes. You often will see dead mites and lice float to the surface of the bath.
Rinse the treated hen in a second bucket of warm plain water for a couple minutes. Be sure to towel dry all of your washed chickens — you don’t want them getting ill. Chickens have a very difficult time regulating their body temperature when wet, so it may be wise to use a hairdryer and give them blow drying.

You can use the same treatment bath for several hens (as long as the water stays warm enough) for them.

Hemp bedding is also said to be great for keeping mites/lice and other buggies away.

So have you been using Hemp bedding this whole time or are you switching to it from something else?

Keep us posted over the course of several months and let us know how effective these methods are - folks are always looking for alternative treatment methods to rid their flock and housing of mites/lice.

 

[1chip2chicks3cheeks]

So have you been using Hemp bedding this whole time or are you switching to it from something else?

Keep us posted over the course of several months and let us know how effective these methods are - folks are always looking for alternative treatment methods to rid their flock and housing of mites/lice.

We’re going to switch after the lice are all gone and see how well it does. We’ve been using aspen in the nesting boxes and pine wood shavings on the ground. Just sharing some info I’ve found through my research that might be useful for them too. I’ll certainly keep everyone updated!