Lice on Chickens, Guineas, button quails etc

[GuineaFowling]

Hello,
I seen that my chickens somehow picked up lice(I am guessing it is lice because they are small, long, brownish bugs that reside on the feathers. Could be mites help!). The lice spread to my guineas because one of my hens likes to lay her egg in the guineas coop instead of her own and my guinea was broody at the time. My guinea hatched two eggs but one unfortunately died. I moved the new keet into the brood with my two baby button quails. I seen the same bugs on the keet and now he and the two buttons are itching(though when i looked for lice after dusting them with DE i couldn't find any but they still itch.) The babies are about a week and a half old. How do i rid the lice out of my baby buttons and keet. I am using Scalex lice and mite spray on the hens and guineas. Should i use it on the babies, i dont want to because it is a chemical. I will be buying Frontline for Dogs Spot treatment shortly, should i use that. I need help getting rid of the lice in both my babies and the older birds. The hens still lay eggs everyday.

Thank you.

 

[Judy]

I would use the spray on all the animals (not the DE; too irritating to lungs.) I would also clean the coop, toss all the litter and replace it after spraying the coop with the spray as well. Then repeat this whole process in 10 days to kill eggs that have not hatched, because the spray won't kill the eggs.

Here is a paper on how to do this using Sevin garden dust, with pics of the bug involved. Also a thread on some alternate treatments.

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

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/818674/are-these-some-kind-of-egg-clusters/0_20#post_11897957