Lice, please help my girls

[fastmari]

and by the way, fowl lice and bird lice do not like humans...they will especially crawl off an ill bird like crazy onto people holding the bird...but no matter where they travel, they do not like being on you and any you don't find and squash when you scratch them, they will find a way off of you quickly without having bit you. we have much more to fear from the several dangerous viral and parasitic things that ticks and fleas can transmit to us; and they DO like to bite humans, as mosquitoes do. some benefit of the liquid sevin sprayed in a dedicated spray head water bottle; re use , repurpose empty cleaner bottles, well washed out....as the wet spray will spread better than the powder alone, but spraying first to mist bedding and walls and ground, then powdering out the sevin, wearing nose, eye and mouth protection, backing out as you go, making sure you are upwind of the powder and spray at all times, and then clear out of there until it all settles in and residue blows away. You may have to pen your critters in adjacent pens or crate them out of there for an hour or so.

 

[Theicequeen]

thank you Fastmari for your posts.

 

[Miss Lydia]

yep can speak from experience, mites won't bite humans, when my chickens got mites last fall, I did not see them on the chickens but I sure saw themn on me after I cam into the house and felt something crawling around on my head, yuck, went and combed my hair and these tiny tiny little specks of blk went into the sink and started crawling.. well a good shampoo and they were gone. but It took a couple of days to convince my brain that they were.

 

[emjay]

Interesting read.
question,
are lice as prolific as mites and fleas?
If one chicken has them, does that mean they all will?
And will lice be everywhere in the coop as say mites and ticks would.

 

[Break an Egg]

Quote:
They are very prolific, if you have a hen with lice, I would treat the whole flock, and the lice mainly live on the host.


To those that say use DE:

it is a great preventative, but I would use something stronger if there were an all out infestation, it really doesn't work as well as sevin

 

[emjay]

Quote:
They are very prolific, if you have a hen with lice, I would treat the whole flock, and the lice mainly live on the host.


To those that say use DE:

it is a great preventative, but I would use something stronger if there were an all out infestation, it really doesn't work as well as sevin

would it be best to dust each bird with the sevin for lice then, or the entire coop as well.
there are mixed reviews on the sevin as far as it being not being safe vs being safe for the animal. sounds like it gets used quite often,
what is the name on the label most used for sevin ? are there different strengths ?

 

[The Funky Chicken Dunce]

Is there a difference between chicken mites and chicken lice anyone? Does anyone have any pics of the bugs themselves or what a chicken who has them looks like?

Some of my hens look a little poor in the feather department lately and I had a small light colored bug on me the other day after holding one a hen, but I am really not sure what I'm lookin for here

 

[Break an Egg]

Quote:

these are not my pics, but they are good ones I found on a search the light colored bug may have been a louse

the mites are darker and smaller, and they are easily seen at night after the chicken is roosting, you would need a flashlight after dark

I would dust the chickens and their bedding, nestboxes, and perch.

Then after three weeks and after the second application, I would change bedding.

 

[Break an Egg]

Quote:
They are very prolific, if you have a hen with lice, I would treat the whole flock, and the lice mainly live on the host.


To those that say use DE:

it is a great preventative, but I would use something stronger if there were an all out infestation, it really doesn't work as well as sevin

would it be best to dust each bird with the sevin for lice then, or the entire coop as well.
there are mixed reviews on the sevin as far as it being not being safe vs being safe for the animal. sounds like it gets used quite often,
what is the name on the label most used for sevin ? are there different strengths ?

I'm not exactly sure but I think the one I have used is 5% , but I would go down to the feed store and see what they can help with.

 

[dawg53]

There are 2 types of sevin dust; 5% and 10%. You need to use ONLY the 5%.