Lice to Humans?

[Alaska Squid]

I keep reading about chicken lice. Are they contagious to humans?

 

[WhiteCollarWeezy]

Chicken lice feed on chickens. They like the feathers and the skin. They will not infect humans. Don't worry if chicken lice comes in contact with you they will die quickly. Make sure to keep coop clean and ventilated. If your pen or enclosure is off the ground give your birds something with dirt in it, so they can take "dust" baths. Taking these baths is a birds natural way of controlling bugs. And it works for them. If you feel itchy after handling your birds, its probably mites. I can tell you this from experience.

 

[Shadrach]

No. Human lice and chicken lice require different environments to survive.
Welcome to BYC by the way.

 

[BGcoop]

They don’t infect humans but I had ONE crawling around on my head once and it was insanely annoying for the 15 min until I caught it and removed it. I’ve never had human lice and if they are half as annoying as that I don’t know how people handle it!

 

[Callender Girl]

My vet assured me that lice tend to be species-specific. Which was a great relief because she had just discovered lice on one of my miniature goats (that I was holding closely and up to my face).

 

[Eggcessive]

Chicken lice will craw on people, especially when you are handling them. But if you take a shower, and drop your clothing in the wash, no further treatment is needed.

 

[Eggcessive]

Permethrin 10 concentrate (Martins or Gordons sold at TSC) can be mixed with water in a spray bottle to use on chickens and a stronger mix for treating the coop, roosts, and nest boxes. It will kill lice. Read post 6 here for water mixing instructions:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/permethrin-10.1250699/

 

[Ponypoor]

I keep reading about chicken lice. Are they contagious to humans?

No chicken lice is species specific... BUT....

My chickens have lice, my office is here in the barn and I handle them regularly, and the youngsters come for a visit and some like to snooze on my lap.

Well couple days ago I have this crawling feeling on me, I looked and there was a very small bug. Didn't think much of it, it's a barn after all and lots of critters here, but yesterday I had been handling my Azurs and then I was just crawling and found another one on me.

I took a closer look this morning and figured it was lice. So I checked my one Azur and she is just crawling with them - OMG!!!! EWWWWW!

The ick factor - chicken lice won't and cant feed on humans, but they can be transferred from you to another chicken - DARN!

I checked a few more and can see lice on some of the others, so it's lice treatment for everyone and a strip clean of the whole barn (I have a huge barn). All the bedding in the chicken areas they congregate in, all the hay I feed to the horses will need to be removed so the chickens can't go there, everything will need to be moved and cleaned.

My best bet here it likely to treat with Ivermectin on the bird itself (a repeat in 10 days is required), and an egg withdrawl period. So that will be at least a month where I can't sell eggs.

The housing, nest boxes, etc will need to be treated with an insecticidal spray (pyrmethrin is the usual thing).

We can't get Elector PSP here in Canada otherwise I would use that.

Hopefully that give you an idea on lice on chickens - ewwww! poor pookies - ok well I am off to treat my chickies.