Managing external parasites, prevention for northerners

[LynneP]

If you get a day in late winter or spring when it's dry enough, consider dusting the base of pop doors and other entrances with some food-grade diatomaceous earth (DE). Do the same with the ends of roosts and the bottoms of nest boxes. Think like the insects and eight-legged pests, especially the tiny ones. Without stirring up a cloud of dust, lace the nooks and crannies where lice and ticks could enter, or ants. . If you have a covered run or if it is dry enough, coat the perimeter, even up on the wire a short distance above the soil. Pay attention to thresholds inside and out, eggs can be stored and adults can hibernate in the most benign places. This may give you a head start before warmth and moisture make prevention a difficult procedure. DE is not an instant killer of insects or arachnids, rather it sets up a situation where the eggs or adults are compromised by the microscopic edges of the diatoms and will die off usually within 12 hours.

It's also a good time to buy no-pest strips to hang when it's warmer and a time to check the run, rake and treat with Stable Boy or other stall treatments that are safe for poultry, This will neutralize the soil and prevent bacterial from monopolizing the situation when it gets warmer.

Head start for those of us up north!

 

[patandchickens]

Lynn, AFAIK poultry lice/mites do not go on hikes, except some of them to find dark hiding places.

It is not like they are going to walk into the coop or run like ants would.

So, while it certainly makes sense to treat places where mites *already in your coop* are potentially hiding, I do not see how doorways or the perimeter of the run matters in any special way. And I've never heard of anyone who's kept poultry for years doing this.

No offense meant, by all means do what you want,

Pat

 

[LynneP]

Because I started with new ground, my only potential source is wild birds just outside the coop, or free-rangers who occasionally visit. Of course it was dry when I began and now we're getting a foot of snow.

 

[Rhett&SarahsMom]

I kick all the girl out of the coop and then dust it with Sevin and keep the doors/windows open a bit. Then I go into the run and have my Sevin filled dust sock and I dust the girls.
Then I let em back into the coop and lock em in and dust the run and the ground around it and the coop. I plan on doing that at least twice a year. Once in the spring, when it warms some more and then again in late fall.

I did the dusting with the Sevin late last summer and have had no issues with nasty bugs since.

Food grade DE isnt easily found here and getting it online is a PITA.
Plus I like instant results when it comes to bugs.

 

[bockbock2008]

Rhett&SarahsMom :

I kick all the girl out of the coop and then dust it with Sevin and keep the doors/windows open a bit. Then I go into the run and have my Sevin filled dust sock and I dust the girls.
Then I let em back into the coop and lock em in and dust the run and the ground around it and the coop. I plan on doing that at least twice a year. Once in the spring, when it warms some more and then again in late fall.

I did the dusting with the Sevin late last summer and have had no issues with nasty bugs since.

Food grade DE isnt easily found here and getting it online is a PITA.
Plus I like instant results when it comes to bugs.

Can you explain this dusting sock thing. This is going to be my weekend project.​

 

[LynneP]

I think this is a process first described by Miss Prissy and used by many including Rhett&SarahsMom. I'll link to some threads about it in a moment. I agree about nailing pests, fast. Sometimes you can prevent but when they show up you need to knock them down. I keep DE/Dri-Kill on hand for roosts, nest boxes because I don't want the little pests getting a start.

Miss Prissy suggests an old foot from a pair of pantyhose or nylon stocking filled with food-grade diatomaceous earth and Sevin. You use it like a powder puff under the bird's wings and over the fluff covering the vent. Good way to treat lice. Easier than dusting in a cloud of flapping wings and insecticidal dust!

Ah, here are some threads-

https://www.backyardchickens.com/se...O-8859-1&q=Miss+Prissy+Sevin+and+DE&sa=Search

 

[NYREDS]

I don't use DE, I just tap each chicken with a magic wand, I feel it's just as effective.
I case it's not clear I'm not a believer in the magic properties of DE. Never liked KoolAid either.

 

[LynneP]

The magical properties of DE? Nope, don't believe in that, I'm a science major.

But gosh, you didn't like Kool-Aid! Scandalous. (gasp)