Microscope picture : is it red mites?

[chickengeorgeto]

Here’s the top view. So, is it red mite? I just went in the coop and, looking carefully with a flashlite, couldn’t find any. Hens are very sleepy and calm.
View attachment 1468702

To find red mites or roost mites take a clean white paper towel with you and after about 10M vigorously rub all over the roost pole and any recently fed red mites will show up as a tiny red speck of blood. Unless they have reciently fed red mites are not red. Red mites however are quite visible to the naked human eye. But you can't tell much about them without some way to magnify the image.

Mites are a type of spider and therefore have 8 or 4 pair of legs.
Lice are insects and have 6 or 3 pairs of legs

 

[Drarig99]

To find red mites or roost mites take a clean white paper towel with you and after about 10M vigorously rub all over the roost pole and any recently fed red mites will show up as a tiny red speck of blood. Unless they have reciently fed red mites are not red. Red mites however are quite visible to the naked human eye. But you can't tell much about them without some way to magnify the image.

Mites are a type of spider and therefore have 8 or 4 pair of legs.
Lice are insects and have 6 or 3 pairs of legs
View attachment 1468711

Following what you whote, I went back into the coop and did what you said. Nothing. I even put a scotch tape under the roost pole and look at it under the microscope. Again, nothing. So I wonder if the red insect on the photo was really a red mite as I found it in daytime, inside the coop, while the hens were having fun outside. Maybe it was just a tiny red spider? I’d be sooooo happy!

 

[dawg53]

The first pic is a mite, probably a red mite. The second pic probably a louse. Mites have 8 legs, lice have 6 legs. Exception to grain mites have 6 legs as larva, 8 legs as adults.

 

[aart]

The second pic probably a louse. Mites have 8 legs, lice have 6 legs. Exception to grain mites have 6 legs as larva, 8 legs as adults.

Or a larval grain mite....considering where it was found.

 

[Drarig99]

The first pic is a mite, probably a red mite. The second pic probably a louse. Mites have 8 legs, lice have 6 legs. Exception to grain mites have 6 legs as larva, 8 legs as adults.

I don’t think they’re louse. They had them last fall and they were different than the one on the first picture.

 

[Drarig99]

Or a larval grain mite....considering where it was found.

That’s what I think also. I had a look at your battle with them in 2015. From now one, I’ll check regulary inside and out my bags of chicken food. BTW, to take a picture without the grain mite walking off the microscope lens, I put a transparent scotch tape on it gently. It stood there like a police dog on a stay!

 

[aart]

BTW, to take a picture without the grain mite walking off the microscope lens, I put a transparent scotch tape on it gently.

I 'followed' it around using the mechanical stage until the heat from the lamp did it in.
Was using a 'well' slide with a plain one over the top.
They 'squished' so easy it was hard to capture one intact.

 

[cmom]

Some mites hide during the day but come out at night to feed on the birds. As a precaution, I would spray the coop thoroughly, including the floor, walls, ceilings, on and under the roosts, nest boxes, everywhere and every crack and crevice. They multiply fast and repeat spraying is necessary to kill the newly hatched mites. Not that long ago I had some mites. I have never had them before but we have had a lot of rain and it's hot out, perfect condition for mites. I sprayed initially weekly with permethrin spray. I haven't seen any mites lately but I keep spraying not quite as often now. I don't know where they came from because I don't bring any new birds on my property, I hatched all of my birds. Wild birds and animals can introduce them from my research.