You may want to try elector PSP. It is considered organic and safe. It works by bacterial action on the mites versus poison.You do you have to be careful with that though because it can kill a lot of beneficial insects, so you don’t want to haphazardly spray it everywhere because it will kill bees and insects that are good for the environment. I have used it, because one time mites got in my house when I did not take a bird nest down that was under the eaves next to my kitchen.Hi there! I'm a new member although my husband joined while we were awaiting our chicks and loves it. We have nine nine-week old chickens. Their brooder area was in our stand up shower of our bathroom up until a week ago when we transitioned them to their outdoor coop. Today I went into the bathroom to finish picking up the dust, etc mess that they made and noticed little beige creatures EVERYWHERE. BILLIONS of them....seriously everywhere in that bathroom!!! I freaked out and called My Pet Chicken who, as always, were extremely helpful and told me that they are avian mites. We live in the forest in Maine and have many wild birds, including a large flock of wild turkeys that frequent our yard...so apparently mites and/or eggs made their way onto us, then onto the chickens in our house. Regardless of how on Earth this happened, what's done is done....and now I need to figure out two things ASAP:
1. How do I make sure we dont get an issue with a mite infestation in our entire home (ie not just the bathroom!). How do I get rid of them?
2. What is the best course of action to treat my birds? Until the mites are controlled, how do I prevent any mites from coming in my house?? Strip at the door and throw clothes in the washer??
Things I already have taken into account are:
- I believe bird mites are species specific to birds and dont pose an major risk of home infestation...without a bird to feed on, they will die. (I would appreciate any confirmation to this that you can provide!!)
-I know diatomaceous earth can be used as a preventative and will begin to do so immediately. However, I believe that it may not be strong enough to treat an infestation.
Please Note: I have NOT seen ANY evidence of mites on my birds that I'm aware of...but I'm a first time Chicken Mom!.....so I'm not sure if whats going on in the coop is an "infestation".
Things I've Already Tried in the Bathroom (dont laugh:0):
-I vacuumed up the visible mites
-I bleached the crap out of any possible surface
-I sprayed Lysol (for good measure)
-I'm currently ignoring the fact that they are on surfaces that CAN NOT be sprayed....such as our toothbrushes. Yeah. Ugh.
-I resorted to spraying a good amount of DEET bug spray on the heavily infested areas.
One last note--we have young children (not present when Mommy attacked the bathroom with Lysol, bleach and DEET) and our girls are far from laying so going organic, as we almost always choose, isn't super-critical here. However, we do handle the chickens frequently so anything non-organic I use on them will need to be safe for humans to handle them afterwards.
THANK YOU for reading this and for ANY advice based on your experience that you may have!!!!
