Mite infestation in bathroom, how to eradicate and how to treat chickens

[SurferchickinSB]

I've heard this stuff is great and it would be my number one choice, without a doubt...if not for the price tag!!! I found it on amazon for over $100. But I will use this in the future and I'm happy to know you have used it with good results!! Ty so much for letting me know!

It’s expensive, but it works and you only use about a tablespoon per gallon of water.

 

[Maine_chic]

UPDATE: Hi everyone! I sprayed my bathroom with the permethrin spray I had on hand. There were no survivors!! I hate using anything like this, esp INSIDE my home...but it was definitly effective. As for the chickens...I used an eye loupe and examined some shed feathers in their coop. I have also looked closely at their feathers, ep near the vent area. I see NO SIGN of mites!!! I assume its hard to see them but I could certainly see them in my bathroom...so I imagine I would see SOMETHING upon such close exam of my chickies. Then again, being new to this, Ive never seen chicken mites on chickens before, so maybe its not as easy as I imagine....?!?! Lacking signs of mites in our flock, we have held off on spraying permethrin into the coop, run or on the birds. (NOTE: I *DO* notice quite a bit of feathers in the cop and run...they are 10 weeks, so I assume this is normal molting as they get in new feathers? Otherwise, they look fluffy and healthy with no bare spots, etc.) I am going to get some powder this week, Pestene or similar and use it to dust them. I need to create a dust bath area for them as well. I hope Im going the right route and, as always, if anyone has any input on this, Im happy to hear it Thanks again to all who helped me through this incident!

 

[hobbyhomesteader]

UPDATE: Hi everyone! I sprayed my bathroom with the permethrin spray I had on hand. There were no survivors!! I hate using anything like this, esp INSIDE my home...but it was definitly effective. As for the chickens...I used an eye loupe and examined some shed feathers in their coop. I have also looked closely at their feathers, ep near the vent area. I see NO SIGN of mites!!! I assume its hard to see them but I could certainly see them in my bathroom...so I imagine I would see SOMETHING upon such close exam of my chickies. Then again, being new to this, Ive never seen chicken mites on chickens before, so maybe its not as easy as I imagine....?!?! Lacking signs of mites in our flock, we have held off on spraying permethrin into the coop, run or on the birds. (NOTE: I *DO* notice quite a bit of feathers in the cop and run...they are 10 weeks, so I assume this is normal molting as they get in new feathers? Otherwise, they look fluffy and healthy with no bare spots, etc.) I am going to get some powder this week, Pestene or similar and use it to dust them. I need to create a dust bath area for them as well. I hope Im going the right route and, as always, if anyone has any input on this, Im happy to hear it Thanks again to all who helped me through this incident!

That's great news! If you do see more crawlies, please do post whatever photo you can take. I study mites and ticks and am well-versed in identifying a variety of ectoparasites so I'd be happy to make an educated guess from a poor photo. Regardless, the advice you've been given on use of acaricides in this thread is correct for mites, lice, fleas, and ticks! BYC folks know their stuff when it comes to pests. I want to echo the comment that permethrin and pyrethroid products are HIGHLY toxic to cats so be cautious if you have any. Also, there was a comment that the mites need birds to survive which I'd like to correct. This is a common misconception! Dermanyssus spp. and Ornithonyssus spp. mites that typically parasitize birds are happy to utilize other hosts in absence of birds and can colonize households where they readily bite humans and cause discomfort. In fact, they spend much of their time off of the host living in the environment (more info here
http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/livestock/poultry/chicken_mite.htm). They WILL NOT simply "die off" without bird hosts so it's good that you treated your bathroom and rid them from the house!

 

[SurferchickinSB]

That's great news! If you do see more crawlies, please do post whatever photo you can take. I study mites and ticks and am well-versed in identifying a variety of ectoparasites so I'd be happy to make an educated guess from a poor photo. Regardless, the advice you've been given on use of acaricides in this thread is correct for mites, lice, fleas, and ticks! BYC folks know their stuff when it comes to pests. I want to echo the comment that permethrin and pyrethroid products are HIGHLY toxic to cats so be cautious if you have any. Also, there was a comment that the mites need birds to survive which I'd like to correct. This is a common misconception! Dermanyssus spp. and Ornithonyssus spp. mites that typically parasitize birds are happy to utilize other hosts in absence of birds and can colonize households where they readily bite humans and cause discomfort. In fact, they spend much of their time off of the host living in the environment (more info here
http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/livestock/poultry/chicken_mite.htm). They WILL NOT simply "die off" without bird hosts so it's good that you treated your bathroom and rid them from the house!

Yes, I have read that some can stay alive for over six months without a host! Ugh.. when they invaded my house, I was bit horribly and so were my two dogs!

 

[Maine_chic]

That's great news! If you do see more crawlies, please do post whatever photo you can take. I study mites and ticks and am well-versed in identifying a variety of ectoparasites so I'd be happy to make an educated guess from a poor photo. Regardless, the advice you've been given on use of acaricides in this thread is correct for mites, lice, fleas, and ticks! BYC folks know their stuff when it comes to pests. I want to echo the comment that permethrin and pyrethroid products are HIGHLY toxic to cats so be cautious if you have any. Also, there was a comment that the mites need birds to survive which I'd like to correct. This is a common misconception! Dermanyssus spp. and Ornithonyssus spp. mites that typically parasitize birds are happy to utilize other hosts in absence of birds and can colonize households where they readily bite humans and cause discomfort. In fact, they spend much of their time off of the host living in the environment (more info here
http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/livestock/poultry/chicken_mite.htm). They WILL NOT simply "die off" without bird hosts so it's good that you treated your bathroom and rid them from the house!

Hi Hobbyhomesteader! I am so grateful you replied on this thread!!!! Your expertise is exactly what I need! My field is Wildlife Biology and I really dislike not being able to properly identify these critters, or any critter....but Im quite unschooled in the field of entemology! I cannot take a photo of the mites I saw in the bathroom--my camera can't zoom in on something so small and, at this point, the ones I can find that remain are dead and therefore harder to make out details. I can describe them pretty well though and maybe that will help with ID, or maybe rule species in or out. They are beige, almost translucent and about the size of a small grain of sand. Some were even smaller than that. They were out and about in the daytime, crawling around in the billions (literally covering surfaces). I couldnt count the legs but it appeared that their two front legs were the ones most noticeable. I mention this because, in the reading the link you sent me, I learned that the different age stages have different numbers of legs. Unfortunately, the dead ones are mushed up enough by the spray and cleaning that I cant count the legs. I do have an eye loupe so if you have questions that will help ID, I can look further and report back
At this point, I have a few follow questions for you. I *believe* I eradicated the critters from my bathroom, BUT given the misconceptions you cleared up about hosts, I am now concerned that, if i missed even ONE (and how could I not have, right?!?), that the infestation may start anew. Is this a concern? My concern stems from the fact that, although I emptied and thoroughly sprayed my bathroom and cleaned it up, I DID NOT empty the two closets in there. I didnt observe any critters in those areas, hence my decision to do that. Hopefully that was not a big mistake :O
Also, I was assuming that, since these bathroom crawlies were active during the day, that I would also see presence of the mites on my birds during the day. The literature suggests that "they" are active at night, a time when I have not checked....and without positive ID, I dont even know what "they" are! Quite honestly, Im still really confused as to how these mites got in my house; if the birds arent infested, there would be no other way for the infestation to start! We have no bird nests on the house, etc.
I think its safe to assume I should just treat the birds at this point, a smart idea this time of year anyways. Do you have a method for treatment you like most for mites?? Im sure many people on here would love to hear what you recommend for both treatment AND prevention!!!
Anyways, I really appreciate your time reading this little novel Ive posted here...and hopefully with your help I can start to make heads or tails of this!! Many thanks!!!

 

[DellaMyDarling]

Consider a permethrin bath for the birds?

I first tried spraying my birds, but it didn't seem to help them.
Searching further revealed a 5gal bucket of warm water plus one ounce of permethrin10 added.
Dip them all in, just avoiding the head. This'll be easier for you with small ones than my huge hens that fought me. I recommend something to protect your eyes, take a shower after if you get as drenched as I did
It's only been a few days, but my overly bothered hens seem much happier. One hen in particular was clearly getting anemic. Her color is returning, so I'm assuming the bath was good.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

Hi Hobbyhomesteader! I am so grateful you replied on this thread!!!! Your expertise is exactly what I need! My field is Wildlife Biology and I really dislike not being able to properly identify these critters, or any critter....but Im quite unschooled in the field of entemology! I cannot take a photo of the mites I saw in the bathroom--my camera can't zoom in on something so small and, at this point, the ones I can find that remain are dead and therefore harder to make out details. I can describe them pretty well though and maybe that will help with ID, or maybe rule species in or out. They are beige, almost translucent and about the size of a small grain of sand. Some were even smaller than that. They were out and about in the daytime, crawling around in the billions (literally covering surfaces). I couldnt count the legs but it appeared that their two front legs were the ones most noticeable. I mention this because, in the reading the link you sent me, I learned that the different age stages have different numbers of legs. Unfortunately, the dead ones are mushed up enough by the spray and cleaning that I cant count the legs. I do have an eye loupe so if you have questions that will help ID, I can look further and report back
At this point, I have a few follow questions for you. I *believe* I eradicated the critters from my bathroom, BUT given the misconceptions you cleared up about hosts, I am now concerned that, if i missed even ONE (and how could I not have, right?!?), that the infestation may start anew. Is this a concern? My concern stems from the fact that, although I emptied and thoroughly sprayed my bathroom and cleaned it up, I DID NOT empty the two closets in there. I didnt observe any critters in those areas, hence my decision to do that. Hopefully that was not a big mistake :O
Also, I was assuming that, since these bathroom crawlies were active during the day, that I would also see presence of the mites on my birds during the day. The literature suggests that "they" are active at night, a time when I have not checked....and without positive ID, I dont even know what "they" are! Quite honestly, Im still really confused as to how these mites got in my house; if the birds arent infested, there would be no other way for the infestation to start! We have no bird nests on the house, etc.
I think its safe to assume I should just treat the birds at this point, a smart idea this time of year anyways. Do you have a method for treatment you like most for mites?? Im sure many people on here would love to hear what you recommend for both treatment AND prevention!!!
Anyways, I really appreciate your time reading this little novel Ive posted here...and hopefully with your help I can start to make heads or tails of this!! Many thanks!!!

Are you sure they were even mites? Look in the corners of your bathroom and see if there is a little white ball that would be a spider nest. They can hatch out thousands of tiny little spiders that resemble mites.

 

[Maine_chic]

Are you sure they were even mites? Look in the corners of your bathroom and see if there is a little white ball that would be a spider nest. They can hatch out thousands of tiny little spiders that resemble mites.

I didnt see anything and I cleaned the daylights out of it...however it could be behind my washer/dryer, so Im not ruling that out! My first thought was mites based on the fact that I did, for better or worse, have my chick brooder set up in the bathroom. I was using an old, large, stand-up shower with door to raise my chicks...because we are demo-ing our bathroom and ripping that shower out.

 

[Maine_chic]

Consider a permethrin bath for the birds?

I first tried spraying my birds, but it didn't seem to help them.
Searching further revealed a 5gal bucket of warm water plus one ounce of permethrin10 added.
Dip them all in, just avoiding the head. This'll be easier for you with small ones than my huge hens that fought me. I recommend something to protect your eyes, take a shower after if you get as drenched as I did
It's only been a few days, but my overly bothered hens seem much happier. One hen in particular was clearly getting anemic. Her color is returning, so I'm assuming the bath was good.

Great info, thank you!!! I agree, I think that a bucket method will be easier. My birds are all friendly but dont love when I try to manipulate them....looking under their wings, etc. Not that I blame them Im really glad to hear that the bath helped your flock!!! Did you see the mention of Elector PSP? That will be my first choice when I budget out $100+ for the spray. I researched it a lot and it looks great!

 

[Maine_chic]

UPDATE: I figured out where the mites came from!!!!! The short story, which may not surprise many of you: TRACTOR SUPPLY!!!!! The longer version: My chicks were out of food and I went to the only place in my area that has a reliable supply of MannaPro Medicated Chick Starter Crumbles--Tractor Supply. I picked up 2 5 lb bags and went to leave the store. Along the way, my daughter and I found a book section with lots of chicken books and I started to leaf through a few regarding the ID and control of mites. While I read, I began to feel a crawly sensation on my wrist...arm...bicep....so I put down the food bags to itch and found that my arm looked much like my bathroom appeared prior to my chemical warfare. I looked at the plastic food bags and sure enough, they were crawling (every inch!!) with the same things that infested my bathroom.
MYSTERY SOLVED.
Not too pleased...but I'm a rational person and I understand that these things may happen when dealing with feed, in a feed store, in summer. Notified the manager who told me that 1. its common 2. thats why they now have large fans blowing down that aisle (they do indeed) and 3. they are "dust mites" that eat the paper from the bags and/or the food and DO NOT live on humans OR chickens. @hobbyhomesteader maybe we can learn more about this from you?!? I would love to learn more about these critters!
Needless to say, I *DID NOT* purchase the food there and went down the road to Wal-Mart where I have seen the same food before. They did have a large bag and I inspected it thoroughly....no sign of mites. I WILL NOT buy food from Tractor Supply again!! Lesson learned and problem solved!!!! UGH!!! But what a relief that my chickies are so far mite-free.... I'm focusing on and celebrating the positive to all of this!!!!!