Mite Infestation

[Meg-in-MT]

DS, I will check and see how much I have left. I would send what I have! It wouldn't be enough to treat my flock again, anyway.

 

[staceyj]

Any of these would work and be budget friendly.

 

[DiamondSwan]

Don't assume because a building has been unoccupied, there are no blood sucking insects. I know for a fact that ticks can survive years without a "meal". Bed bugs survive weeks without a "meal", and mites can survive up to half a year.

Elector is effective on flies, beetles, and mites and fleas. I can't tell you if it's effective on ants, but I don't know why not.

Oh, I'd definitely treat it first. I'm not going to risk having to do things all over again or worry about other pests.

 

[DiamondSwan]

Add garlic powder to your chickens’ feed when you refill their feeders. Lice and mites don’t like the taste of garlic blood.

Yes, I appreciate the sticker shock when considering Elector. I am a very frugal person, existing on a poverty level government retirement check. But I did the math. One eight ounce bottle is highly concentrated and it requires a mere quarter teaspoon in a quart of water to mix a hand spray solution to treat your hand full of chickens.

But where Elector is really economical is that it requires only one treatment. I bought it around three years ago because my chickens had lice. One treatment, and they haven't come back, and several had nits glued to their feathers.

I've used it since as a very quick and easy treatment for scaly leg mites. Again, one treatment was all it took. There is nothing wrong with permethrin. It's an all natural product and very safe for chickens, but it requires several follow up treatments. It could get very involved spraying the premises. One treatment with Elector and you're done. And you've only had to buy one bottle of it, and you'll have plenty left over to last you years.

Recently I used Elector to get rid of darkling beetles that were in my run and were pretty numerous around the foundations. These beetles, not the same as meal worm darkling beetles, carry bacteria that can be deadly to chickens. The Elector finished them off, and I was careful to snatch up the exposed dead ones so my chickens wouldn't eat them. I bet you haven't heard of this dangerous bug. Not too many chicken people have, though these beetles are pretty much everywhere and survive the coldest winters by hiding under foundations and in the ground under rocks.

Hi! When we had mites a few months ago, we dusted the entire coop & all the birds with poultry dust. We did it everyday for maybe three or four days, and that got rid of them. We caught our mites quickly before it got too bad, so if it was more severe you might need to try something else.

DS, I will check and see how much I have left. I would send what I have! It wouldn't be enough to treat my flock again, anyway.

Any of these would work and be budget friendly.
View attachment 1678016 View attachment 1678017 View attachment 1678018 View attachment 1678019 View attachment 1678020

Thanks, guys. I really appreciate all of your help and suggestions. I do want to make sure that I get rid of these things for good and do it right the first time.

I would probably go with the Elector PSP if it wasn't so expensive, especially since I would only need a tiny amount diluted with water (just so y'all know, I'm 18 and my parents would not be happy with that price...). But if I got the spray with Permethrin, I'm patient enough to just keep retreating my birds every 10 days (maybe for a month even) before moving them to the new location which would be treated also. I would keep them all quarantined in a separate pen in the meantime.

My birds have been free-ranging during the day, and I'd be worried about them picking up the mites again if I let them back out eventually... I would most definitely have to do something about the old coop and run. If I don't burn everything, I'd probably have to treat it and the wood pile of scrap pieces that I recycle, too. Uhggg, so much for trying to make things last.

 

[DiamondSwan]

@FrankieDoodle, I'm sorry, I didn't see your post for some reason. Thanks for responding, my friend.

I know that this is a serious case with a lot of mites because they are crawling all over my hens, and they look pretty mangy. I'm going to have to take some serious action to get rid of these things...

 

[DiamondSwan]

I may try the garlic thing, too while they're being quarantined.

 

[Brummie Pekin]

Im actually going through a mite situation at the moment too and Im trying everything I can do In my power going to the shop and getting every type of Anti-Mite powder or product they have. Im completely covering the coop in Mite-Powder and the shop even sells "Mite bombs" which you just throw in the coop and they blow up in a puff of smoke.

Covering the chickens in anti mite powder is also what I am doing, I would also get a machine gun and shoot up the coop but I figured that would be very counterproductive.

 

[DiamondSwan]

Im actually going through a mite situation at the moment too and Im trying everything I can do In my power going to the shop and getting every type of Anti-Mite powder or product they have. Im completely covering the coop in Mite-Powder and the shop even sells "Mite bombs" which you just throw in the coop and they blow up in a puff of smoke.

Covering the chickens in anti mite powder is also what I am doing, I would also get a machine gun and shoot up the coop but I figured that would be very counterproductive.

IKR?? I'm just about to go and nuclear bomb everything. I'm going to go to Tractor Supply to see what they have.

 

[Brummie Pekin]

IKR?? I'm just about to go and nuclear bomb everything. I'm going to go to Tractor Supply to see what they have.

just keep plugging away at it and the mites should go away

 

[DiamondSwan]

just keep plugging away at it and the mites should go away

Oh, I definitely will. And it ain't happenin' again.