Mite Treatment with Sevin

[Chicken Momma 2]

My chickens have a pretty bad case of mites. I removed the hay from the nesting boxes, pulled them to the sun, pressure washed the nesting boxes and dusted them with DE after they dried. I did the same for the coop (pressure washed w/soap and dusted with DE after it dried. I sprinked DE in the dirt all over the enlosed run. My babies usually free range, but I have kept them enclosed in the run to dust bathe- and hopefully kill the mites. After a few days- I am STILL seeing live mites. So I resorted to Sevin (which I absolutely hated to do!!)Last night I dusted them with Sevin the best I could after they roosted for the night. I sprinked each pretty heavily on their bellies and vents and under the wings. My questions now are: - do I leave the Sevin powder on the floor of the coop and run, or do I try to remove it. I was thinking that I should just put fresh hay back in the coop and leave the Sevin dust there....? What about eating the eggs after the birds have been treated with Sevin? What about the food pellets in the dirt that I am sure are contaminated with Sevin and they eat it? This has been AWFUL- where the heck do these mites come from? How in the heck do I prevent this from EVER happening again. I have the DE food grad DE with the clay in it, is that OK? Oh my- I know a LOT of questions- but this realtive newbie would like some expert advice. Thank you SOOOOO much in advance.

 

[Judy]

Unfortunately, DE doesn't do a lot to stop a real infestation, though it may help prevent them. It has worked well for me when ants invaded a nest, at least. Mites usually come from wild birds.

You need to remove all the litter and clean the coop completely. I would dust the new litter including the nests with Sevin, lightly. You also need to redust and reclean, the whole process, in 10 days, because the first round kills the live mites but not the eggs, and they will have hatched by then. Yes, you can eat the eggs. You might even have to repeat again -- they can be hard to knock down when they have gotten established. There is one critter that hides on the underside of roosts at night so don't skip that area. You might want to make a wash of a little Sevin with water so you can paint it in cracks and under roosts.

I sprinkle Sevin around the coop and nests every month or so, lightly. I've never seen an infestation on my flock. Now I'm not saying they have never had any, not at all. There's a saying that if you have chickens, you have mites. I've just never found them, so I'm guessing they haven't had many. I'm not wild about pesticides, either, but this is one area where I give in. (I also have DE, mostly for worms in the garden.)

Here are a couple of good references, in case you'd find them helpful and haven't seen them.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ig140