MITES HELP!!!!

[Annalyse]

My flock has had Northern Fowl Mites since August 2024. We had a rat issue and just finally a month ago got rid of them. With that, the rats gave my flock mites and it's been a struggle ever since. I have hosed down the coop and run, all of their stuff that they play on/ramps/etc. Everything is cleaned, sprayed, and dusted. I dust my chickens as well. I use Martin's Permethrin 13.3% Insecticide spray and the Durvent Gardstar Garden And Poultry Dust. I've hosed down the coop and run with a garden hose and I even did a couple of weeks of me blow torching the inside and killing any mites left over. I have left the bedding out of their coop because I got tired of replacing the bedding weekly. Their run is basically all loose dirt and Peat moss and I have no idea how to get the mites out of dirt. I've been doing this all weekly and still have mites!

Another problem I have as well as my flock is all standard except my one silkie. She started to get picked on so we built her a separate coop for a silkie coop. I recently got 4 baby silkie chicks. I cannot have my main silkie give these babies mites and I was excited to introduce them.

How can I get rid of these mites and make this stress go away!!!!

 

[AGeese]

Dose them with Ivermectin between the shoulders.

 

[Shadrach]

My flock has had Northern Fowl Mites since August 2024. We had a rat issue and just finally a month ago got rid of them. With that, the rats gave my flock mites and it's been a struggle ever since. I have hosed down the coop and run, all of their stuff that they play on/ramps/etc. Everything is cleaned, sprayed, and dusted. I dust my chickens as well. I use Martin's Permethrin 13.3% Insecticide spray and the Durvent Gardstar Garden And Poultry Dust. I've hosed down the coop and run with a garden hose and I even did a couple of weeks of me blow torching the inside and killing any mites left over. I have left the bedding out of their coop because I got tired of replacing the bedding weekly. Their run is basically all loose dirt and Peat moss and I have no idea how to get the mites out of dirt. I've been doing this all weekly and still have mites!

Another problem I have as well as my flock is all standard except my one silkie. She started to get picked on so we built her a separate coop for a silkie coop. I recently got 4 baby silkie chicks. I cannot have my main silkie give these babies mites and I was excited to introduce them.

How can I get rid of these mites and make this stress go away!!!!

Northern Fowl Mits live on the bird, so it's the birds you need to concentrate your efforts on.
The nost reliable way to deal with the mites is to move the birds to a clean and treated coop, burn the old coop and treat the birds with permethrin repeatedly until the mites are gone. It can take months. I have heard that some Northern Fowl Mites have become resistant to Permethrin. Sulphur powder is an option as is Elector PSP.
Ivermectin isn't going to solve your problems. In order for Ivermectin to work the mite has to feed on the bird. It's the mites feeding on the bird that's the problem, not that the mites are there, unpleasant though they may be. The mites don't all feed together so with Ivermectin you'll kill that partcular mite that fed that day, but not the others that have fed, or are waiting to feed, or the mite eggs.

 

[DonyaQuick]

If after persistent application of permethrin you still have mites cropping up again and again to no end, you may well still have a vector bringing them in or near the coop. The vector doesn't have to get inside - just rub on the HWC looking for a way in. Mites can travel a ways once dropped. I've been battling a similar issue in one enclosure for my bachelor flock until I realized it was rodents repeatedly contaminating the perimeter, so I had to get very aggressive with traps. I placed many around the outside in ways that minimize risk to things like wild birds and escaped chickens (tunnel-type traps work well). I have trapped quite a few visibly mite-infested rodents over time so and the mites-on-chickens problem has dramatically improved since that.

 

[Annalyse]

If after persistent application of permethrin you still have mites cropping up again and again to no end, you may well still have a vector bringing them in or near the coop. The vector doesn't have to get inside - just rub on the HWC looking for a way in. Mites can travel a ways once dropped. I've been battling a similar issue in one enclosure for my bachelor flock until I realized it was rodents repeatedly contaminating the perimeter, so I had to get very aggressive with traps. I placed many around the outside in ways that minimize risk to things like wild birds and escaped chickens (tunnel-type traps work well). I have trapped quite a few visibly mite-infested rodents over time so and the mites-on-chickens problem has dramatically improved since that.

We just got rid of the rats so hopefully now my treatments will work!! I also cannot afford to burn the coop down so I am doing everything I can for them! I’ve been giving them extra boosters in their food as well because I know the mites can drain vitamins. I think I’m going to dust them twice a week. I’m also going to apply the dust to the dirt that the rats made their tunnels near.

 

[DonyaQuick]

We just got rid of the rats so hopefully now my treatments will work!! I also cannot afford to burn the coop down so I am doing everything I can for them! I’ve been giving them extra boosters in their food as well because I know the mites can drain vitamins. I think I’m going to dust them twice a week. I’m also going to apply the dust to the dirt that the rats made their tunnels near.

Assuming you have either northern fowl mites or tropical fowl mites, there's no need to destroy anything. If those get into wood, they don't stay there like red roost mites do so you can beat them with the powder. I even quit tossing the bedding out when I was having recurrences; I just mix some permethrin powder into it and rub some on the roost bars.

Most effective powder on-chicken treatment method I've found for dealing with quite persistent mite populations is to powder the birds 2-3 days in a row and then every 3-4 days for another couple weeks. I never had luck with the once per week method, particularly in warmer weather. When you powder the birds, get the powder right down to the skin in as many places as possible, just be careful on the neck approaching the head. I like to lift the feathers in an area, poor just a bit in there, and then ruffle it all over with my fingers to distribute it low in the fluffier parts of the feathers. It can be hard to do on a skiddish bird but the powder treatments are always most effective if you can basically give them a full body massage of powder. Mites like to try to hold out in hard-to-reach but also hard-to-keep-powder-on spots as you beat back their populations, so even if the vent area looks clear be sure to check the the denser feathered areas of the wings and also neck feathers near the bottom of the crop and up closer to the head.

 

[DonyaQuick]

I’m also going to apply the dust to the dirt that the rats made their tunnels near.

Oh, forgot in my last post - YES definitely do dust any areas that rodents were routinely in contact with.

 

[AGeese]

Since everything has been treated, although there's a couple other things that could be done I think the Ivermectin is the missing link. You can also redose with it in 2 to 4 weeks to break their life cycle. If the coop hadn't been addressed then this would only be a bandaid since they would return.

I've never had mites this bad, a single girl got them once, and I used Ivermectin it killed them. Fast forward a couple years and now I have 1 maybe two birds affected. I haven't finished my clean out yet due to weather conditions.

None of the other birds had them, but I went ahead and dosed them, and staggered my application by a day or two so a couple birds got dosed initially then I waited a day or two, dosed two more, and continued like that.

The logic there is if I do have another outbreak because I either haven't finished the clean out or the clean out isn't effective at least I won't have to worry about all the birds at once.