Mites! How do I get rid of them?

[Brahma Chicken5000]

I think treating your chickens and their coop will be enough. Good luck.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

This evening I soaked and cleaned my chickens feet and legs as they were rough with raised scales and areas of growths everywhere. Her feet softened and sloughed a considerable amount of dead skin. I then applied a thick layer of vaseline to her feet, toes and legs. After returning her to the coop I realized I was covered in crawling, biting mites!! Quickly took a long ,hot shower but I still feel like they are crawling all over me! How do I rid my coop and chickens of this pest?

Hi, welcome to BYC!

Ewww.

Do you think the mites you had on you were in fact scaly leg mites? Were you able to see them or only feel them? It is my understanding that SLM are in fact microscopic, which would mean invisible to the naked eye. So IF you WERE able to see them, they may be a different type of mite.

I use it as a preventative in the sense that if my chickens have a few mites in them by spraying them every week or 2 the mites will not be able to establish themselves.

I'm sorry, I missed what you are spraying with??

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

The mite killer spray I use.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

View attachment 1202650 The mite killer spray I use.

Oh, that's right.

Just wanted to be sure it wasn't something that just makes them build resistance by over use since it's a HUGE problem for many things.

I red it again, and it says to dust with DE after spraying. For informational purposes, IF you choose to do that (I wouldn't as I already stated I hate DE)... please make sure you wait until the chicken is dry. It states in the many articles, as well as possibly on the container, but also on all the gardening research I did... that DE is rendered useless once it gets wet!

I don't like to spread misinformation though... so I researched a little more just now. It looks as though it's true it WON'T work when wet, but indicates it may become "effective" again once it dries. And is WAY less effective in humid environment since it is supposed to work by dehydrating the bugs....

I wonder why people don't consider a slow death for the insects inhumane? Sure, a huge pile of it MIGHT kill them faster since it absorbs liquid. But a scratching on the surface until eventual death?

 

[casportpony]

I'd like to see some before and after pictures of all of the treatments suggested, including mine hide). I have one right now that I'm about to start treatment on, so I will get som pictures of her before I start.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

I don’t use DE on my birds. I use the mite killer spray on them. I do use sevin dust but ONLY sprinkled with their bedding and on their perches. I had a rescued Cornish cross who couldn’t reach the oil gland on her tail to preen so she got dusted instead of sprayed. I also only dusted my silkies as I don’t want to open the door to them getting possibly chilled if it’s windy.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

I'd like to see some before and after pictures of all of the treatments suggested, including mine hide). I have one right now that I'm about to start treatment on, so I will get som pictures of her before I start.

That is a really good idea. Unforntunately I don’t have any chickens at the moment and I didn’t think to take pictures when they had mites. Thank God they never had a serious infestation. The first time I found mites in them I got sevin dust right away and dusted them all, but for it to be effective you had to dust them frequently and I couldn’t do that because I was in school. So I looked ways to rid my chickens of mites and I came across the recipe for the spray that I currently use. I am very pleased with the results. I also put a bit of garlic powder in their feeder whenever I refill it as I’ve read that mites & lice don’t like garlic flavored blood. As a side note the chickens were raised for eggs not for meat so I have no idea if adding garlic powder to a chickens feed will change its taste. Hope this helps.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I'm not sure, but I thought Sevin was taken off the market or even outlawed for use in chickens kind of recently?

I have used the Frontline mentioned by another poster on my dogs when my mom used to bring her fleas to my house. It was very effective and didn't cause reactions as some others did. However as far as I know it is also NOT approved for use in chickens and I would think would require a considerable withdrawal time for eggs since it's effective for at least 30 days.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

I'm not sure, but I thought Sevin was taken off the market or even outlawed for use in chickens kind of recently?

Could be that Sevin was taken off the market. I haven’t been in America since the end of August as I’m on my gap year. I’ll have my parents check TSC when they go to buy me chick supplies mid January.

 

[casportpony]

I'm not sure, but I thought Sevin was taken off the market or even outlawed for use in chickens kind of recently?

I have used the Frontline mentioned by another poster on my dogs when my mom used to bring her fleas to my house. It was very effective and didn't cause reactions as some others did. However as far as I know it is also NOT approved for use in chickens and I would think would require a considerable withdrawal time for eggs since it's effective for at least 30 days.

The fear-mongering over off label use of pesticides is a pet peeve of mine. In the US, carbaryl (Sevin) and Frontline are not labeled for use in poultry. so neither one is supposed to be used. The fear mongers will spout BS like "lifetime withdrawal", but think about it, how true is that? Do these pesticides leave a residue in eggs for a "lifetime". If so, what about the birds that were treated with Sevin before the label change of Sevin? Or eggs from Canadian birds where carbaryl is still approved?