Mites in the hen house! Help!

[cmom]

Maybe mites. Check your birds in the evening after they roost. Some types of mites only come out at night and feed on the birds. I use a headlamp so I have both of my hands free to inspect the birds. Good luck...

 

[cmom]

I always sprinkle DE on floor of coop, then a little PDZ then shavings. Nest boxes get DE sprinkle and Straw. Poop board gets PDZ and dusted with DE, DE dusted on roosts too.
Had for 2 years like that and no issue with any bugs/ mites.
I also have the area they do Dust bathing in with a little DE too.
Thanks you reminded me to buy more today for the new coop

I had no issues for many years then noticed my birds weren't looking too well. I thought they were molting but upon further inspection they had lice and mites. First I found them in one coop and then another. I immediately treated the birds with DE. After a couple of weeks of treating them with the DE they weren't improving and still had the pests on them. I had a little bit of sevin and it helped but sevin is no longer approved for use on animals. Then I bought some permethrin. After a couple weekly treatments with the permethrin the birds starting improving and no bugs. I continued treatment for a couple of more weeks and the birds continued to improve. I cleaned out their coops and bought the permethrin concentrate and then treated all of the coops thoroughly inside. I think if I hadn't treated them with the permethrin I might have lost some of the birds. I wish I had taken pictures but was so concentrating on them and getting rid of the bugs, I didn't. I used the poultry dust in the nest boxes. I know some people swear by DE but it didn't work for me.

 

[Angileen]

My chicken coop is an old wood shed that we converted. The floor is dirt, so we lay down hay, and use wood shavings in the nests. We had a broody in one of the ground level nest boxes, and her chicks hatched a few days ago. Two died from hatching too early, and when I took them out I didn’t notice anything, nor when I was collecting eggs any previous day, but the next morning the last chick was dead too and COVERED in mites. We’re not sure where they came from, but our chickens are free rangers and we live in the middle of the forest, so it could have been anywhere. We removed all of the hay and bedding to be burned. We cleaned off every surface. We couldn’t hose out the coop because of the dirt floor and the weather hasn’t been all that warm yet, but I was very generous with the diatomaceous earth on the floor and every other surface, in the chickens’ favorite dust baths, and I powdered the broody like a donut. From what we could tell, we caught the infestation before it was throughout the whole coop, we were only finding them in that corner where the broody had been sitting. None of the chickens are showing signs of discomfort or being overrun with mites, so we’re just throwing some DE on them and trusting that they’re grooming themselves.
What I’m wondering is, is there anything else we can do to help get rid of the mites faster?
One note is that we can’t go to the farm store. The closest one is 80 miles away and we’re avoiding going to town whenever possible.

Use 7 dust on the hen, under her wings, vent and back, nest box and add some to the dust bathing area, all roosts and floor after cleaning. Repeat after a week, and continue to add to dust bath every once in a while. Do not get on cats ,food or water.

 

[Willow2253]

Use 7 dust on the hen, under her wings, vent and back, nest box and add some to the dust bathing area, all roosts and floor after cleaning. Repeat after a week, and continue to add to dust bath every once in a while. Do not get on cats ,food or water.

Thanks for the advice, though this thread is a year old and I’ve solved my mite problem. Maybe it’ll be useful for someone else though.