Mites infestation!!! MANY Conflicting suggestions here! Help please.

[ErinMaria]

Hi all,

We have been battling a mites problem for a while. I have tried LOTS of things, including: Diatomaceous earth, hardwood ash, poultry protector spray, poultry dust and finally Sevin dust yesterday. Not all things at once of course. Probably over the last 4-6 weeks. I clean the coop, spray it down, dust it, vacuum and then put some dust under and fresh everything on top. I even add nice herbs to the nest boxes (I do not dust the nest boxes). However there are SO many conflicting things on here for remedies!! One person says use Sevin dust and the next bitches that person out for suggesting that. Then someone says to use the poultry dust and the next says its a harmful carcinogen and shouldn't be used or never eat the eggs again. Then I read that you can use Ivermectin sheep drench, which I bought but have not used yet, but then I read that it could make them sick!!! Whyyyy!!! its ike a clear 50% split on what to use or not use out there and I am super confused. And then someone said on another persons thread to not use it because it could cause lethargy, and possibly death. AHhhhh!!! What is there to use on my birds?!
2 of my 3 have bare butts, a little bit red, and 2 of the 3 have been plucking a few from their necks as well. I did use a bit of the sevin dust on them last night and sprinkled it in the shavings under the roosts. They are still itching like crazy! And my oldest bird seems to have lost some weight. I feed her scrambled eggs every few days with garlic too for a little boost, no loss in egg production but her eggs have lost a bit of color. PLEASE do not attack me or tell me I'm a horrible person. We have a very nice coop and I keep it clean, I just have a serious problem getting these nasty bugs off my birds and I don't want to harm them or accidentally make them sick.

 

[JaeG]

Permethrin spray is good but multiple treatments of the whole coop (every nook and cranny, nestboxes included) is needed to break the lifecycle. If you do 3 treatments 4 days to a week apart that should knock them on the head. I had a really bad infestation last summer and I would let the chickens out in the morning then use fly spray to spray everywhere in the coop every single day (I didn't replace the bedding until I'd got on top of the infestation). That finally broke the cycle, eventually. It can be very frustrating.

If you are in America if you can get a product with Spinosad in it that's supposed to be excellent but I think it's quite a bit more expensive than Permethrin based treatments.

 

[Augie1]

Permethrin 10 % liquid form
I love it same situation as you even lost one. Cleaned the coop out sprayed with water and left to dry and then sprayed it at night 9pm. Next day found no more mites and insects in the coop. Recommend spraying at night. Can not recommend this enough.

 

[Folly's place]

Permethrin spray concentrate is the easiest to use, and most cost effective product here in the USA. It and spinosad are both approved for use in poultry houses, and on the chickens, with no egg withdrawal, but the permethrin is easily available and very inexpensive, while the spinosad will cost $$$ and needs to be ordered.
DE and herbs don't seem to be working, right? No suprise there.
Permethrin dust won't get into all the vertical spaces that the spray reaches easily, and is easier to apply to the birds too.
Carbaryl is not approved for use on the chickens, or in their housing, in the USA. It's not going to work better than an approved product, so why use it?
Ivermectin is easy, but again, not approved, because it will be in their eggs for a fair while. Not a good thing either.
Mary

 

[Eggcessive]

Permethrin 10 by Martins or Gordons is a liquid concentrate sold by TSC and many feed stores that is mixed with water a cording to inside label directions in a spray bottle or garden sprayer to treat both chickens or the coop, once bedding is all removed. Mites hatch every 5-7 days, so treating at least 2-3 times (chickens and coop) would be a good start. The northern fowl mites are found on chickens 24/7 while the chicken roost mites hide in the dark cracks and crevices of the coop during daylight, and are on the chickens at night in the dark.
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/p...MI-5uvlbra6wIVz8DACh0RxA7mEAAYASAAEgIGkvD_BwE

 

[HollyWoozle]

It is tricky with all the different opinions. I have tried so many products available to us here in the UK but permethrin (not actually readily available for poultry here) seems to have solved my problem.

 

[debra and shenderra]

Hi all,

We have been battling a mites problem for a while. I have tried LOTS of things, including: Diatomaceous earth, hardwood ash, poultry protector spray, poultry dust and finally Sevin dust yesterday. Not all things at once of course. Probably over the last 4-6 weeks. I clean the coop, spray it down, dust it, vacuum and then put some dust under and fresh everything on top. I even add nice herbs to the nest boxes (I do not dust the nest boxes). However there are SO many conflicting things on here for remedies!! One person says use Sevin dust and the next bitches that person out for suggesting that. Then someone says to use the poultry dust and the next says its a harmful carcinogen and shouldn't be used or never eat the eggs again. Then I read that you can use Ivermectin sheep drench, which I bought but have not used yet, but then I read that it could make them sick!!! Whyyyy!!! its ike a clear 50% split on what to use or not use out there and I am super confused. And then someone said on another persons thread to not use it because it could cause lethargy, and possibly death. AHhhhh!!! What is there to use on my birds?!
2 of my 3 have bare butts, a little bit red, and 2 of the 3 have been plucking a few from their necks as well. I did use a bit of the sevin dust on them last night and sprinkled it in the shavings under the roosts. They are still itching like crazy! And my oldest bird seems to have lost some weight. I feed her scrambled eggs every few days with garlic too for a little boost, no loss in egg production but her eggs have lost a bit of color. PLEASE do not attack me or tell me I'm a horrible person. We have a very nice coop and I keep it clean, I just have a serious problem getting these nasty bugs off my birds and I don't want to harm them or accidentally make them sick.

Hi sorry to hear about your trouble with mites. We have had no experiences with our chikens previously having them. We decided to raise chickens again it has been over 5 years since we owned a flock. We purchased ours from meyer hatchery when the order arrived the little cuties behaved strangely, constantly eating and did not sleep hardly at all. We thought it was the breed. Then they started shaking their heads and scratching , preening excessively, piling up the pine bedding plus other things. We did research to try and find solutions. At last we found some answers it looked like our little flock came with, mites...no extra charge. Here's how we resolved the problem, placed our chicks in plastic tubs, pulled all the bedding out and laid paper towels down instead, placed them in our living room to keep an eye on them. We purchased a bottle of sweet oil (used for ear wax on humans) essential oil or tea tree, neem seed and clove oil. in the 4oz bottle (purchased at walmart) we placed 4 drops neem and 6 drops tea tree oil then shook the bottle. you have to buy a dropper seperate because it does not come with the dropper. After making the oil we took each chick placed drops in the ear and butt hole and vent, because the mites hide there too. On some of the chicks there looked like dermatitis and missing peach fuzz, so we applied the oil to those areas too. the next day no more scratching ears, shaking heads they were all asleep at the right time, no more odd behavior. there was still the diarrhea. So we added clove oil 4 drops to the glass mason jar which we used before when our chicken were sick. You might want to treat the chickens plus make a spray using neem oil and vinager it is and efficient insecticide and does no harm the chickens.

 

[debra and shenderra]

sorry missed some instruction we placed drops in the ears, butt and vents and other places that showed signs that they were pecked or bare. they are not scratching or preening excessively

 

[ErinMaria]

Thanks for all the great advice guys! I went ahead and bought the permethrin 10% solution. I definitely have to treat my hens but for the application there was some mixed instruction that I didn’t quite understand.
Do I mix the solution with water to spray on the hens and how much?
and to spray the coop; do I mix that with oil? What kind? And how much? I do think I need to treat the next boxes because they had other insects in there the other day inside the hay. I’m going to switch to hemp soon.
Thanks again! This really can be the most helpful site and I appreciate it a lot.

 

[Folly's place]

You mix it with water in the sprayer, and hit everything, walls, nest boxes, everything.
Don't spray eggs, or have the nest box bedding wet when the hens go in to lay eggs there. We spray at night usually, so it's not a problem.
AND ESPECIALLY, permethrin is toxic to cats, so don't have any cats there while things are wet!!!
Also, the mix doesn't keep well in a plastic sprayer, so make up what you plan to use, don't try to store it for weeks in the sprayer.
Here we have those miserable house wrens invading the coop almost daily, bringing mites with them. It's been a royal pain this summer!
Mary