Mites issues!!!

[Ahernaa8045]

My silkies have a bad mites infestation. They seem to be doing well, health wise. They’re eating and drinking, acting normal, which is why I didn’t realize there was something wrong until I picked one up and was covered in mites! I ordered elector psp, but it’s not coming until 3 days from now. I am planning to soak the girls in a bath with elector psp. But I have a coupon of questions:

1) How much elector psp would I put in a large bowl to soak them in?

2) how long should I have them sit in the bowl?

3) is it possible to bring mites inside the house? In case I accidentally brought some in, can I spray elector psp on furniture or clothes?

Just uploading some pictures of my little babies. Please help!

 

[Debbie292d]

I am unfamiliar with Elector PSP but the little I've heard of it you spray the chickens and the coop, not bathe them in it. Someone else may now about bathing them in it, but I've just not heard of it. Plus, I don't think a spray will work well on silkies.

I would run to the store and pick up some garden dust (permethrin) and dust them asap. Be sure to get them good and beneath their wings and butt.

Mites will take any chicken down and these being silkies will suffer most. Their feather type makes it more difficult to get rid of them as well.

 

[turkeysizedraptor]

As far as I remember, 9ml of elector psp to 1 gal of water is what I used for a drench on my hens and seemed the same amount for soaking. Depending on how many chickens you have, you'll probably need to use a bit more to top it and the water off.

You need to rub the solution down to the skin, past their feathers and in the places Debbie above mentions, so this would be about 30sec at least. Vent, under wings, around the neck. You can do the head too so long as you're careful not to get psp in their eyes. It's not toxic to them (or us) but it will still irritate and sting. To clarify, the elector soak is to drown out mites in the feathers and help expose nits to the solution, but getting the elector down to the skin ensures that any surviving mites get the bonus of contact and ingestion exposure afterwards.

Yes it is possible to bring mites into the house. This is not a great topic to research, but I highly suggest reading into biosecurity measures for their prevention and sanitizing anything you think you may have come into contact with. Keep clothes and shoes specifically for handling your hens, preferably stored as far from inside your house as you can manage, heat treat them in the dryer after contact for at least 10min. Anything that I could treat with my dryer was my go-to when I went through my own infestations, but I never experienced mites in my home since I kept anything I could to my laundry room and did immediate heat sanitizing (including hot showers). Worst I had was a pair sneakers get infested and having to cut the fabric lining (also infested) off my chicken boots.

I didn't see anything for indoor treatment measures in the product label, but I would suggest looking into permethrin to start if you don't have cats to worry about.