Mites: I've tried EVERYTHING

[GooGooGaChoob]

I got rid of mine by covering their legs with vegetable oil.

 

[GooGooGaChoob]

Not the mites' legs - my eyes aren't that good - but the chickens.

 

[Betsy57]

Not the mites' legs - my eyes aren't that good - but the chickens.

 

[Shark Akhrrana]

Xd

...

[/quotXD now that would be an interesting thing to see

 

[Shark Akhrrana]

Not the mites' legs - my eyes aren't that good - but the chickens.

That would be an interesting thing to see

 

[pfenning_pfarm]

I have not heard of using sand, but what a fantastic idea. What kind of sand do you use?

 

[Fancychooklady]

I have not heard of using sand, but what a fantastic idea. What kind of sand do you use? 

I am going to try river sand in one of my 4 main pens this spring. The idea of being able to sift out the poop is very appealing.

 

[yuup]

Keep it simple and cheap. What worked for me last year was regular dawn dish soap in warm water. Take out the bedding spray everything in the coop, i mean douse it. Pay special attention to the cracks in the wood and corners, where they live. Something in dawn is said to eat the exoskeleton of the mite. We found a group of them and sprayed em and they were dead within seconds. I also dunked the chickens into a 5 gallon bucket full of soap and water and voilá! no more mites. It worked for me good luck

 

[ChickPrincess]

Re: Neem oil, don't give up on it! It does work very well but you must be patient.
Neem oil may be mixed with water, but to have it emulsify, you need to mix it with a surfactant. Try mixing a liter of water, 1 Tbls neem oil and 1 teas of Dawn dish soap. Neem is unstable, however and will become ineffective after 8 hours when mixed with water. After 8 hours, toss your batch! Neem also will solidify at near-room temps. DO NOT use hot water to liquify. Float the bottle in WARM water only. Hot water will make it ineffective also.
Neem oil is not a "knock-em-dead" solution. Neem works by interrupting their processes. They will "forget" how to feed, how to breed, how to molt, etc. (In the same sense, pregnant or breastfeeding women should NOT work with neem oil, though extracts should be safe to use.) Neem OIL can NOT be taken internally by humans or any other living creature. Neem leaf or bark (tea, extracts) ARE safe to be taken internally.
Parasitic insects have not been able to become immune to neem in thousands of years because neem is made up of hundreds of different compounds. It was discovered when the locust swarms would come through India, and the ONLY thing green left standing was the neem tree. It has been used successfully for thousands of years.
HTH!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote: I buy the washed and dried play sand in bags. It takes about a bag a month for my shed coop.

Take care not to inhale the dust as it is bad for the lungs. It is best to wear a mask while sifting and to use the least amount of sand possible as then you don't have to sift through much for the coop. I just take a couple of double handfuls and throw it all around the floor so that the poo is easy to scrape off the floor the next day, then sift. It works great and my coop is poop-free every other day!