Mites? Lice? Ewwww... I'm SO GROSSED OUT right now!

[kittykat01]

I found lice on one of my girls just after bringing her home a few months ago. Totally freaked me out and I scratched myself to pieces. Didn't help that DH thought it was funny to pretend he could see things crawling on me

Anyway, I didn't find any lice on me, but just the thought of it made me scratch and scratch and scratch until I eventually got sick of myself and took an antihistamine which made me fall asleep and forget about the itchies

I sprayed/ bathed all of the girls with a solution of NEEM oil and warm water. I soaked them as much as possible, paying particular attention to the vent and under wing areas. They are pretty tame, so it wasn't too difficult. I sat down and held each one gently by the legs, with them lying on a towel on my lap, then sprayed and poured the solution over them. I also cleaned out the coop and changed all bedding etc. It was spring here, so fairly warm. I probably would not want to soak them if the weather was cold....

That was a couple of months ago, and despite frequent inspections I have not seen another louse or mite on any of them.

 

[EmmyGirl]

I use something called Poultry Protector in a white bottle that I bought at our local Agway. Looking at the ingredients, there doesn't seem to be anything too strong in there (potassium sorbate, water yeast and citric acid) so it's probably better for keeping them off rather than killing ones that are already on your hens. I'd start out with Sevin (which I also did) puffed onto them (I went to the Dollar Store and got one of those powdered sugar shaker top things). Give them a good dusting (try to avoid their eyes) and really get up under their wings and tail feathers. Then give them a spray every couple of days with the Poultry Protector. This seemed to work for me. At least the weather's nice today here in PA--imagine if this happened during the snowstorm last week--yuk!!!

 

[happyhens120]

Yes, it's a beautiful day here! Good day to kick the girls out of the coop and let them run through the yard. Drives my hubs nuts when the dig up his mulch and dust themselves with it!

Great ideas on the knee-high duster and the sifter... I will definitely try them! I told my mother-in-law today about the lice, and she didn't seem at all surprised. She said her chickens growing up always had lice and they never did anything about them.

But I am a chicken cuddler, and am always handling them, so in order to save my sanity (and my skin), I'm going to dust and make sure they don't have any creepy crawlies. Just grosses me out! I took two showers last night, convinced that I was still itchy after the first one.