Mites, mites & MITES!!!

[eeiko321]

hi guys

ive finally posted pics of my coop + run set up, it still incomplete... the roof and the door is coming soon.

anyhow, i try and poultry powder the chicks about once a month.

however, as you can see the grass in the run area is pretty much dead. all it is, is basically dead grass & dirt.

when i looked closely on the ground, i noticed so many tiny red coloured MITES! my god, the colonies and colonies crawling around.

the white stuff on the ground is white poultry dust. but i dont think these things last very long. i cant dissinfect the floor as the chickens walk around it and peck + roll around on the ground.

does anyone have suggestions?

im sure every single person in here who has a chicken, run or coop area...will have the same thing.
(unless concrete floor that is hosed down daily of course.

im a bit too scared to walk into the coop now, in fear of getting them crawling onto my body and brining it into the house
YUK!

 

[ncCHICKS]

Doesn't DE help that stuff?

 

[crazyhen]

This is what fancy fowl magaz. said to do
1. empty the shed completely, clean each corner and timber joints where they hide. Soak with an antimite treatment- cleanzer . one is poultry shield. You must really wet it. You will have to repeat this often as one after another of the egg batches will hatch over time.
They can ride into your house and on you. They can infect your home. If you can find the Nov. issue of fancy fowl mag. It really goes more into depth. Good luck with this problem. Oh the Poultry Shield product is safe on organic farms too. Jean

 

[eeiko321]

Quote:
well does DE really help?

wheres the best place to buy DE?

 

[eeiko321]

Quote:
im not too worried about the coop itself.
its a small area inside and i can just put powder in there


but i mean the RUN... the grassless area in the picture.
and i dont have enough powder to cover the whole area, it be such a waste to buy heaps of powder and put it eveyrwhere in the run.

 

[cmom]

I agree with the other post. I use FOOD GRADE DE, Diatomaceous Earth in the shavings, in their run, where they dust. No problems with flies, fleas, mites, lice or any other pests. I just add some DE periodically. There are other threads on DE.

 

[eeiko321]

Quote:
i know DE is probably widely available in USA but in australia it doesnt seem like theres much of it.
where do you guys get them from? pet supplies??????

because the non food grade DE which they use for swimming pools can be harmful to animals or pets

 

[chickensista]

Are you sure these are chicken mites? There are certain times of the year I see my place crawling with tiny red mites - and that was even before I got chickens. Have you seen them on your girls?

 

[Highlander]

Quote:
i know DE is probably widely available in USA but in australia it doesnt seem like theres much of it.
where do you guys get them from? pet supplies??????

because the non food grade DE which they use for swimming pools can be harmful to animals or pets

I had the same problem finding some in the UK. The guy at my feed store looked at me like I was talking Swahili when I asked him about it. I eventually found some on Ebay!

 

[ChooksinIowa]

My suspicion is that they are simply ordinary red spider mites that are common in gardens everywhere. I get them all over, especially in areas with rocks or bricks. They also tend to check out new structures we build in a hurry! Those are not chicken mites. Have you looked at your chickens carefully? If your coop is crawling with chicken mites, then your chickens should be likewise infested.

If they are really tiny and bright red, they are most likely common red spider mites and are harmless.

If they are on your chickens and are either brown or light tan color or black, then they are likely chicken mites. The red chicken mite is bigger than the tiny red spider mite in the garden and isn't as red unless it's just had a blood meal.

Oh, and if they are run-of-the-mill red spider mites, they won't hurt you one bit. I've never seen them on my plants either.