Mites! Need help

[Rick&Chris]

It turns out my rooster has mites again. I treated a couple of months ago and they’re back.

I have Elector PSP to treat the birds and the coop (I have sand in my enclosed coop - do I need to remove it all?).

What is the best time of day to treat the birds? I know the mites come out at night. Should I use ivermectin along with the elector on him? Silly question - Is there egg withdrawal if I only treat the rooster with ivermectin - he is mating with the girls.

Appreciate you all!!

 

[coach723]

Ivermectin has a 14 day egg withdrawl for birds it's used on. Elector PSP is very effective and if you have that, I would just use that. I would just use that on all of them and not deal with the ivermectin. You have to treat the coop also, so it doesn't matter what time you do it. It's often easier to take birds off the roost rather than try to catch them. Personally, I would lock the birds in the coop when they go to roost, go out the next morning, take them off the roosts one at a time and treat, and then put them in the run. Then remove all bedding and nesting material from the coop, spray it down everywhere, replace the bedding and nesting material with fresh. Discard or burn the old stuff, it's likely to have bugs/eggs in it. The sand should be ok, I would not worry about that in the run. Elector PSP is supposed to work in one treatment if used correctly. It has no egg withdrawl. Good info at this link:
https://the-chicken-chick.com/poultry-lice-and-mites-identification/

 

[Rick&Chris]

Ivermectin has a 14 day egg withdrawl for birds it's used on. Elector PSP is very effective and if you have that, I would just use that. I would just use that on all of them and not deal with the ivermectin. You have to treat the coop also, so it doesn't matter what time you do it. It's often easier to take birds off the roost rather than try to catch them. Personally, I would lock the birds in the coop when they go to roost, go out the next morning, take them off the roosts one at a time and treat, and then put them in the run. Then remove all bedding and nesting material from the coop, spray it down everywhere, replace the bedding and nesting material with fresh. Discard or burn the old stuff, it's likely to have bugs/eggs in it. The sand should be ok, I would not worry about that in the run. Elector PSP is supposed to work in one treatment if used correctly. It has no egg withdrawl. Good info at this link:
https://the-chicken-chick.com/poultry-lice-and-mites-identification/

I appreciate that!!

I have sand and PDZ stall refresh in my enclosed coop and pine shavings in the nest boxes. I’ll pull the shaving out. Do I need to pull that sand out, or can that be left?

FYI - I did treat their bottoms and the enclosed coop with permethrin last night when I saw the mites - I panicked . The girls all had their bottoms cleaned this morning. I assume it’s still ok to use the Elector tomorrow morning?

Thanks so much!

 

[coach723]

It should be fine to use the elector tomorrow. There are some sources that say the elector could take 14 days to see full effectiveness, so after treatment I would check after two weeks to see if there are any signs, and retreat then if necessary. Shavings for sure need to go, I personally would take everything out to make sure when you spray the coop that you get everywhere, it's a big job, I wouldn't want to do it twice if I didn't need to. For mites, one way to check is to put some sticky tape, sticky side out, around the ends of your roosts overnight. If there are any crawlies, they should get stuck to the tape, so you can see them. Lice on the other hand tend to stick more to the birds, so the tape won't work for them.

 

[Rick&Chris]

It should be fine to use the elector tomorrow. There are some sources that say the elector could take 14 days to see full effectiveness, so after treatment I would check after two weeks to see if there are any signs, and retreat then if necessary. Shavings for sure need to go, I personally would take everything out to make sure when you spray the coop that you get everywhere, it's a big job, I wouldn't want to do it twice if I didn't need to. For mites, one way to check is to put some sticky tape, sticky side out, around the ends of your roosts overnight. If there are any crawlies, they should get stuck to the tape, so you can see them. Lice on the other hand tend to stick more to the birds, so the tape won't work for them.

Ok thanks. I’ll need to get more elector. I only have enough to make one gallon. Do I need to do upper surfaces, ie roof and rafters?

 

[coach723]

I would do everything. You can also use permethrin if you don't want to buy more Elector, you would just need to do the treatments at least 3 times at weekly intervals. Both will work.