Mites on grain/bucket

[esme13]

There’s a first for everything and this is my first time seeing mites on the feed and all over the feed bucket. They look white and are inside the bucket and outside. My feed bucket is plastic with a seal on closed lid, which we’ve had for years from tractor supply.

Anyways- I don’t want these crawlies inside! I put my feed bucket outside. Any recommendations on how to kill them? I’d hate to toss the grain. They are “white little mites “. And seemed to have multiplied a lot.

 

[cmom]

Even if the birds would eat them they are not harmful, They are grain mites and chickens love to eat bugs. You could put some food grade DE in with the feed.

 

[DobieLover]

There’s a first for everything and this is my first time seeing mites on the feed and all over the feed bucket. They look white and are inside the bucket and outside. My feed bucket is plastic with a seal on closed lid, which we’ve had for years from tractor supply.

Anyways- I don’t want these crawlies inside! I put my feed bucket outside. Any recommendations on how to kill them? I’d hate to toss the grain. They are “white little mites “. And seemed to have multiplied a lot.

Grain mites.
This is the one and only time I would recommend the use of DE. Toss a handful of food grade DE into the feed and mix it up.
Spray the outside of the bucket and around the floor area it sits on with Permethrin.

 

[debbier98]

Hi esme13. Mites, flee's etc. can be a problem, especially in summer months. I use Food Grade DM (diatomaceous earth). I mix some in their feed, on the ground around their coops and inside the coops. DM will kill any soft bodied insect like flee's, mites, ants etc. I also mix DM in their dusting bath, so that when they are dusting themselves they also get the DM on them which protects them from getting flee's and mites on them. Most feed stores carry DM, they sell it in small packages and large bags of 25 LBS.

 

[debbier98]

Even if the birds would eat them they are not harmful, They are grain mites and chickens love to eat bugs. You could put some food grade DE in with the feed.

Also, as a side note, you might want to check your feed. Meaning, when you buy your feed, put it in a bucket with a lid, go back out 1/2 hour or so and see if anything surfaces. Not all feed manufacturer's are the same. It is possible to buy feed that already contain grain mites or other creepy crawlers.

 

[esme13]

Thank you, I will order some food grade de. As long as I don’t have to Toss the feed, that would be great. We Lysol the bucket on the outside and I’m going to mop. Their feed is in my mudroom/ laundry area. Do these mites also like to go on the plumes of the chickens ?

 

[cmom]

Not grain mites but there are mites that will feed on the birds. For the mites that get on the birds I use Permethrin. I have posted in several threads on them and how to get rid of them. Good luck...

 

[debbier98]

Thank you, I will order some food grade de. As long as I don’t have to Toss the feed, that would be great. We Lysol the bucket on the outside and I’m going to mop. Their feed is in my mudroom/ laundry area. Do these mites also like to go on the plumes of the chickens ?

Many types of mites and flee's do get under and in chickens plumes, which is why I put DE on their roosting area and in their nesting boxes. I also add DE to their dusting tub (which is just a kiddie pool with sandbox sand & DE). By doing that, the chickens themselves dust themselves with DE and I don't have to do it for them. And in the summer months, when flee's, mites, ants, flies & other pest are more active, I dust all around the outside of their coop as well, as DE will kill any soft bodied critter.