Mites on my Rooster and I treat with DE!!

[WoodlandWoman]

Last year there was somebody on the forum that was using an orange oil spray for the walls and roosts. You might want to search on that.

 

[Kerry]

My baby Barred Rocks have been living in my 8' x 10' homemade chicken tractor for 20 weeks—eggs any day now.

I move the tractor to new grass every few days. The first few weeks the tractor was over some poor grass with patches of dirt and I could see that they were digging depressions to dust bathe.

This past two weeks the tractor has been on very lush thick heavily thatched grass which has made it virtually impossible for them to dig a dust bath. Sure enough, today I discovered mites (I sit with the hens a few minutes 2x daily and pet them. They regularly sit on my shoulders). My mites walk up my arm and drive me crazy—aiming for the ears and sideburns. I plan on doing all the 5% dust games but also I plan on raking away a 2' x 2' patch of the grass thatch down to dirt before moving the tractor tomorrow. I'll report back how it works.

I've had mites before with 20+ free-range chickens. A couple would regularly sit in cardboard boxes in my car port for two months desperately trying to hatch eggs that I had removed. Getting completely rid of mites is quite a challenge. I've had them parachute down on me from a hen's nest in the carport rafters.

Thanks all for the mite treatment tips.

Kerry

 

[Kerry]

Hi cluckychick,

Quote:
I've tried DE and it hasn't worked for me. I have a 3' long hand pump that squirts out the dust nicely. I'd spray it right on the cardboard egg laying box and the mites would be there the next day.

I've been told that there is a food-grade DE but no one here on the Big Isle carries it. I don't know if FGDE works any better.

Kerry

 

[cluckychick]

Quote:
I've tried DE and it hasn't worked for me. I have a 3' long hand pump that squirts out the dust nicely. I'd spray it right on the cardboard egg laying box and the mites would be there the next day.

I've been told that there is a food-grade DE but no one here on the Big Isle carries it. I don't know if FGDE works any better.

Kerry

Kerry, hello

I use food-grade DE. I sprinkle it everywhere in and outside my coop and on the chickens, in their food and water with no ill effects at all. I now also dust with sevin and have had no ill effects with it. The DE does great with keeping flys away and drys the poo in the run and coop and I have no smell whatsoever.

 

[SierraMA]

Quote:
I used a cinnamon oil spray and that has helped. But yesterday as I was collecting eggs, I put one of the eggs outside of the coop on the ground and when I went to pick up the egg it was covered in mites. So I dusted the ground perimeter of the coop. I will test with another egg after work.

 

[Kerry]

Thanks for the tips SierraMA and cluckychick.

I sprinkle a few drops of cinnimon bark oil on my car's floor mat, it smells so nice, and, come to think of it, I've never had mites in my car.

Kerry

 

[SierraMA]

Kerry:

It looks like I solved my mite problem. I think I will be re-spraying again next weekend with the cinnamon oil. I don't know what exactly worked but maybe together with the DE, cleaning the coop, washing it down, worked!!

 

[Kerry]

Good work.

Mine too. I was dreading a long battle from previous infestations in the cardboard egg boxes I had in the carport for my free range chickens. I caught all 10 of them, including Sam, and gave them to neighbors.

I removed a 2' x 2' area of the thickly thatched grass, about 2" down to soil, and laid down 1/4" of green sand that I happened to have. I then sprinkled Seven 5% on top of the sand. I also puffed-dusted the egg box with DM. Within two days no sign of mites. The girls are back to jumping up on my lap, shoulders, and even my head. #64, she's the jittery one—lowest in the pecking order—jumped up on my lap and let me pet her—the first time ever. More significant, she did it while #61 and #62 were already on my lap. (I banded the four chicks with leg bands so I could tell them apart when they were younger).

I'm almost positive that the reason they got mites is because the last three areas that the 8' x 10' tractor had been on was heavily thatched grass and they simply couldn't get down to soil to bathe. The first month the tractor was always on dirt-grass ergo no mites.

Today I'm going to prepare a new 2' x 2' area and just add a layer of green sand and move the tractor over it, and see what happens.

Eggs any day now. I showed them an egg to let them know what's coming up/out. All they did was try to peck at it. So, I added two more floors to the egg box, the one slanting towards their entrance and the other slanting towards my cleaning-egg-retrieving drop-down desk-lid type door. Now the eggs should roll and drop down to the lower slanted floor and they won't be able to peck them.

Kerry