mites

[ChickNanny13]

I've read but no clue how true it is but straw, being hallow, the mites burrow in it?

I use pine shavings in the Chicken House (8x12x7), my girls (4) are confined for their safety. DE in the nest box and CH as a preventative but I also dust my girls with Garden & Poultry Dust monthly, rotating with Sevin 5% during the summer months. Winter I use a mix of all three to dust them.

Don't give up, keep up the treatments.

 

[Kiki]

DE is worthless.
It WILL not solve your mite problem.

Can you please post a picture of the exact spray you are using?

 

[David61]

Boost the bird with electrolytes and vitamins as well. It could be ill with other things being week.
spray with martins permethrin 13.3%. Concentrate --mix @ 1oz per 32oz of water. Spray every 5 days for 30 days to break the cycle. Spray Everything even the birds. Change pine shavings /straw and clean out before you spray. Spray and inspect new shaving and hay the day before using as it can be where its coming from. Spray the outside area of the coop where they may be coming in from.
Spray every 10-12 days for 60 days to rid the problem back to monthly maintenance.
90 days of treatment in total and if you slack up you can be back to where you are now in just 20 days.
Fail to treat everything at the same time on this schedule and you have left an opening to what you have now.
I don't have a bug problem but I spray anyway.
I spray the roost, poop board (under side to), nest boxes once a month or two so I never get in this boat. if its rainy/ damp and birds dust bath is not dry for more than 14 days they get a spray but monthly its just the coop. Only the birds when bugs are seen or damp dust box.

 

[cmom]

I agree the the other posts. I had some birds that were severely infested. I thought they were just molting but weren't getting their feathers back in when I discovered they were loaded with mites. The first thing I tried was DE. The birds weren't improving and still had mites. I first discovered them in only one coop but eventually found them on birds in another coop. I dusted the birds and the coops with the DE and no improvement. I did use some seven dust that I had but it was almost gone but it did help. I did some research and came up with permethrin, which is the pyrethrum on steroids. It lasts longer than pyrethrum. Wild birds can bring them in if they have access to their coop. I used the dust on the birds and in their nest boxes and sprayed inside of the coops, every crack and crevice, on and under the roosts, ceiling, walls, floors, anywhere the mites can hide. It's best to clean out the coop before you spray. I use pine shavings in my coops. Since it so cold you can spread the dust around and dust the birds well. Wear special clothing including a mask and gloves. I did a weekly spraying for awhile and put permethrin dust in the nest boxes, originally sprayed the birds getting under the wings and worked it through their feathers with gloves which you can also do with the dust. Slowly the birds began to recover and get their feathers back in. I think if I hadn't treated with the permethrin when I did I probably would have lost some birds to the mites. The birds were in bad condition. I did originally bathe the worst birds with flea shampoo which did help but did not get rid of the mites. If you want to bathe your birds, every over-the-counter (OTC) treatment for head lice for people contains either pyrethrins (Rid or Triple X) or permethrin (Nix). They are effective treatment. Both only kill live pests, not the pests eggs. The added benefit was no egg withdrawal period. AS you discovered, TSC carries the permethrin powder, premixed spray bottles and the concentrate. I use the concentrate. For you initial application mix it a little heavy. I did and it did not affect the birds but I did keep them out of the coops while it dried. I spray my coops as needed and when I spray I do weekly spraying for a month then stop as I don't want the pests to develop a resistance to the permethrin. Repeated weekly spraying is necessary because again, it does not kill the mite eggs and as an added benefit is there is no egg withdrawal period. There are other products available but much more expensive and in my opinion the permethrin works great. Good luck...

 

[Kiki]

It's very important to break the life cycle of the mites.... Which means you have to treat often.
You can read about that here.
http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/livestock/poultry/chicken_mite.htm

 

[cmom]

@Kiki, Great article...

 

[BDutch]

DE is worthless.
It WILL not solve your mite problem.

Can you please post a picture of the exact spray you are using?

DE is not worthless. I and other people have good results with DE. Maybe not with severe infestations. But it works great to eliminate a light infestation after a good cleaning and to keep mites under control. It doesn't kill the eggs but does kill mites if applied on the right spots.

I recommend using DE after using a natural poison that brakes down (permethrin?) if you had a bad infestation. And also to prevent a severe infestation in the future in combination with controlling weekly (from spring till autumn or above > 4’C ) with a roll made from rusk paper or ripple paper.

 

[cmom]

DE didn't work for me. I bought a 50 pound bag of it.

 

[BDutch]

DE didn't work for me. I bought a 50 pound bag of it.

I wonder how you used the DE?
The way I use it:

• I make a ‘paint’ of the DE by mixing DE with water. ‘painted’ the roosts, all the walls around where the chickens sleep and the walls of the nest boxes.
  
• I ‘paint’ over the old layer every spring and do a paint check / ‘paint’ the roost in summer and autumn again.
• The cracks in the wood are filled with DE ‘paint’.
• The connection of the roost to the coop is ‘painted’ in 3 layers.
• I put a few spoons of DE in a big pot the chickens use for bathing.
• I have sand in the run and no shavings. Sand spilled from bathing with DE comes on the floor of the run.
• I put a thin layer of sand with DE under the shavings/hay in the nest boxes.
  
• When I had lice I dusted my chickens carefully with DE under their wings (don’t inhale)

 

[cmom]

That would be quite a task for me. I'm an old lady and can't do what I used to do. In several of my coops I can't paint because I can't reach but I did cover everything with the DE including dusting birds which made them look like powdered doughnuts, under the wings around their vents, etc. I put it in the nest boxes on the floors, everywhere I could reach. I have usually, depending on the time of year, 200/500 birds. Not an easy task and the permethrin has worked well. I had an issue with flies and the DE didn't work there either but with the permethrin, no more flies. Some cow ear tags are made with permethrin to help control the flies around the cattle. I use the concentrated permethrin and put it in a gallon sprayer with a wand to reach the hard to reach areas and the dust in their nest boxes. Maybe the climate has something to do with it. It works for me so I'm going to continue to use it.