Mites?

[Chickens-are-cool]

So I went in my coop today to just move around the wood shavings and add some new ones. I now have about 5 little tiny itchy bug bites on my from maybe 2 mins in the coop. I have been noticing feathers on the ground of their coop but just figured they were molting. The chickens are 2 months old, do they have mites and do mites bite humans? Do they transmit anything from birds to humans?

 

[pozees2]

They will bite humans, and if you have that many bites that quickly, unless you live in an area heavily infested with mosquitoes I personally would treat for parasites regardless. I have never heard of anything that can be transferred to humans by mites, just itchy bites, but it isn't something I've researched either. The chickens they can harm, especially if there are a lot of them, they suck their blood and if there are enough of them it can kill the birds.

Discard the bedding, spray the coop down with permethrin and let it dry and then rebel with fresh shavings; dip or spray all your birds with permethrin, or dust them with permethrin powder. Repeat in 7 days for treating the birds, and you may have to spray the coop daily to kill all the newly hatched mites if it's a bad infestation.

If it turns out to not be mites but some other critter the permethrin will probably take care of it. You can usually find them in the coop in spaces where two pieces of wood meet, little tiny moving dots.

 

[rosemarythyme]

If you suspect mites first you want to ID that you actually have them. Here's some info on that: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/my-chicken-has-mites-now-what.1273674/page-2#post-20483008

To treat for mites using permethrin:

For the coop - Clear out all the bedding. Burn it or otherwise bag up and dispose of it. Spray all surfaces (though I skipped the ceiling and top parts of wall though, because my coop peak is too tall) and crevices with permethrin, including roost bars and nests. After it all dries, put in new bedding (I made sure to do my spraying early in the day, so it was mostly dry by late afternoon so the chickens could go back in).

For the chickens - Spray or dust under belly, under wings, on back, around vent, around base of neck. If they're getting them on their heads (which you may see scabbing around comb or even eyes if it's bad), I'd carefully pat some around the base of the comb or just behind the head, but I wouldn't spray them directly in the face.

You'll need to treat again in around 7 to 10-ish days, as permethrin doesn't kill eggs. Recheck in another 7-10 days and if needed, treat again (but if it's a light or moderate infestation, that shouldn't be necessary).