**Need advice** covered in bites

[schellie69]

if they are chiggers put a dot of clear nail polish on the bites that are the worse it wills stop the itch, I know it sounds strange but my DH got chigger bite's all the time and that was the only thing that worked. I would try the DE on the yard I do not think that chiggers will bite the chickens. good luck I hate chiggers.

 

[Debbi]

Chiggers sound right to me, but it could also be scabies. I was helping a friend once, as she was rescueing some dogs from a puppy mill. The dogs were covered with mange. She and I, and her 16 year old son were unloading the dogs, the young kids, we kept away. Later that evening, her son comes into the kitchen and lifts his shirt. He had a red rash like ring around his middle. They made a little ridge-like tunnel, and if you put some ointment on the tunnel, you had missed them. I found an old vet book that had a recipe for them. It called for,"flowers of sulphur", lard, and pine tar mixture. Well, I would be darn if I'm wearing pine tar! So, I found a small jar of the flowers of sulphur in the super market, and we mixed a thick paste with lard. Vaseline works just as well I later found out! Trick is, to spread it out all over the area, and at least 3" in every direction from the little tunnels!! If it worked for the scabies, I bet it would work on chiggers as well. Cheap fix, it only cost around $8.00 all totaled, not to mention we didn't have to go to a doctor and pay out the wazoo for some chemical treatment, and then be humiliated on top of it.

 

[dawg53]

Down here in south Georgia we call 'chiggers'....'redbugs.' They like to get in and around the waist, belly button and private parts. We use nail polish also like schellie69 states and there's no doubt that debbi's treatment works too. They bore holes into the skin in moist areas to suck blood, the skin welps up red in color and the iching is unbearable. Nail polish and vaseline suffocates them, sometimes it takes several days or longer to kill them by suffocation and requires repeated treatments.

 

[ga_goat]

Not sure if it would work on red bugs but I use permethrin spray with a liquid garden sprayer for most all my bug problems around the chickens ,, no withdrawell ,safe around chickens and kills bugs ,,made from some sort of flower , careful with thr mixing tho it don't take much , I'm useing ½ oz for each gallon for fleas .

 

[theFox]

The scoop on permethrin:

http://www.epa.gov/oppsrrd1/REDs/factsheets/permethrin_fs.htm

All pesticides require paying attention to use details and safety requirements.

 

[Boo-Boo's Mama]

When I was 8 month pregnant with our first child, I had chiggers around around my waist after a fishing trip. I thought I would go MAD! Never had itched so bad!

Everyone had tips on what to do to stop the itching; Vicks, Listerne, nail polish, etc.

I'm not sure what finally helped...most likely the chiggers left because of all the crud I put on my skin.

Scabies are nasty lil creatures that are difficult to get rid of! My husband was infected with them at work and unknowingly brought them home to me.

 

[kelar]

This sounds like a mite infestation that has moved from your chickens to you. One year we had such a bad infestation that every time I went near the coop or the birds the mites would swarm over me and bite - I went to war on them, but had to treat chickens, premises & strip down every time I came into the house and throw clothes in the wash and get in the shower. They will get on your dogs and cats too - they don't live very long without their host (don't reproduce), but they DO bite and cause a lot of grief. I think they are attracted to anything warm blooded. I've read that people's houses can get infested with them from bird's nests up in their rafters, so seriously go to war on the buggers as they reproduce like mad.

 

[ravenseye57]

I'm having a similar problem. My chicks are 5 wks old and I've been using food grade DE in their bedding since week 1 but now my hubby has broken out in a red, bumpy itchy rash all over and he's suspecting the chickies. We haven't really handled them much but he did pick one up (briefly) just before the itching started. I won't use poisons, so I need more "natural" options (like DE) to make sure that it is NOT chicken mites causing the problem. I also don't want the chicks to have mites either. We did incubate the chicks indoors for the first week, but didn't handle them any more than neccesary and kept them in a separate area with a linoleum floor (covered in cardboard while the chicks were there). They came from Mc Murray hatchery and seem perfectly healthy as far as I can tell.