Need help... a few questions about safely treating for mites

[laramie6]

For more details on my situation, including pictures and videos, check my other thread here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=6821670

I have three species of quail in three separate pens plus a flock of chickens in a fourth pen and recently one of my rare mountain quail has mysteriously died and the rest are now constantly pecking and scratching at themselves. My other quail are beginning to scratch as well, but not as much as the mountains. I've checked all over for mites and have found some bugs that I think *could* be mites but I'm not sure (check the above thread for pictures) but to play it safe I'm planning on treating everything this weekend anyway. I also think a few of them may have scaly leg mites (again, see above thread for pics) so I'll probably use petroleum jelly on them. The local feed store offers three options for treating for mites (other than DE which I've already used) and, not knowing which would be best, I bought all three. The ones I've got are Prozap Garden & Poultry Dust, Gordon's Permethrin 10 Livestock & Premise Spray and 8 in 1 Ultracare Mite & Lice Bird Spray.

I've done a lot of searching around on treating for mites but all of the info seems to pertain to chickens, not quail, so I'm still a bit uncertain on a few things. Each of the pens has an indoor "house" area with an outdoor run attached. My thinking as of now is to close the birds inside the indoor section while spraying the entire outdoor run with the diluted permethrin spray, then afterward closing them in the outdoor run and spraying down the indoor area while they're outside. After this I'd attempt to spray the birds themselves with the Ultracare Mite & Lice Spray (seems safer for direct contact than the Permethrin) and hopefully that would be the end of the pecking/scratching epidemic. But as I said, I'm uncertain on a few things so here are my questions for those who have experience in this...

1. After the outdoor run has been sprayed with the permethrin, how long do I need to let it dry or "air out" before letting the birds back into it? The guy at the feed store said 24 hours but that seems excessive and I don't think my quail would get along well trapped together in their small indoor areas for that long.

2. Same question, but for the indoor areas of the pens. There's not much ventilation and since the bottle says to wear a protective mask while spraying this stuff I assume that means it wouldn't be good for them to be in an enclosed space that had just been sprayed with it...but how long after spraying do I need to keep them out of their indoor "houses" before it's safe for them to go back in?

3. It's very hard to capture and hold quail, so applying anything to them all individually is going to be close to impossible. If their pen and everything around them is treated, will any mites that are on the birds die as well?

4. If not, can I just "mist" or spray the stuff in the quail's general direction or do I really have to get up close and under their wings, on their bellies etc?

5. When using the spray I know I have to get all of the wood and the cracks, but does the ground of the outdoor runs have to be sprayed as well? These birds eat everything so if I do spray the ground I'm sure they'd ingest something that's coated in permethrin before long...do I have to worry about this?

 

[diggerduck]

Not sure if this would help, but JJ explained giving quail a shake-in-bag treatment. This sounds rough but seems to work well and is kinda funny to watch. By direction I took a brown paper bag, Seven dust, and an assistant. Place a quail in the bag, toss in some Seven dust, close bag and shake. They come out of the bag and give you that " what the H*LL was that all about

?" look, but it seems to work wonders. I was worried about the dust in their lungs and eyes, but they took it in stride. I sprinkle a little Seven duct in their dust bath and thus far have not had any bug issues.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Put some SevinDust or other type of garden dust in their dusting pans and they will take care of the rest. You might have to dust the floors and roosts in the pens as well, paying special attention to any cracks.

ETA: Pretty much anything you'd do for chickens in this situation would work for quail. Keeping sevin dust in their dusting pans would keep the mites/lice from coming back.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:

 

[JJMR794]

Sooner Or Later You're Going To Have To Quit Studying Problems And Actually Intervene, Or More Damage Will Be Done To Your Flock. I Understand Implicitly What An Absolute Chore It Is To Deal With Flighty Gamebird Speces, But Lack Of Intervention Will Lead To More Animals Lost. If I Even Have The Slightest Idea I May Have Parasites Of Any Type In 1 Of The Thousands Of Birds I Have Here I Treat Them All Repeatedly Until Completely Sure It's No Longer A Problem. You Seem To Have Done Extensive Research On The Subject, But There's No Easy Way To Do These Sorts Of Things Other Than Accept The Fact Its Gonna Be A Long Day And Its Gonna Suck Then Just Get Started. Good Luck. I Know Its Not A Pleasant Task.