Need help and advise on killing MITES ASAP

[floridachickhatcher]

My mom and i discovered the chickens have a bad infestation of mites one hen i saw them all on the crevice above her eye she must have 50 or more mites on her i feel bad for them and my mom didnt see them until there heads were bald and me and found out that our Tractor Supply has Diatomaceous Earth Food Grade so set a bag aside for tomorrow when my mom comes back and then others are saying to get Sevin Dust my mom said she might do both and also what should we give to the hens to build up their iron to stop them from being anemic??

 

[dirtsaver]

DE will not help much. Use the Sevin dust and get it into their feathers,especially under their wings and tails and very carefully on their heads but do not get it in their eyes. Also dust the whole coop including the roosts and any cracks,corners etc with the Sevin dust. Repeat in 7-10 days. Use something that will work like a "powder puff" to apply the dust to the chickens and you get good coverage with not much waste.

 

[stoopid]

Correct, the DE will make them not want to move in, but once they are there, you will have to kill them.
That's what the Sevin is for. If it really is that bad, and the weather is warm (florida?) you can give them a bath with a good flea shampoo.

 

[HHandbasket]

I have found sevin dust to be very effective. We only had mites once, when we first got our birds. We sprinkled sevin dust in their coop and run and nest, didn't even have to sprinkle the chickens at all. Within 2 days, the birds had NO mites. When we lived in the place where we originally had our chickens, we would spinkle the coop once a month or so just for maintenance. Never saw another mite again & we were there for another year after we first got our chickens & treated for mites. Since we moved here in April, I've never seen any mites at all.

Knock on wood. LOL.

ETA: The chickens had dug a couple of spots in the yard where they would dustbathe regularly, and we also sprinkled sevin dust in their dustbathing holes. It worked really well, but you may have to dust your chickens with it also, depending on the level of infestation.

 

[cgmccary]

Save yourself a lot of trouble & use ivermectin (safer, easier to apply; more effective & does more): carefully put 2 drops for bantams and 4-5 drops for Std size fowl on the skin at the base of neck (as you would treat a dog with one of the flea applications). Be careful NOT to get any on their vent area -- it will kill mites, lice, scaly leg mite and de-worm -- ALL (Ivermectin is used to treat sleeping sickness in Africa (African trypanosomiasis)-- so is used on humans).

Sevin Dust (Carbaryl) is deadly to honeybees and other useful insects. Honeybees travel as far as 3 miles from their hive to collect pollen. They easily pick up sevin dust and take it back to the hive, feed it to the brood and it can wipe out an entire hive. There is some reasearch that it is also carcinogenic (caused tumors in lab rats)-- it is harmful for you to breathe and for your fowl to breathe too. Sevin/ Carbaryl is illegal in several countries, including the United Kingdom, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and Angola. I keep honeybees and don't want the stuff anywhere around.

 

[darin367]

i agree with cgmccary..... use the ivermectin.... way easier, no chemicals in your coop, in your birds lungs for weeks..... plus your worming them at the same time...

 

[mediazeal]

Quote:
If you use the Ivermectin, do you have to treat the coops as well?
will the mites & lice die since they can not get on the chickens once they have been treated?
I have to treat a 100 chickens and thought I would have to shovel out and treat all the coops as well (ugh)
Can I do DE in the coops (again) and Invermectin on the birds
treat again in 7 days?
this would be awesome if it would work best
thanks for the help

buggy in sacramento

 

[cgmccary]

If you use the Ivermectin, do you have to treat the coops as well?
will the mites & lice die since they can not get on the chickens once they have been treated?
I have to treat a 100 chickens and thought I would have to shovel out and treat all the coops as well (ugh)
Can I do DE in the coops (again) and Invermectin on the birds
treat again in 7 days?
this would be awesome if it would work best
thanks for the help

yes, best to re-apply with Ivermectin in 10-14 days (especially for the worming). I do not treat the coops. I routinely change the pine shavings in the nest boxes and clean the coop out but I do not do anything special. I do have food grade DE and when I have had mites I put that in the nest boxes and in their dusting holes in the coop. All my coops are on the ground and I just add more litter, clean up feathers and poop.​

 

[darin367]

you can do a 1 time treatment on the coop but you don't have to go overboard.... any mites/lice will die if they get on your birds, and the ones that don't will die anyway.... ivermectin is way easier especially with alot of birds..... i don't eat the eggs for 2 weeks after treatment...

 

[mediazeal]

Quote:
I need to treat turkeys too
how long before it is out of their system and I can use them for food? Post treatment?