Need help identifying bugs from chicken feather

[AMURPHY227]

Due to some unpleasant and judgemental people I dealt with last night on here, I am gonna try to be as thorough and detailed as I can be.
I will start off by saying this:
I have never seen mites or lice on anything other than pictures.
I never ever knew I couldn’t see these bugs with the naked eye.

Yes- I check my flock regularly. I have never seen anything resembling clusters of lice eggs, nor have I ever seen moving bugs on them.

I lost a hen 2 weeks ago. She went down literally overnight. I thought she was lethargic due to a bad case of vent gleet, bc I checked off all the other bases.
It was when I brought her inside and took her out of a small Epsom soak to clean her vent feathers- that I saw through my video camera on my phone, lots and lots of tiny white bugs on her face and head.
I could barely see them with my naked eye once I knew they were there.
I placed her in a kennel and left to go get permethrin dust, and she was passed when I returned.

I brought her outside to get some of her feathers off of her to make a wreath, and at that point she was covered in those tiny white bugs all over her feathers. They looked like grains of salt, or dandruff.

Everything I’ve read about mites say they are either red or brown. But these were neither.
EDIT TO ADD: now I see brown bugs, but today 6/19/25 is the first time I’ve seen those. Until now it’s only been the white ones.

I’ve been treating my flock and coop with permethrin dust because it has been storming here everyday for the past 2 weeks, so I can’t really do much with a spray right now. Also been giving poultry cell to them to help replenish iron and nutrients.
I have elector psp arriving Saturday and hopefully we will be dry enough for me to do what’s needed, but this has been driving me CRAZY.
To the point I bought a small microscope that connects to my phone so I can get clearer images of the bugs.

Am I dealing with lice AND mites?? Or are the little white bugs just baby mites? I am clearly picking up 2 different shape, size and color. And I’ve only found them on the feathers.





Please helppppppppp!!

 

[Yardfulla poopers]

I believe you are dealing with lice. The Elector Psp will take care of whatever it is.
I'm not sure what advice you have been given, but here is mine.
I have a 5 (or7?) gallon tubtrug that I mix the Elector in at a rate of 9ml per gallon. My husband holds their wings while I try to make sure all feathers are saturated by swishing my hand in their feathers or using a cup to pour it on their neck and under wings. I don't do any drying, just set them back on the roost and let the stuff drip and kill whatever bugs it lands on. Our temps may be different than yours but we have done this in temps as low as 40 and all turned out well.
Best of luck, it's a never ending battle against mites, lice and flies if you are anywhere with humidity.

 

[Yardfulla poopers]

I also wanted to add, as I went back and read your other post, that the bright green poop and bugs are likely unrelated. I have never had a chicken survive lime green poop and still have not been able to determine what causes it. It seems like different symptoms each time aside from the poo.
Sorry for your loss and I hope you are able to get the bugs under control.

 

[AMURPHY227]

I also wanted to add, as I went back and read your other post, that the bright green poop and bugs are likely unrelated. I have never had a chicken survive lime green poop and still have not been able to determine what causes it. It seems like different symptoms each time aside from the poo.
Sorry for your loss and I hope you are able to get the bugs under control.

Yes I believe something else was going on with my hen too, just didn’t add that in this post bc I was just trying to stick to the bug topic!

I’m in south La, so it’s hot and humid. I’m definitely upping my prevention game now a few notches!

 

[Yardfulla poopers]

You've been doing what you can with all the rain. I spray my coop every 25-30 days with permethrin but still have to do a dip in Elector once or twice a year.
Also, make sure you keep any poopy butts clean with the onslaught of flies after all the rain. Flystrike is one of the worst things I've ever dealt with.
The Elector works against all the bad bugs, so again, I wish you luck.

 

[AMURPHY227]

You've been doing what you can with all the rain. I spray my coop every 25-30 days with permethrin but still have to do a dip in Elector once or twice a year.
Also, make sure you keep any poopy butts clean with the onslaught of flies after all the rain. Flystrike is one of the worst things I've ever dealt with.
The Elector works against all the bad bugs, so again, I wish you luck.

I try to keep their poopy butts clean. I’ll go in at night with wet washcloths and get those or I’ll trim them. I have fans in my coop and run that help with the flies (not eliminate, just helps haha).

I have permethrin liquid on hand and used to deep clean my coop and run monthly with it, but have slacked down to deep cleaning seasonally 4x a year.
I’m definitely about to build myself a walk in coop and put roosts on joist hangers so I can easily remove them for cleaning. I’ve been thinking about that but this has sealed the deal for me


Thank you for your input and advice!!