New pullet has mites

[hlhutchinson]

Swaped our cockerel for a pullet. Got her last night looked her over did not see any mites. Put her in with our other 3. This morning was look at her again showing my boys how to look for mites and yep found them. at least I think they are mites.
I have her now separate hoping the others did not get any what are the chances of that?
I'm going to the fed store today to get some liquid perethrin or garden poultry dust. What the best way to handle this. This is our first time with chickens and now mites

 

[SunHwaKwon]

Describe what you are seeing.

I used dust and liquid both. The liquid is easier to get into cracks and crevices. I have only had to deal with the ones that hide in the coop and feed at night, so I have not had to actually treat the birds themselves.

 

[JaeG]

I had the same problem and in my country there's an extremely limited (and for the most part, useless) range of products. If you are in the U.S. you can get permethrin spray which you should be able to treat hen, nest and eggs with, but do check. I did find Vetafarm Insect Liquidator which is very good and gives up to 6 weeks residual protection and is safe to use on tiny finch eggs and chicks so safe for chicken eggs. It kills the mites dead too, very quickly - I checked!

If you give your mother hen a good spray then bop her off the nest she will go and have a break, get a snack while you treat her nest, then she'll come back like nothing has happened. Broodies are sitting ducks for those horrid parasites.

 

[hlhutchinson]

So should I keep her separated, or because she was with the other for the night it does not matter.

 

[hlhutchinson]

Describe what you are seeing.

I used dust and liquid both. The liquid is easier to get into cracks and crevices. I have only had to deal with the ones that hide in the coop and feed at night, so I have not had to actually treat the birds themselves.

We just saw very small things crawling on her skin they looked a little red near her port, treated her (and the others)with garden poultry dust, and did not see any but they were there this morning. Cleaned coop out and spray

 

[JaeG]

If they are coop mites then everyone is exposed to them. I've found they would stay on my broodies as they are in the nice, dark coop. Otherwise they hide in cracks and crevices and under the roosts waiting for nighttime when they feast on everyone. But do treat them quickly as they can literally suck the life out of them, especially broodies who have already lost a bit of condition while sitting on their eggs.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

I just remembered that last year I had a really bad infestation and I had to treat my brooder coop that had a hen and babies in it. They were about a week old if I remember correctly. I cleaned out all the bedding, sprayed and let it dry and then put a thin layer of dust then put fresh bedding. The chicks were fine and grew up healthy. Of course who knows, maybe they'll get cancer eventually but won't we all.

 

[WVduckchick]

I have yet to actually "see" any of the mites, but a small few of my chicks had really scaly legs, a couple with awful raised sections and sores, so I assume mites??

I put a spoonful of Vaseline in a plastic bag, and poured in some Ivermectin (pour-on for cattle kind), mixed it into the Vaseline, and coated their legs with it. Oddly, its only like 3 of about 10 chicks that were in that pen, and I've never noticed any of the rest of my 100+ chickens. I am still treating those 3, but even after one application, they looked better the next day. (forgot to look at them yesterday!)

 

[Debbi H]

Hi, all. Sorry this is long: I have had a horrendous mite problem going on for over a month. The henhouse is crawling with millions of them, so bad that they are crawling on ME when I collect eggs. I check the hens, and there aren't very many on them, although some of the 29 are acting sluggish and not looking very well.
Then our one Silkie rooster, Archie, started getting crusted shut eyes in the morning and the last 2 days, has what turns out to be a respiratory infection. I've been cleaning Archie's eyes each morning and put Terramycin ointment around them.
Contacted a vet from UC Davis. Told him I've tried poultry dusts (diatomaceous earth, permethrin, etc) not just on the hens, but throughout the henhouse and shavings, which are changed weekly. And have used poultry sprays on the chickens. I've even been feeding them minced garlic this week, which they love, because I've heard it helps keep the mites off of them.
It's been so bad that I even cleaned out all the shavings and put a Bug Bomb in there only to find them still crawling everywhere!
So yesterday, I cleaned it out again, sprayed to soaking the entire inside of the henhouse and laying boxes with an enzyme spray (mixed Kleen Green and PoultryZyme, both from Natural Ginesis). I let it dry and put in new fresh shavings. And at roost time, I was able to use my little "squeeze puffer" and put DT under the birds' wings and on their behinds. This morning there were still a lot of mites and I thought it wasn't working.
So panic set in again, thinking I may have to just give up and sell off my beloved flock, since the mites were even following me into the house and I've been getting bites.
Then I remembered having to fight off an infestation of spider mites on plants years ago, and recalled I'd experimented for months before coming up with a mixture that worked wonders. So I called around and found the two products that I had used back then: Monterey Garden Insect Spray concentrate (.5% spinosad) and SaferGro PestOut (with cottonseed, clove, and garlic oils). I mixed up gallon batches with the recommended amount of each and it worked wonders back then.
So this time, I'm thinking "mites are mites, right?" I brought home my products, mixed up a small batch and headed to the henhouse. Lo and behold, the enzyme spray had started to do its job by then. I had to remember that the enzymes are not an insecticide; they attack the bugs' exoskeleton and system and cause a slower death. Most of the bugs were dead now.
But because the infestation had been so bad, still went ahead and sprayed around the door and onto the top of all the shavings and the roosts.
Other than the bug bomb, none of the products I have used will harm the chickens.
I wanted to share this with you because I know how frustrating it can be when nothing seems to work.
Oh, yes, and back the vet that I contacted: He told me to add sulfur powder to my chickens' dusting areas, along with the DT and permethrin dust I'm already using. And he also told me to get the Elector PSP (44% spinosad). But for right now, I'm going to use the spinosad product that I tried before since it did do the job and is much cheaper. I'll wait on getting the Elector PSP until I see if my own mixture works.
And for the poor little rooster, because we can no longer get over-the-counter antibiotics to mix in their water, the only thing left to use is a product called Tylan, which he told me to get and to inject it into the rooster's breast every day for 5 days (although I've seen that some people administer it orally). Since our feed store said they don't have anything over-the-counter anymore, I'll be calling my local vet tomorrow to see if I can get the Tylan from her.
Let's hope little Archie gets better. I saw that some people suggest using VetRx for Poultry for respiratory infections, so I'll be getting some of that, too.
I will update this in the next couple of days to let you know what's happening with Archie and with the mite infestation.
Good luck to all of you and your flocks.

 

[hlhutchinson]

So far the dusting of my chickened, isolating the new chicken for a couple of days, cleaning out the coop and spraying has worked have not seen anymore. I will Dust my chickens one more time as recommended on the poultry dust bottle and keep my fingers crossed.

I think once a month I will dust my chickens with DT and put some in the dusting box along with in the run as a prevention. Does anyone els do that or will it be over kill?