Northern fowl mites abound! How do I keep them off me when I clean!

[suevit1031]

I have recently noticed my birds have northern fowl mites (I took a sample to the vet) now I have to clean out the coup and dust the birds. My question is how to I do that without getting them on me????? I found them crawling on me after having to hold a chicken that I had clipped her crooked beak to far and held her till I stopped it from bleeding. Later I found little black bugs crawling on my face and when I realized what they were I took the coat I was wearing with 2 fingers and chucked it out into the cold on the deck. I then had about 20 mites on my thumb, I still feel crawly.

I bought some diatomaceous earth food grade at TS at the suggestion of the fowl expert at the University of CT, NOW I'm afraid if I'm in the coup cleaning I'll get covered with them! MY QUESTION is will covering my clothing with Deep Woods OFF keep them off me while I clean and dust the birds. Also, with the weather being cold does that kill them in the chicken yard? Do I but stuff out there too...so many questions.
Thanks, I'm waiting for some suggestions before I start.
Sue

 

[suevit1031]

Well, I went ahead and cleaned the coup with my husband today, we started at 10:30 and came in the house at 6...we stripped the coup, vacuumed, sprayed liquid seven and while that was drying I bleached all the plastic nest boxes (boy do they clean nice) and the metal feed containers, the ladies were not happy being locked out of the coup for most of the day and when they got in an saw straw instead of green hay in the nest boxes they were not happy...we also put in a dust bath with sand and DE for them inside the coup.

The last thing to do is dust the birds, between my husband's bad knees and my bad back we made a funny sight trying to catch a lady and put her in a pillowcase with DE and keep her head out and roll her around like she was on a roller coaster. Needless to say we only got 5 dusted with 14 to go tomorrow, it's going to snow so the princesses will not go out, they really are princesses.

Now I see a lot of naked fanny's, I've been feeding them the Purina omega three feed. Maybe they need more protein.hmmmm
Thanks for reading
Sue

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

I had a problem with those once too. I had an injured hen and when I picked her up those things were crawling all over my arms. SO gross! I cleaned the coop, sprayed everything with horse and stable spray, dusted the chickens with permethrin and treated with Eprinex for 2 weeks.

 

[MuckyPuppy]

I haven't had a mite infestation but it sounds horrid. I hope you manage to get rid of them.

 

[hockeyguru]

We went through this recently. I read that workers would put Vaseline on their arms to keep the bugs off.

Don't forget to retreat in 10 days.

 

[suevit1031]

I will use the vaseline for sure, just the thought of putting more bug spray on me, well let's just say I' m not a fan of chemicals neither is my body.

I will retreat in 10 days as suggested, I was wondering if it should be seven so that answered that question. I plan to strip off the new shavings and sprinkle with seven then put down a ton of shavings and mix DE in with that. I am also going to put DE in the chicken yard, hopefully that will keep them under control. I'm just thankful they are not the red mites those sound like a nightmare to get rid off.

Tonight I plan on dusting the rest of the girls as the weatherman was wrong again, it hasn't snowed so they are outside. The pillow case thing is just too big I think I'm going to come up with something else.

Thanks for the ideas!
Sue