Northern Fowl Mites- They killed my rooster... or at least helped. ARG

[pips&peeps]

Northern Fowl mites are pretty resistant to most pesticides. You will have to use a cocktail of different things to get rid of them.

I had a bird show up with them last year and it took all year to get rid of them, that is until I doubled my efforts and brought out the big guns.

I recommend frontline spray, ivermectin and a good permetherin surface spray.

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

Problem with the Northern Fowl mites is the eggs living on and reinfesting your flock. The dusts and sprays don't seem to get the eggs that they lay in the hollows of the feathers. I have used flea and tick shampoo for them and thought it worked better, soak the bird with the shampoo and give it 10 minutes to work, just keep the bird warm enough. I did one really well feathered Orpington roo twice to be sure and he never got them back. Make sure you get the shampoo that states it will kill the nits and eggs preventing reinfestation.

Everything mentioned to you will work on adult mites, and even the DE will, but you get new mites every day and keeping up is the problem. there are livestock dips too but I have not tried them. They have the same ingredients as the shampoo and most of the livestock sprays.

 

[redhen]

there would be NO way that id trust just DE to take care of all those mites..no way..you need a real treatment to ensure that they die...then i'd use DE as an upkeep type of thing...

 

[Chicken Fruit]

I am glad I asked. I was thinking of letting him back into the coop tonight- that certainly wont happen right now! I'll pick up some flea and tick shampoo tomorrow to follow up with after the DE and sevin dust.

 

[Chicken Fruit]

Where would he have picked them up? The crate? No other chickens have the mites, and he's been on his own for four days, if he had had them all along he'd have given them to the hens right? SO the box? Where do chickens pick these things up, and how can I make the environment less conducive to mite infestations to begin with?

 

[ivan3]

As I mentioned in my first post: Any contact with wild birds, including such things as a recently abandoned nest falling to the ground from a tree where the chooks range or the chooks picking around under a bird feeder, could result in transmission The only way to completely eliminate this pest is to house the chooks in an indoor aviary. Roos are the preferred host owing to the mite's penchant for hanging out on feathers. Roos have more feathers near the rear than hens and the superficial blood supply in this part of the body is easily tapped.

Without examining the chooks (particularly the roo) after they go to roost (easiest time to examine - highest activity level for mites) on a wkly. basis and treating accordingly, the first sign one has is usually the feel of the mites hiking up one's neck and around the ears an hour or so after handling the chooks.

Spraying a mixture of Orange Guard and Tea Tree oil into the cracks and crevices of the coop (particularly where roosts attach to walls) and putting down a bit of Sevin/DE mixed into the bedding is a good preventative.

We used the Eprinex Cattle pour-on on our neighbor's flock (bad infestation) and they've yet to have a repeat (also disinfected coop and burnt all the bedding/etc.).

ed: lexical loopiness

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

My vet said that the mites can live dormant in wood for up to ten months. They are VERY hard to get rid of. i have been battling them for months. They can come in on wild birds, so if you have your pens covered that helps a bit. i painted the interior and exterior of one of my coops and the nest boxes with a no VOC enamel, and that seemed to eliminate them in that pen. Some of my other coops would be very difficult to paint the interior, because of hardware cloth and such, can't get directly to the wood. All future coops will be painted completely inside and out to prevent this problem. But then you also need to use the poultry dust under the bedding on the floor and in the nest boxes. You can also dust your birds with the poultry dust. Just keep it out of their eyes and vent. Ivermectin spot on can also help.

It's just one of those things that you have to stay on top of if you have chickens.

 

[redhen]

yup..they can pick them up from wild birds..
i had a birds nest on my porch last year and when the babies grew up and left, a ZILLION frickin mites were crawling all over that nest...and they jumped all over my DH legs when he walked on the porch... it was so gross...
needless to say...we dont put bird houses on our porch anymore...

 

[Chicken Fruit]

Well I had dusted everyone before bed, originally with the DE and then I REALLY coated the rooster with the sevin dust, and sprinkled some on the hens as well. Well this morning the hens were covered in dead mites. So everyone has them, not just the rooster, although he certainly has them worst of all.

And so I will continue my campaign to kill the darn things. Just gotta break that cycle with the eggs. I wonder what their reproduction cycle length is...

 

[upintheholler]

Adams flea and tick spray will get them.Change all of there bedding.Spray the whole pen with it.In there new bedding sprinkle in some sevin dust the 10% works thr best if you can find it.On the chicken take the spray grab him by his feet and hold him upside down.Spray his vent really well work your waydown towards his head trying to get the spray under the feathers down towards his skin.Put a couple sprays under his wings where they are connected to his body.Repeat about 3 times every 5 days or so.Check his crest they might have took up residence there also.If so spray there also just try to keep it out of his eyes and nose.Nasty little buggers will kill a chicken in just a little while.Something else that works is to paint there roosts with burnt motor oil it coats them and kills them.I have used this with good success.I never tried it with none of our show stuff but it worked great in our laying hen house.