Northern Red Mite Issue. Nothing works

[Penpal]

I have rescued a couple of dogs that came from puppy mills. They both had horrible cases of mites (demodectic mange). I found that Vitamin C worked better than Ivermectin in getting rid of the mites and healing. The fur grew back in and the itching stopped.

For a chicken, I think one pinch twice a day for 2 to 4 weeks. There aren't official protocols. The C will kill the mites, but you would still need something for the environment.

 

[McChooky]

Yes and I would say D. gallinae is the hardest.

Ornithonyssus sylviarum the Northern Fowl Mite is probably the simplest because the mite lives on the bird and not in the environment. So you can primarily treat the birds and clean the coop but you’re not repeatedly doing it for months on end.

Unfortunately the type my chickens had were in their feather shaft of skin.I never saw any mites they were microscopic. I was too busy fighting them and researching how to get rid of them to get a slide and do a skin sample and send it off

I have rescued a couple of dogs that came from puppy mills. They both had horrible cases of mites (demodectic mange). I found that Vitamin C worked better than Ivermectin in getting rid of the mites and healing. The fur grew back in and the itching stopped.

For a chicken, I think one pinch twice a day for 2 to 4 weeks. There aren't official protocols. The C will kill the mites, but you would still need something for the environment.

Chickens lose feathers for various reasons and in the time it takes to diagnose why they are they could possible die.Pharmaceuticals vs herbs or natural remedies? Mite infestations require prompt treatment

 

[Samsg1971]

Temporarily in the case of Dermanyssus gallinae the red chicken mite means one year. These are the bed bugs of the bird world. Red mites can survive without a blood meal and in extreme temperatures for up to a year. I would suppose it varies but in the literature I have read, estimations have been up to one year. They will also travel in search of a blood meal and can reproduce on mammalian blood.

If I go with the plan to keep them under control how often would I need to treat?

 

[Lillith37]

If I go with the plan to keep them under control how often would I need to treat?

It depends. How bad is your infestation and what is the weather like at the moment? And are they confirmed D. gallinae?

 

[Samsg1971]

It depends. How bad is your infestation and what is the weather like at the moment? And are they confirmed D. gallinae?

It was bad but I spent 6 months battling them with numerous and lengthy treatments, deep cleaning, burning, permethrin, elector psp and veterinary advice. Medication for my flock of 19 was $1000. Yes I’m determined to beat them. The vet took a sample and confirmed its the red mite. I live in Ca and the weather is mild now but hot weather is coming soon. I’ve read they can’t survive over 115, considering how to make that happen…..

 

[Shadrach]

If I go with the plan to keep them under control how often would I need to treat?

Months if your coop is large and made of wood. Maybe never if it's planks or T&G build once you've got a heavy infestation.
If the coop was cheap then burning the entire coop and starting with a new one is often the most economical and effective method.
People tend to forget that having red mite in the coop isn't the real problem; it's having them feed off the chickens while they're on their perches that one wants to stop as quickly as possible.
Some batteries have given up on trying to rid the barns of mites and have gone the stop them biting the birds route. Here is one example

https://www.vencomaticgroup.com/product/egg-production/q-perch

You can do something similar by wrapping the perch ends in double sides carpet tape. However, if the infestation is bad it doesn't take long for the tape to have enough stuck mites on it that the others just walk on top the stuck mite.

A point about Ivermectin.
Ivermectin works by residing in the blood of the host. When the host is bitten, the mite ingests some Ivermectin and dies. But it has to bite to die and really you don't want the mites biting. Killing the few that bite during the time the Ivermectin is active, gets a few but the mites reproduce at a much higher rate than the death rate through biting. Neither does Ivermectin deal with the mite eggs. Ivermectin probably helpfull for Northern Fowl mite that live on the bird but virtually pointless for red mite.

Best I've found is a blow torch but one needs the right type of coop.

 

[Samsg1971]

Months if your coop is large and made of wood. Maybe never if it's planks or T&G build once you've got a heavy infestation.
If the coop was cheap then burning the entire coop and starting with a new one is often the most economical and effective method.
People tend to forget that having red mite in the coop isn't the real problem; it's having them feed off the chickens while they're on their perches that one wants to stop as quickly as possible.
Some batteries have given up on trying to rid the barns of mites and have gone the stop them biting the birds route. Here is one example

https://www.vencomaticgroup.com/product/egg-production/q-perch

You can do something similar by wrapping the perch ends in double sides carpet tape. However, if the infestation is bad it doesn't take long for the tape to have enough stuck mites on it that the others just walk on top the stuck mite.

A point about Ivermectin.
Ivermectin works by residing in the blood of the host. When the host is bitten, the mite ingests some Ivermectin and dies. But it has to bite to die and really you don't want the mites biting. Killing the few that bite during the time the Ivermectin is active, gets a few but the mites reproduce at a much higher rate than the death rate through biting. Neither does Ivermectin deal with the mite eggs. Ivermectin probably helpfull for Northern Fowl mite that live on the bird but virtually pointless for red mite.

Best I've found is a blow torch but one needs the right type of coop.

My coop is large and made of wood. However, when we had the birds in the temporary coop during the infestation, we had it caulked and painted. It is stripped of everything, but the very necessities. Metal nesting boxes that come apart. I have silkies and they don’t perch, just puddle. We tried to ivermectin and it did not work then the vet suggested Bravecto plus which is similar to front line for cats. it has the same ingredient in it as the product that Europe is using to treat this in the water, Exolt(I think) However, it is the same as I ivermectin and kills the mites once they have bitten the bird. My sister lives in rural Idaho, and she said, when people get red mites, they burn it to the ground. my coop is a custom-made bougie coop at one time that cost us over $6000 to build :/

 

[Lillith37]

If you catch the infestation early, meds like ivermectin and fluralaner will help but once you’ve got a severe problem I think Shadrach is probably right. This is why it’s so important to perform regular health checks and coop checks.

Yes the mites can’t survive over 45 Celsius or ~ 115 Fahrenheit. A blowtorch or a steam wand is very effective for those cracks and crevasses where mites like to hide and lay their eggs, but obviously you need to be careful not to burn down the coop. Burning the coop and starting over is a viable and long practiced strategy though. If you did that, I would treat the birds before relocating them to kill any hitchhikers at that time. Usually red mites are nocturnal but you will see them during the day and on the birds during the day in heavy infestations.

BDutch’s method of corrugated cardboard taped under roosts and nest boxes is a good way of monitoring the presence of red mites and catching them earlier if they begin to reinfest.

If the weather is mild and wet the mites will be flourishing. Reproduction peaks between 20-35 Celsius and 70% humidity. They can reproduce in as little as 2-3 days when conditions are optimal so if that’s what you’re dealing with, you need to be burning bedding and deep cleaning the coop that frequently. This is why mechanical controls are better than poisons at this stage — using heat treatments, soap and essential oils while cleaning, and putting tape/Vaseline on the roost ends to catch them at night.

You need to encourage your silkies to roost so you can put mechanical controls in place for the red mites. Once it’s dark and they are inside, put them on the roost and they should stay put. A couple of nights and they should get the picture.

 

[Samsg1971]

If you catch the infestation early, meds like ivermectin and fluralaner will help but once you’ve got a severe problem I think Shadrach is probably right. This is why it’s so important to perform regular health checks and coop checks.

Yes the mites can’t survive over 45 Celsius or ~ 115 Fahrenheit. A blowtorch or a steam wand is very effective for those cracks and crevasses where mites like to hide and lay their eggs, but obviously you need to be careful not to burn down the coop. Burning the coop and starting over is a viable and long practiced strategy though. If you did that, I would treat the birds before relocating them to kill any hitchhikers at that time. Usually red mites are nocturnal but you will see them during the day and on the birds during the day in heavy infestations.

BDutch’s method of corrugated cardboard taped under roosts and nest boxes is a good way of monitoring the presence of red mites and catching them earlier if they begin to reinfest.

If the weather is mild and wet the mites will be flourishing. Reproduction peaks between 20-35 Celsius and 70% humidity. They can reproduce in as little as 2-3 days when conditions are optimal so if that’s what you’re dealing with, you need to be burning bedding and deep cleaning the coop that frequently. This is why mechanical controls are better than poisons at this stage — using heat treatments, soap and essential oils while cleaning, and putting tape/Vaseline on the roost ends to catch them at night.

You need to encourage your silkies to roost so you can put mechanical controls in place for the red mites. Once it’s dark and they are inside, put them on the roost and they should stay put. A couple of nights and they should get the picture.

Sure wish I had caught them early, they got out of hand so quickly, even though I spend hours every day with my birds as they are my pets. I just didn’t realize it until it was too far gone. Anyways, my husband and I spent an entire weekend building the temporary coop. Then we washed 19 chickens in Elector PSP and blew dry all of them because they are silkies and they don’t like to be wet. It took me almost 3 days to do this. Once I moved them over to the new temporary coop. I discovered mites in there too. at this point, I’m considering the burning the coop to the ground idea and not having chickens at all. Even if I were to completely eradicate the red mite who’s to say that a year or two years from now they wouldn’t come back through a rat or a wild bird. I appreciate your advice so much. It is very realistic something I wish I had known before I had gotten chickens.

 

[Lillith37]

@Samsg1971 I’m very sorry you are going through this. I call Dermanyssus gallinae “the devil himself”. I’m so lucky that what I was dealing with turned out to be Ornithonyssus but for a long time I wasn’t sure and it was an incredibly stressful time. So I can appreciate how it must feel. And it’s so easy to miss and then it’s out of control and it happens so quickly. It’s not your fault but it’s a hard lesson to learn about these mites once the coop is already infested.

I think as Shadrach says the most important thing is to prevent them from feeding on your birds. The mites will always flourish seasonally and you can never truly eradicate parasitic mites as they are free-living in the environment.

If you can focus on the silkies roosting and then protecting the roosts from the mites, clean the coop every week, and then see how it goes when the weather gets hotter and drier? Linseed oil mixed 50/50 with turpentine application for cracks and crevices in wood also can be a good preventative.