Please help - stick tight flea I think???

[picanins]

Hello All

This last weekend we went to pick up our first chickens - we paid $10 each for 6 Rhode Island Red hens and 1 Rooster. Not knowing the first thing about what chickens should look like we thought that their heads looked kind of bald, but other than that they were nice shiny birds with full feathers. OH MY WORD!!!! When putting them in the pen we noticed these tiny bugs all over their heads and have literally trawled the internet trying to find a diagnosis and cure. It is infuriating because we have a flock of 12 guinea fowl who are very healthy and bug free and now we are sure we have infested not only the pens but our guineas as well. I have included a picture so you can see how bad it is and to hopefully verify that our diagnosis of stick-tight fleas is correct. We have only had these birds for 2 days. From the forums for other things like mites and fleas we are presuming that we need to bath the chickens and guinea's in a flea shampoo (which one??) and then dust with sevin (is that the lawn sevin brand or is there a particular poultry one to use?) which contains carbaryl. How do we treat our pens? Any advice in terms of treatment would be SO appreciated. Thank you!!

Here's the picture (I hope the link works, it's not so straight forward attaching an image to a post .. lol) :

 

[Camelot Farms]

Ewww Ewww Ewwww. Poor chickens.

I have never had fleas on my birds but we have had mites. We use a poultry dust from the local feed store. Lots of brands so you will just have to read the packaging and make sure that it addresses your specific bug.
I also use DE (Diatamacious Earth) in all of my pens. If you arent familiar with DE, Google it for more info.

Since fleas are blood suckers, make sure that birds stay well hydrated and use a good quality feed.

You might also try bathing them. Fleas will drown if submerged long enough. Not sure what your weather is like where you are so that may or many not be a good option.

Good luck and welcome to BYC...sorry your 1st post has to be on a problem. We hope you will come back and visit often!

Kim

 

[herefordlovinglady]

I am a firm believer in DE. I use it in my coop, on the roosts and even mix it in the feed. I have had no problems with bugs.

Diatomaceous Earth food grade. do a search on here and you will find lots of information on it.

 

[herefordlovinglady]

Oh Yea and

 

[Chickenaddict]

I don't know if your birds have the same bugs as mine but I have been battling what I think is wood mites for several months now. Tiny little specs running all over the birds, immune to poultry dust, adams flea and tick spray, and ivermectin. Ivermectin pour on is used for cattle but lots of folks use it on their birds for a dewormer as well as a delouser. Kills all biting and sucking mites with no egg withdrawl time. It would be an aweful lot of work to give all the birds a flea bath and blow dry each one after. I would opt for the poultry dust in the coop and ivermectin on the birds. You must get rid of allll the old bedding and use the dust everywhere in their enclosure and repeat in I believe its 7-10 days. Good luck!


ETA: Food grade DE does NOT kill bugs! It is great for keeping odors out of the coop and keeping things dry but as far as mites go it has been proven time and time again not to work once there is an infestation.

 

[picanins]

Oh guys I feel like crying I am so pleased to see replys to my post before I race into town to purchase any feasible product to help these birds ... oh it is BAD!! I'm so mad at the guy who sold these to us. The bugs look like they are actually burrowed into the skin and it's mainly round the eyes ... I mean BUNCHES of them, and the head. Do you think I can dunk their heads? Will DEFINITELY purchase the DE - thank you thank you, thank you - I already LOVE this site!!!

 

[herefordlovinglady]

I am so happy you got them away from him. Jerk.

 

[Rocky Top Chick]

Quote:
DITTO ! That look horrible. I certainly would call and let the idiot know what you are dealing with.

 

[Miss Lydia]

..................Just as the other poster said DE will not get rid of these bugs, I have never heard of fleas on chickens but are they black? if so it's mites and they suck the blood right out of them. Get sevin dust or poultry dust or adams flea and tick spray you can't dunk their heads but you can use your fingers by spraying them with the spray and rubbing it all over their heads and spraying the rest of their bodies.. being sure not to get it into their eyes or nose or mouth. You'll need to do evey bird and treat their coops to by taking all of the bedding out and putting in new. also dusting or spraying down the whole coop and run. to kill any that are hiding in there. It's alot of work but I can say for sure it will work. If you wet them down with the spray make sure their good and dry before putting them back outside if it's cold so they won't chill. This time of year the shake method is probably the best take a plastic bag large enough to put the whole chicken or guinea in except for their head, put the sevin or poultry dust into the bag put in the bird hold closed around the neck and shake real good. you'll have to treat again in 10 days.

 

[KellyHM]

I HATE those things! Mine got infested a while back b/c the neighbor's dogs that run loose (and continually break into my yard) brought them over. They are absolutely disgusting! I used a Bayer powdered pesticide (can't think of the name right now) and covered them with it. I also put it in the areas where they dust bathe. I still see one occasionally, but thankfully most of them are gone.