Thank you CAS for your very informative reply. Prior to leaving for school today, I stopped in to check on the birds water and to inspect the tissue beneath the wings for mite/lice eggs and I found some under the wing of one of my more sickly birds. I'm going to go to the feedstore to buy some delousing powder. Hopefully, they have the permethrin poultry dust that you've recommended. As a preventative measure i'm going to add a sandbox dust bath area with wood ashes, DE, and sand for them to use in their run.
How do you treat? Do you powder the vent and area beneath the wings? Can this powder damage the respiratory tract? In other words, is the dust harmful to birds or humans if inhaled? Ideally, I'd like to find an organic product as we are on our way to transitioning into organic production.
Thanks again!
Here is a copy and paste from another post of mine on another thread:
"The Northern Fowl Mite has made me quite miserable in my home on several occasions. I wasn't able to identify the bug until I took a bath and they floated up dead. They seem to be invisible until then. I have read a report by a university entomologist stating that despite popular reports there is no evidence of bird mites (red mite or N. Fowl Mite) being able to survive off human blood (or breed). Unfortunately the NFM can live for 3 weeks with no poultry blood meal, and the red mite can live for 9 months with no poultry blood meal. So if you collect numerous mites in the home they can make a human quite upset. Here is how I got rid of them (and keep them gone):
Vacuum home well. Change and wash sheets.
Take clothes off and place in plastic bag- keep in garage or wash right away after doing chicken chores. Jump in shower right away. I do this routinely now after chicken chores. This keeps mites out of the home while you are killing them off with the poultry dust, and if there are just a few in the coop or on the birds they are much less likely to make their way inside the home.
I use poultry dust on the birds: place bird on back on ground - hold onto feet with one hand and use a tied-off sock to dust under wings, vent area. Turn chicken over. Dust neck and back. Not face. Then get the next chicken. Repeat this every 7 days until bugs are gone. With a severe infestation you might need to do this three times, 7 days apart.
Toss all shavings in coop- including nest boxes (very important!!!!). If I don't change nest box shavings they come right back.
Spray coop with permethrin or ravap spray (whatever is poultry approved at the time). Get all crevices if possible and under roosts. This will kill the red mite, which comes out at night and hides in the crevices during the day. The NFM lives on the bird but is found in nesting material and RUNS onto you- up your arms when collecting eggs.
I was doing this treatment every 4 months and it was working but now must do it even more frequently, say every 2 months. If you don't repeat the treatment they come right back. It is just part of chicken keeping and is why I don't keep a huge flock anymore, since I have to dust everybody.
You can set up a dusting box for them and put the poultry dust in, but they do eat it. I don't want that in my eggs, so I do it manually. I give them woodstove ashes when available and that helps."
