Red Mite.How can it be?

[Tony101775]

Hi all.
I have 2 small chicken coops built for about 6 to 8 in each.
Each are in separate parts of the garden, at least 20 or 30 feet apart.
After fox trouble I was left with NO chickens.
It took a long time to try again as it is very upsetting. This was the third kill and I just wanted to give up.
But in may this year the lure of the best tasting eggs and the enjoyment of keeping hens educed me to buying three girls.
I have a copper Maran, a white sussex and a Bluebell.
They all get along fine and are great as pets and the grandchildren love to help me look after them.
I have different breeds, colours because ultimately they are pets. The gorgeous eggs are a welcome by product.
About a month ago I notice the girls reluctant to go to roost and the eggs had stopped.
I recognised this as a possible red mite problem.
I cleared out the coop and sure enough I got that itch, visual proof and red mite was confirmed.
I Immediately dusted the girls and moved them to my spare coop which I know is clear.
I cleared out the infested coop of its straw etc and covered it with DE.
The Chicken in the other coop began to lay again and the eggs are beautifully clean.
About 3 days ago I re bedded the infected coop and sprinkled a liberal dusting of DE so I could re home them this weekend (today) I want them in the original coop as it is so much stronger and more room. (fox safer)
Now.............The coop has been empty at least 10 days.
I read the life cycle of the RM is about 7 days.
It has been plastered in DE for a week.
When I re bedded I treated it again.
Now...............this afternoon I was going to put them back home.
I shuffled up the straw and made it nice. Straight away I WAS ITCHING?
HOW CAN IT BE?
The coop has been empty for 2 weeks..............What are they feeding on?
It seems impossible that they are living on nothing?

I have covered it with food grade DE.................Does it actually work?

We have cats(3) Can they infect them and bring them indoors?

What am I doing wrong?
I have starved them, poisoned them and they are still there.





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[Yorkshire Coop]

Sorry to hear about your mites I know how you feel I had an infestation. Mites can actually live up to a year without feeding. This link has good infohttp://www.backyardchickens.com/a/mites-lice-treatment-and-prevention.. What I did was power wash coop out several times. The jet water unsettles the mites and makes them come out of all the nooks and crannies that they live in. You will be surprised how many come out. Then when the coop was dry I sprayed with mite kill then when that was dry i put de everywhere. After that I treated the coop every three days for 2 weeks then now I spray mite kill once a week during regular clean out. I have seen the odd one or two now and again but not infested like it was. Hope this helps but mites are a real pain that take time to totally eradicate

 

[Tony101775]

Thank you for the reply
So basically my buying and dusting with DE is not really worth the time?
If it takes a year I will be better off buying a third coop and just alternating the birds every 3 months and blasting the spares.?
How do big poultry farms manage?

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

No you have not wasted your time with de red mite are an ongoing thing and just takes time. After I had power washed and treated I put my birds back in the coop I know not all were all but 95% were gone and now after a bit of time I have not found anymore this didn't affect my birds. Just keep going with de it will get rid in the end along with good mite killer.

 

[enola]

Commercial chicken farmers don't waste their money on something as useless as DE. They use an approved insecticide to get rid of the problem of parasites.

 

[WalleyWaller]

Check out ChickensAreSweet's post in the thread link below.. Hope this helps. It definitely helped me!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/875806/mites-are-crawling-up-my-legs

 

[Folly's place]

Permethrin is approved for use in chickens and works well. Carbaryl also works well, and ivermectin on each bird, with the powder in the coops and bedding, is also a good choice. My coop is old wood and not that cleanable, so it's a waste of time to do more than shovel it out. Then everything gets treated with carbaryl or permethrin, and the birds get ivermectin. Works great! You must treat all your birds and coops at the same time too. Wild birds bring those rotten little bugs in, so once in a while it's a problem. I treat twice a year or anytime there's an issue. Mary

 

[TinyBirds]

We got mites first the first time and it is awful. First I will tell what works so far after much trial and error: frontline plus (drop behind head on each bird for bantams) use a dropper bottle to first pour the stuff in, dont use needles like a video on youtube shows since you might poke yourself if a bird thrashes around. Note this is the pour on type of frontline, not the spray which has 30 times less dosage per drop and doesn't have the chemical that kills the eggs etc
What didn't work for us here (tx) on northern fowl mite: neem oil ( works great for lice though), diatomaceous, sulfur powder ( worked a little), ivermectin pour on 5-10 or so drops per bird (had no effect on these mites), clove oil, thyme oil, turmeric root oil, rosemary oil, etc, but I did find that out you heavily coat the inside of the coop with any type of oil, even olive oil, that does kill adult mites but I think would require repeat application every few days along with bathing the birds every few days, a lot of work if you have a large flock. The frontline drops are easiest and work fast, so far. I'll update later. Hated doing anything not organic and sucks that we won't be eating their eggs any more, just to be on the safe side. They are pets now just like cats/dogs.