I have a large flock of 130 layers, as we have a certified organic farm that produces eggs and broilers. We've never had an issue with red mites until now. Our huge mobile coop is full of them!! Yesterday we did the following:
1. Removed all bedding and nesting boxes.
2. Took a weed burner and torched every inch of the coop from top to bottom.
3. Sprayed the coop from top to bottom with Organocide 3-in-1 garden spray. We ordered Elector PSP and it's coming in the mail. But we wanted to do something to start battling these critters.
4. Once the coop was dry, we doused all the nesting boxes with DE and pine shavings.
*We went out last night to check things out and it honestly looked like we didn't do anything! The critters were EVERYWHERE! So, we felt a little disappointed after all that work. However, when I examined the coop this morning I didn't see as many huge clumps or balls of them as there were before. However, I could see see small clusters under the roosts and in crevices.
Once we receive the Elector spray we plan to do the following:
1. Cleaning nesting boxes and bedding out
2. pressure wash the coop from top the bottom
3. use a torch from top to bottom
4. spray elector spray from top to bottom
5. DE top to bottom
*All of this is very hard to do in a day because we have chickens that are trying to lay in the morning throughout the day. So, we start around 2pm and hope to get it done before the night. But we're also thinking of coming back out at night and spraying the chickens and roots and crevices again with the Elector spray. We realize that the mights are most active at night, so that would allow us to hit any we see coming out of the crevices on onto the birds. We also realize that we will have to repeat the spray and DE every 5-7 days as this is the hatch cycle of these buggers! I'm hoping after a a good month of staying on top of these critters we might win the battle.
Has anyone battled red mites with this large of a flock? We are trying to figure out if there is anything else we can do? We rotate flocks every 2 years, but this is a new flock, so they'll be around for another 2 years. But of course we'll completely dismantle this coop when we're in between flocks. However, we can't do that right now as we have to keep the business going. We're getting over 100 eggs a day and we don't have another coop option for this many birds. We were thinking of culling the two roosters we have as we can tell they are being really targeted by the mites. We never see them dust bathe and we worry that they'll just keep reinfecting the girls and the coop.
Any suggestions and advice would really be helpful. We realize that we may not get rid of every single one, but we don't want them infesting our coop or birds!!!
1. Removed all bedding and nesting boxes.
2. Took a weed burner and torched every inch of the coop from top to bottom.
3. Sprayed the coop from top to bottom with Organocide 3-in-1 garden spray. We ordered Elector PSP and it's coming in the mail. But we wanted to do something to start battling these critters.
4. Once the coop was dry, we doused all the nesting boxes with DE and pine shavings.
*We went out last night to check things out and it honestly looked like we didn't do anything! The critters were EVERYWHERE! So, we felt a little disappointed after all that work. However, when I examined the coop this morning I didn't see as many huge clumps or balls of them as there were before. However, I could see see small clusters under the roosts and in crevices.
Once we receive the Elector spray we plan to do the following:
1. Cleaning nesting boxes and bedding out
2. pressure wash the coop from top the bottom
3. use a torch from top to bottom
4. spray elector spray from top to bottom
5. DE top to bottom
*All of this is very hard to do in a day because we have chickens that are trying to lay in the morning throughout the day. So, we start around 2pm and hope to get it done before the night. But we're also thinking of coming back out at night and spraying the chickens and roots and crevices again with the Elector spray. We realize that the mights are most active at night, so that would allow us to hit any we see coming out of the crevices on onto the birds. We also realize that we will have to repeat the spray and DE every 5-7 days as this is the hatch cycle of these buggers! I'm hoping after a a good month of staying on top of these critters we might win the battle.
Has anyone battled red mites with this large of a flock? We are trying to figure out if there is anything else we can do? We rotate flocks every 2 years, but this is a new flock, so they'll be around for another 2 years. But of course we'll completely dismantle this coop when we're in between flocks. However, we can't do that right now as we have to keep the business going. We're getting over 100 eggs a day and we don't have another coop option for this many birds. We were thinking of culling the two roosters we have as we can tell they are being really targeted by the mites. We never see them dust bathe and we worry that they'll just keep reinfecting the girls and the coop.
Any suggestions and advice would really be helpful. We realize that we may not get rid of every single one, but we don't want them infesting our coop or birds!!!
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