red mite wont go

[frintonp]

ive had these little things on and off for about a month now, i have sterilised the coop with a scrubbing brush and disinfectant, applied a coat of non toxic varnish/woodstain to the interior, also used diatom aswell....the **** things are determined to survive...aaaggghhh

 

[cheeka]

at least where i live, the little red mites... are spider mites, and they are pretty insidious. i mostly get them on flowering plants. I flush them away with the hose, and use neem oil, it works well. you might want to use neem oil on your coop...

 

[TriangleMaster9]

From what i've heard, theres this thing where people ground up old plant fossils to a dust. For us and chickens or any other animals, they're no problem, but for small instects will any sort of exoskeleton, its cuts them to crap and then the dehidrate and die. You get this and just sprinkle it all over your chickens (it works for dogs and other pets too) and it gets rid of all them little mites, ticks, fleas, or whatever. I forgot the name

sorry but try searching some stuff about it on google or something. Appartently it works great!

 

[frintonp]

thanks ill do a bit of research on that, i also read that lime in the soil helps....wouldnt even know where to get that????

 

[frintonp]

i used to grow biological insect for a living(phytoselius and ambersonii)...strangely enough to eat red spider mite, i wish they would work on these but its a totally different type of insect.

 

[TriangleMaster9]

Oh ok. The dust stuff, its like, Earth something.

 

[fairytails]

It is called diatomaceous earth.

 

[TriangleMaster9]

Yea!

 

[fairytails]

Phew, I even knew an answer to something as a newbie. Diatoms are like totally prehistoric ancient tiny animals. They left behind their skeletons just to help us modern day chicken keepers deal with pests. Sort of. I may be new to the chickie world, but know my biology!

 

[azahn]

Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth is what you want. (look here on the BYC FAQ page, scroll down to DE - it will give you an overview). Should be able to find it at a feed/farm/garden store. Lime too. But the DE must be food grade, not the kind used in swimming pools. It's good stuff.