Red mites found in compost bin...not found on chickens or in coop yet

[mrsruzek]

I found a large population of red mites in my compost bin today. I'm doing what I can do get rid of them since I learned they were there; however, it has been raining here for almost 3 weeks and it's difficult to get rid of them completely with all of this moisture. However, I'm worried they'll get to my chickens before I eliminate them. I just saw one of my chickens snacking away in the compost bin today!! I have dust baths for them, I'm checking them daily, and I'm doing everything I can do keep them and the coop dry through this heavy rain.

This had me thinking...there are many bugs that are normal to a compost bin that can be harmful to chickens. SURELY many of my fellow chicken-owner friends have compost bins as well. What do you do to manage BOTH? Will I have to get rid of my compost so that my chickens can stay safe?

 

[BDutch]

There are a lot of healty bugs around a compost bin too.

Red mytes are very small. I am suprised that you see them in a compost bin. If you want to prevent that the chickens thake lice into the coop you can put a bowl of diathomeas earth in de dustbath. And make a muddy substance of DE with water and use it as paint to cover the sleeping branche and all the cracks in the wood.

 

[mrsruzek]

I wouldn't have seen the mites, except for the fact that I rested my hand on what seemed to have been one of their "nests" and they were crawling all over my hand.

Thanks for the advice. I did put DE in my dust bath mix, and I like the idea of painting DE on their roosting bars!