Red mites in my hair!

[Tavs]

Hi all,
I don't know how I missed the signs but I went away for a week in the heatwave with someone just feeding and watering the hens and came back to a mite explosion and two dead birds. Total trauma and guilt and about a million mites. They were crawling up my hands and legs as I treated the coop today and although I had a shower I just found one crawling down my arm and I just know they're in my hair. I know you can imagine itchiness after creepy crawlies but any advice! Traumatic day.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

Chicken mites will not infest people. Gross, but no problem. A regular shampoo will take care of the issue.

 

[cmom]

Thanks so much. Four came out of the keyboard of my computer yesterday! but haven't seen any since. I'm itchy just thinking about it. According to this site it can occasionally happen.
https://poultrykeeper.com/blog/will-red-mite-infest-your-house/

They can live for 9 months without food waiting for something to walk by! I have moved the chickens out into a guinea pig run and painted the coop but some mites are on the floor maybe they've started walking away from the coop - you get them on your feet walking round there. So I've dusted the ground with diatomaceous earth and dusted the chickens with diatom and also a more chemically powder. I will do an insect bomb thing at the weekend to get the ones hatching from any eggs left and those on the ground. Will keep dusting chickens and am moving them to a new shed anyway. Should I give them a dose of ivermectin when they move? I have a feeling I'm going to have to be working at this for a while. They move so fast!

Waste of time and money.....use permethrin.

I agree. DE won't work. Permethrin will work, it does not kill the mite eggs so it needs to be reapplied weekly for awhile. It's effective and no egg withdrawal. TSC carries it and it's quite cost effective too.

 

[aart]

Does DE work at all?

NO.

Well, it does work on grain mites in feed storage...
.....but it won't kill poultry lice, red roost mites, or northern fowl mites.
Don't screw around with, get the permethrin.

 

[BantyChooks]

Does it discourage them once you get them under control, or maybe work if the mites are actually immersed in it? or is it just a con?

I don't think anyone tries to falsely say DE works when there's no evidence, but I also think most of the time it does indeed not work.
My crazy theory—with nothing at all to back it up—is that there are some parasite populations it does work on. People have documented successful results. Then there are other populations (seems to be more common) that it does NOT work on. Also documented. One person on here (I forget her name) found lice crawling around by the dozens in a layer of DE in the bottom of her nesting boxes, not even slightly dead. It's not that much of a reach to assume that the thickness of parasitic exoskeletons is variable and can be unintentionally selected to greater and more resistant thicknesses. Permethrin, being an entirely different and more potent substance, kills even those tougher bugs, leading to the eradication that is wanted. I need to do some research and independent experimentation to see if this idea holds any water or not.

On a microscopic scale, DE does seem like something that could plausibly work on external parasites. As a feed through worm treatment, well, that just sounds like bunk, unless everything I know about water as a solvent is wrong.

 

[Folly's place]

Yuck! Any product good for lice will work. Any dog or cat shampoo at home? Hit the drug store!
Permethrin works great, but I have no idea about dosage and safety for us humans!
Mary

 

[aart]

So I've dusted the ground with diatomaceous earth

Waste of time and money.....use permethrin.

 

[Tavs]

I don't believe so.
You could test that, get some live mites in a small jar, add tiny pinch of DE, see if it kills them.

OK I will do the test and report back!

 

[Tavs]

I don't think anyone tries to falsely say DE works when there's no evidence, but I also think most of the time it does indeed not work.
My crazy theory—with nothing at all to back it up—is that there are some parasite populations it does work on. People have documented successful results. Then there are other populations (seems to be more common) that it does NOT work thickness of parasitic exoskeletons is variable and can be unintentionally selected to greater and more resistant thicknesses.

Yes makes sense. I've met people who say it works. Not for my mofos. On the permethrin starting today. Thanks for this. Interesting stuff. One study found thyme essential oil killed 45% so will use that but that does mean that will stop working eventually. Also ordered androlis predators for next week. No resistance to them but my ignorance has led me to spread them over a wide area while dismantling the coop so the androlis will probably only work at close range.

 

[cmom]

I had a mite infestation last year. The coop I first noticed the mites in, I bathed the birds with flea shampoo. It helped but didn't kill all of the mites. I would try the shampoo for lice in people's hair.

I came across this.
"Nonprescription Lice Shampoo and Cream Every over-the-counter (OTC) treatment of head lice has been approved by the FDA and contains either pyrethrins (Rid or Triple X) or permethrin (Nix). Both are effective and are considered the first line of treatment. The former can be used on children ages 2 and older, while the latter can be used on children as young as 2 months. Both only kill live lice, not nits. (2)"