Seeking advice on how to keep mites at bay

[Mittmom]

Hello-
This has been the year of pests for my backyard flock. It started with lice that hitched a ride on a few birds we got from a friend. Later we spotted red mites clustering inside the coop, and subsequently on some of the birds. For the lice we treated with Elector PSP according to the instructions and for the mites we used Permethrin (sp?), first a spray and then powder, per instructions. We also sprayed the coop and have been using DE to dust perches and coop floor (sand). The lice seem to have died down but we cannot get rid of the red mites. I have read several posts on here from other people discussing how hard it is to get rid of mites. So, what I want to know is: is there a weekly routine we can do to keep mite numbers at bay? And should we give up trying for total eradication? Ten of our hens don't have many red mites but one poor girl has many around her vent. She also has cuts/scrapes (possibly gleet? need to research) and the mites like to hang out there. I feel sorry for her but she acts totally fine so far. I would just like to minimize the mites so she won't get worse.
In addition to all this we have had a rat explosion for the first time, and we've had backyard chickens for around 5 years!
Thank you in advance for your wisdom!

 

[Mittmom]

I saw a similar recent post and a weekly spray of hens and coops was recommended. Would that be with the Permethrin?

Does anyone have a DIY balm to put on the vent area to soothe chafing and possibly repel mites?

Thanks again!

 

[Buffbrahmabantam]

I’m not super experienced with mites but recently did the following for northern fowl mites we saw crawling on eggs of a broody hen.

First, I gave her a bath in the kitchen sink with a flea shampoo for dogs and cats. The active ingredient is pyrethrin. It is fragrance free, which is a big deal for me. I hate artificial fragrance.

I towel dried then blow dried her. I put a dab of flea and tick drops (frontline brand) on her neck similar to a cat. I’ve done this before and it seems to work for everything but scaley leg mite. I dusted her with pyrethrum powder and let her outside (with treats to make up for her traumatic morning bath). Our chickens have a lot of room to roam and dust baths everywhere so I felt ok . If she was more confined I would not have let her back into an infested coop.

Our chickens live in a really nice two car garage with a concrete floor. I took out all the hay that she had been using for a nest. I composted that out in one of our far pastures. I washed down the nest box then sprayed the nest box with pyrethrin as well as Spinosad spray. I set it outside in the sun afterwards. It is still sitting outside. I’ll give it a week before bringing it back into the garage. I vacuumed the garage and sprayed spinosad in all sorts of cracks. They sleep on a roost on towels that we clean and wash every day so that part was easy to clean. We cut new hay just this weekend so when it is done drying we will put the nest boxes back in the garage and fill with clean hay. I hope this helps. Our coop is normally kept very very clean so the work involved was only about an hour.

 

[Buffbrahmabantam]

As far as rats, you want to keep a continual trapping system going to control them. Don’t wait to control when you notice a problem. I happen to be a wildlife biologist and have a lot of experience with animal control!

We live in rural, natural areas so I can’t speak specifically to Norway rats, but I’ve had experience controlling ground squirrels, packrats, chipmunks, squirrels, voles and mice. All are similar in being able to have population explosions in the right conditions. (I.e. human food and shelter) We use mostly metal Sherman traps and tomahawk traps. They are expensive but last a lifetime, literally. We used to drown the victims and release any non target animals (occasional birds, snakes). Honestly, we don’t usually drown anything now because we moved to a large property where we can release them far away on a distant corner of our property. (But otherwise, transporting and releasing wildlife is not legal in our state, for good reason, and I don’t recommend this as a general rule.) It can be really frustrating when you have an outbreak and by far the best thing to do is always have traps open and set. Once you get the current population explosion under control, your task is much easier and just check traps every couple weeks or when you walk by and notice they are closed. We don’t even bait traps most of the time because we put traps along popular routes and runways around our garage so animals naturally go in traps as part of their nightly wanderings. Most small mammals like to run along the sides of objects like buildings, logs, etc. They don’t tend to cross large open areas much.

Note, if you have an infestation, I definitely recommend baiting until you get it under control.

Keep moving the locations of traps until you find a set up that catches a rat. Every single species of animal has its weaknesses that can be exploited. Sometimes it takes a while to figure out though!

We never use poison because it is detrimental to pets and wildlife. I lost two cats and a dog painfully to rodenticide poisoning many years ago and will never use poison again.

 

[Al Gerhart]

If it is a reoccurring problem you need to find what vermin is bringing the pests into the coop and deal with them first, then jump on the treatment phase. Fix the problem before dealing with the symptoms.

Rats, do a forum search for chickens and rats both here and in the feeding and watering chickens section. Same advice applies, deal with the problem, what is bringing the rats to your coop before you focus on the symptom which is the rats themselves.

You will never trap your way out of a rat problem. They are too smart, they will avoid the traps, and while you are mucking about the colony size explodes. These are not solitary wild creatures with their own territories and are limited in population by the natural year round carrying capacity of their territory. You are feeding them and that has to stop before anything else.

What you will find if you do the forum search is that you need to get your bulk feed in metal drums with tight lids, clean up the paths the rodents use to travel between their dens, their food, and their water so that natural predators are able to get to them. Then you need a treadle feeder. Narrow and distant treadle, heavy springs to pre load the door so the rats can't just push the door open. Inward swinging door for better safety. Tall sides and a feed lip on front to prevent most feed raking and if they have a feeder lip extender, get one just in case. You will NOT find a proper ratproof treadle feeder on Amazon, the selling costs, the shipping subsidies, and the returns are huge so the only thing you will find is mass produced Chinese junk like the Grandpa feeder and its many clones. Read the negative reviews first and believe them if the feeder is leaking, the chickens won't use it, or the rats can just push the lid open. There will some clueless ones without enough sense to follow their instructions but you can usually recognize those.

Once you have gotten rid of the rodents and possibly the wild birds that bring in the pests your eradication methods will work much better. Bio security is very important with chickens or the big farms wouldn't spend so much money on doing it.