Sevens Dust?

[Sonoran Silkies]

In my experience, DE is pretty useless if you find mites or lice on your birds, and completely useless as a wormer.

 

[redhen]

DE IS useless..
If you dont want your animals to suffer get the real meds from your farm supply store or a vet.

 

[amberflea]

I agree about the DE, way to much hype about it, it never worked for me, and in fact, because of the silicia dust, it can do more harm than good to you and your birds.

 

[barnyard betty]

Frustrating, I wish I knew what worked for sure!!!

LOL!!!

 

[redhen]

Ivermectin will get rid of mites on chickens and will worm them also.

 

[spartacus_63]

DE does work. It does not work as fast as a Pyrithroid or other miticide.

I work in the pest control industry and to better help you with your infestation, I need to know more.

1) do you know what type of mite your birds have? (Probably either poultry mites or feather mites.)

2) Is the infestation throughout the flock or just select birds?

3) what is the construction of your coop? (framed, solid floor, floor covering etc)

If you have poultry mites, you will need to treat the entire coop. If you have scaly mites or feather mites, you could most likely treat just the roosts and nest boxes and control or eliminate the problem. Poultry mites do not live on the birds. They are very similar to bed bugs. They feed on the host and then move to a safe hiding place. Scaly Mites & Feather Mites live on the host for their entire life cycle. The former two spread through contact as found on the roosts and in nest boxes.

Mites are fairly easy to kill but wild birds carry them, so eliminating the problem is much harder. Some things that can be done to prevent a problem with the mites is to clean the nest boxes regularly, limit wild bird exposure to your birds and ensure they have a dust bath area available year round. I use wood ash and DE in my dust box in the winter. Use either DE or Seven on your roosts regularly (dust it as you would your tomato plants every couple of months.)

 

[spartacus_63]

Ivermectin is not licensed for egg or meat producing birds. Although it is allowed to be Rx'd by vets, there is a withdraw period for eggs. Typically it is 7 days for eggs and 28 for meat, but it is dependent on the vet and the dose. It is not as easy to use, IMO, as Seven. More care should be taken while applying this drug too. Ivermectin is a broad spectrum anti-parasite drug. It is highly effective, but little has been studied on the effects to poultry. There is a fair amount of information regarding use on ornamental birds, so I would not be to worried about using it on chickens, but I would not eat the eggs and I would not use it while collecting hatching eggs or around young birds.

One nice thing about Ivermectin is that there is evidence that it will kill mite eggs too. This is a huge plus and will reduce the need to retreat.

 

[redhen]

Yes, if you use Ivermectin dont use/eat the eggs for 2 weeks... and after you treat with Ivermectin, you have to retreat in 2 weeks(to kill off the remaining mite eggs etc..)
So really you cant eat the eggs for a month...
But its worth it... so you dont have suffering sick birds.
And i stand by my opinion.. DE does not work..

 

[spartacus_63]

That is the great thing about opinions...they are ours and we are entitled to them. I use DE in my daily business and I would not waste the money if it did not work. You will not see rapid results like you may with synthetic inhibitors or poisons, but the great thing is, is that it is completely non toxic and lasts forever as long as it doesn't get soaked. Poisons & synthetics break down fairly quickly and there is evidence, especially in the southern states, that mites are building a tolerence to the pyrithroids at a rapid rate.

 

[redhen]

That is the great thing about opinions...they are ours and we are entitled to them.  I use DE in my daily business and I would not waste the money if it did not work.  You will not see rapid results like you may with synthetic inhibitors or poisons, but the great thing is, is that it is completely non toxic and lasts forever as long as it doesn't get soaked.  Poisons & synthetics break down fairly quickly and there is evidence, especially in the southern states, that mites are building a tolerence to the pyrithroids at a rapid rate.

 

All i know is for "myself", i have tried to use it several times and it has never worked.. trust me i WANTED it to work.. but it simply didnt. (for ME)
I think it is okay a sort of preventive... might help slow down the mites??... etc.. (not even really sure about that though)
But if your bird is already infested with mites then it is useless,.. and to use it, it prolongs the suffering the animal has to endure..
I also tried it on ants... pffft,... i used a whole bag on my yard... the little stinkers just kept on trucking through it and were laughing and flippin me off...
I'm STILL trying to find a animal safe ant killer i can use in my yard that actually kills the ants..