Sevin dust

[Gypsi]

It works for me. In my garden and in all of the areas of my yard I can keep watered. In the parts I can't, well fleas have to have moist soil to breed in anyway, so the only problem in the mega dry zones are fire ants, and I think the lizards are handling the ants.

 

[Shawneegyrl]

It works for me. In my garden and in all of the areas of my yard I can keep watered. In the parts I can't, well fleas have to have moist soil to breed in anyway, so the only problem in the mega dry zones are fire ants, and I think the lizards are handling the ants.

That is awesome, here in FL it is raining almost every day so that would work so much better here.
Becky

 

[Zaxby's2]

I've used sevin on a broody OEGB hen once. Pretty much anywhere there was a feather it was covered in dust. I sprinkled some in the nest and some on the ground of the barn lot she was in. It's been about ten weeks and the hen and her chicks are doing fine. I also use sevin on anthills that are in bad locations and haven't had problems with bees (although I do try not to use it near flowers).

 

[plm6846]

How do you know the girls have mites? We live in Scottsdale Az it is rarely wet except the past week...lots of rain no standing puddles

 

[Gypsi]

I don't think mine have mites. It is only the hens on the lot, the older birds, missing some feathers. I dusted them with DE, put ivermectin on their skin, cleaned the coop, did sevin in the cracks. a couple are still missing neck feathers, the rest aren't. And then 2 days ago I was on their lot and got between giant goldenrod and sunflowers and raked my neck on the rough stems. (I let these grow for bee forage and to raise black oil sunflower seeds.). I had an aha moment. I don't think mites got their feathers

 

[Touchstone]

We have 2 dogs who normally have zero fleas. All we do is a monthly "frontline" application, but other brands work well too (liquid applied to skin between shoulder blades). I think that chemical is ok, but I do wear gloves and wrap up the plastic packaging before tossing in the trash. The stuff is toxic to fish so you don't want it to get into our groundwater. If I had a big dog flea issue, i would give the dog a bath first (just regular dog shampoo helps if you don't want the flea soap), and then apply the frontline. I would wash their bedding if possible. As for the chickens, our chickens have "stick tight fleas", which are different from the dog fleas. They are more like tics that suck blood from the chicken's heads (they don't go where there are feathers). I was the one having issues with sevin dust, so i stopped that, and just apply the flea spray every 10 days. It's a pain because we catch each chicken, and apply a small amount of flea spray on a Q-tip (pyrethins, we actually use the Bronco horse flea spray) wherever we see fleas on there heads. This has not eradicated them but greatly reduced the fleas, after about 2 months of doing this. I feel the flea spray is not too bad of a chemical, since tons of people use it on horses every day of summer and don't complain of much. If you do resort to 7 dust, wear long sleeves, shower after, wear a mask, etc. All chemicals are not equally toxic. Follow all precautions on the labels.

 

[Touchstone]

I had a friend that also said nematodes did help with the stick tight fleas.

 

[Erin Boyer]

I have had good luck keeping mites and fleas at bay by keeping fresh pine shavings spread on the coop floor and in the boxes.

 

[Shawneegyrl]

Thanks for the input about sevin and DE. I used a little and then got a prescription for Comfortus for my dog. It does not bother him as far as I can tell and now he will "clean" up the yard.

So far I have not found fleas on chix.

 

[ChickenLife]

Can I put the Sevin dust or the Poultry dust in the chickens dust box or there favorite dusting area? Or would that be to much dust on them all the time, because they really do
a good job of dusting them selves and enjoying too.