Sevin?

[Pyxis]

So, my birds have lice. I noticed it while playing with my little bantam today. I want to dust them with Sevin, but I have some questions first. What's the best way to do it? I was thinking once they all settled in to roost. But do I just leave it on them after I've dusted them? Will ingesting it hurt them, if they groom after being dusted? I also have a momma with six 2-day-old chicks. Do I dust her, or would it hurt the chicks? Sorry for all the questions, I just don't want to hurt my birds while trying to help them!

 

[Judy]

Use the 5% garden dust. Some like the powder puff method, put it in a scrap of loose woven cloth and puff it on, and some like the paper bag method, put the chicken in a grocery store brown paper bag up to the neck with the Sevin and shake things around gently. Clean and dust the coop, replace the bedding. Sprinklle some around, especially in the nests. after you clean the coop. Check the undersides of the roosts. Repeat it all in 10 days because eggs will hatch and the Sevin doesn't kill eggs.

Some prefer Eprinex cattle pour on wormer, 0.5 ml on the back of the neck for large fowl, but it does not get all species of lice / mites and it's not cheap, about $40 for a bottle that's way bigger than you can use. And you still need to clean the coop.

 

[Pyxis]

So I just leave it on them? And will it hurt the chicks if I dust their mom?

 

[winekntrychicks]

I have used seven dust with good results. But I did poison one of my little Sebrite hens on accident. Not sure how it happened I can only guess. I let them all about of the coop and dusted the coop. She must have run back in when she saw me dusting. The only thing I can think of is maybe she swallowed a clumped ball of it ( I am only guessing) cause I actually dusted a roo directly and is fine a year later. I put it in a flour sieve and dust the ground. Then 24 hours later I will go back and dust with Food Grade Diotomacious Earth. Has to be FOOD GRADE. In six years of chicken keeping I have have mites twice ; lice once. We have 100s of wild birds that come in and feed on our fruit trees and they bring the critters with them.

 

[winekntrychicks]

Just use it sparingly. I have used it on chicks but only in the litter in the brooder box . Not directly on a chick.

 

[fuzzybutt love]

I use the liquid permethrin, you can buy it at the farm stores and use it on almost anything, except cats. It comes concentrate, and there are instructions on the bottle for diluting it. If you sprayed a bit under her wings and by her vent it should clear things up in a hurry- but you have to discard the eggs for at least 2 weeks and you should still repeat the dose.

It is similar to the powder, but mine somehow get the powder right off them and it don't work for them, so i have switched to this so they can't get it off! I wouldn't use this on the chicks, the only thing safe for chicks is the diotomaceous earth.