stick fleas

[purplerainangel26]

I have 6 hens in a pretty good sized shared coup. Wasn't watching (enough) when teenager kids were taking care of the hens, they are now invested with stick fleas. We live in florida so it doesn't get real cold. To many to hand tweeze them off. We have dipped them with flea dip being careful not to get in their eyes and used olive oil around face, b/c we heard it helped kill the stick fleas on their head without hurting their eyes. It's helping but we can't seem to get them killed off inside the coup nor completely off their heads etc. We lime the coup something someone said to do on here. ANY ADVICE, I love my hens but the flea problem is taken over!!

 

[ivan3]

About as nasty as bed bugs it seems: http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/pdf/0019.pdf (good description of Stick fleas and other unusual external parasites).

As mentioned in article: Sevin dust seems to be effective. Eprinex will kill them as well. You might want to clean reddened areas with a bit of betadine in water (1 part betadine to 10 parts water) and then apply plain neosporin.

The fact that their dead mouth parts remain under the skin is why I suggest the cleaning and ointment (sounds like a particularly ugly customer).

Please check out this thread on Northern Fowl Mites: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=279477

With the exception of having to guard against secondary infections, pretty much every intervention for the mites is applicable.

Good Luck!