Stick tight Fleas... HELP!!!!!!

[Newchickiemamma]

Thanks for your help! The coop is shaded most of the day by my maple trees. I did check the chickens and all I could find was some dry skin and the few sticktights on their combs and faces. I have promethrine spray that I just recently purchased (I got the biggest bottle they sell) and I also believe I purchased that pro manna stuff. I am surrounded by farms! There is wildlife everywhere! We even have a mountain lion that occasionally roams the yard. I put up a cayenne pepper barrier when I first got the chickens last year and I haven’t seen much wildlife on the property since then but we do have it. And my rescue chicken, Flossy, was chasing a deer in the neighboring farm about a week ago. I am very concerned because I read a different post stating that sticktight fleas are not found in the northern US. Can anyone validate this? I am in northeastern PA. All the cases I’ve come across are FL, TX, AZ, and CA. So where the heck did these things come from?!

 

[Latestarter]

Could what you're seeing be grass seed? from like foxtail grass? The seeds stick tight and actually work themselves into and under the skin over time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxtail_(diaspore)

 

[Tesumph]

Can you get a picture? So far you are describing sticktight fleas for sure, they do look like dirt or little seeds. DE will not control this, as others have said. You need to be spraying regularly and cleaning out bedding a little more often to get this under control.

 

[Newchickiemamma]

This is the only picture I was able to get last night. It is not clear because I had a flashlight shining on the “fleas” but if you look down near her cheek you can see them, they look grayish in color because of the reflection of the flashlight... as well as the two black spots near her eye.

 

[Newchickiemamma]

Could what you're seeing be grass seed? from like foxtail grass? The seeds stick tight and actually work themselves into and under the skin over time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxtail_(diaspore)

Hmm, I never saw that type of grass anywhere in or around my property so I don’t think that is it.. thanks for the info!

 

[Molpet]

not sure if it will work on stick tight fleas, but for lice and mites 99.9% pure elemental sulfur in the dust bath works. I add it to wherever they make a dust bath, it's considered organic if you don't want to use chemicals.

https://smile.amazon.com/Earthworks...?srs=9496031011&ie=UTF8&qid=1529689058&sr=8-5

Abstract
Hen housing (cage or cage‐free) did not impact overall abundances of northern fowl mites, Ornithonyssus sylviarum (Canestrini & Fanzago) (Acari: Macronyssidae), or chicken body lice, Menacanthus stramineus(Nitzsch) (Phthiraptera: Menoponidae). Cage‐free hens received a dustbox with sand plus diatomaceous earth (DE), kaolin clay or sulphur. Weekly use varied from none to 100% of hens; 73% of hens used the dustbox at least once. Ectoparasite populations on dustbathing hens (users) were compared with those on non‐user cage‐free and caged hens. All materials reduced ectoparasites on user hens by 80–100% after 1 week of dustbox use. Diatomaceous earth and kaolin failed to reduce ectoparasites on non‐user hens, and ectoparasites on user hens recovered after dustbox removal. A sulphur dustbox eliminated mites from all hens (including non‐users) within 2–4 weeks. Residual sulphur controlled mites until the end of the experiment (up to 9 weeks), even after the dustbox was removed. Louse populations on hens using the sulphur dustbox were reduced in 1–2 weeks. Residual sulphur effects were less evident in lice, but the use of a sulphur dustbox by a higher proportion of hens extended louse control to all hens. This is the first experimental study to show that bird dustbathing in naturally and widely available dust materials (particularly kaolin) can suppress ectoparasites and thus the behaviour is probably adaptive.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2915.2011.00997.x

 

[Newchickiemamma]

I got some pictures of President Lincoln this afternoon... this is what I believe are the sticktight fleas on her face. I know she does have some dried blood on there too as she has been scratching her face A LOT and rubbing it in the grass to get whatever this is on there off. There are a few photos. Any input is greatly appreciated!!

 

[Kiki]

This looks like dirt or dried blood...does not look like stick tight fleas to me.

 

[Newchickiemamma]

It definitely isn’t dried blood. I would think it was dirt but it doesn’t come off it’s almost stuck inside her skin... hence why I thought stick tight fleas. I cannot find another picture as close up as mine are that I can compare the two. In the one, it almost appears that one of these bumps has a leg! I’m going back up tonight with my son to do more investigating

 

[Tesumph]

It definitely isn’t dried blood. I would think it was dirt but it doesn’t come off it’s almost stuck inside her skin... hence why I thought stick tight fleas. I cannot find another picture as close up as mine are that I can compare the two. In the one, it almost appears that one of these bumps has a leg! I’m going back up tonight with my son to do more investigating

They don’t look as round, smooth, and shiny as fleas should. I’m really not sure.