The war on roost mites

[ShrekDawg]

Lye in the form of burned hard wood ashes is what is needed. Lye is a naturally occurring component in ashes and acts as an irritant, it should kill external parasites like lice and hopefully force the others to move on.

I'll have to burn some wood then ha is it possible to just let them dust bathe in it?

Although where do you get hardwoods. Around here it's mostly pine, oak maple. Some birch. Most firewood is oak i think. Oak is hardwood right? Pine isn't?

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I think I'm going to try that. Although don't ants have a hard exo skeleton? Perhaps it would be different for different bugs.

And maybe it doesn't always work for infestations, not sure, but it seems it could be a good preventative. I've heard others use lyme though

They do have hard exo-skeletions but I have never heard but one person who swears by DE say anything other than that DE was more deadly than Plutonium but just easier to buy..

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I'll have to burn some wood then ha is it possible to just let them dust bathe in it?

Although where do you get hardwoods. Around here it's mostly pine, oak maple. Some birch. Most firewood is oak i think. Oak is hardwood right? Pine isn't?

The ashes will have to be kept dry. Wet ashes are like wet DE, useless unless its dry. Pine will work in a PITCH

but a hard wood like oak, maple, or birch has more active ingredients. Sorry for the bad pun.

 

[petalumapaul]

Thanks for reading my post. I am also a greenie, but I draw the line when my hens are so uncomfortable, and the mites bit the hell out of me too!

One pyrethrin bomb.
One treatment of Sevin powder dusted all over the coop, and a bit on each chickens underside.
All seems well in the coop now.

No lost feathers. They go in at night to sleep.

 

[ShrekDawg]

They do have hard exo-skeletions but I have never heard but one person who swears by DE say anything other than that DE was more deadly than Plutonium but just easier to buy..  

The ashes will have to be kept dry.  Wet ashes are like wet DE, useless unless its dry.  Pine will work in a PITCH  but a hard wood like oak, maple, or birch has more active ingredients.  Sorry for the bad pun.

Sorry, forgot to reply but thanks