This is sucking and Im getting frustrated.** update**

[wbruder17]

I just need to vent a bit.

My chickens have bugs. Fleas, mites, little red bugs (also mites?) I've posted on here about cures and done TONS of research. I've switched from pine shavings to straw, hoping they don't like to nest in that as much. I clean the coop religiously and use Diatamatious Earth. I found Poultry Protector, a natural citrus based pest control. I have sprayed all heck out of every nook and cranny in my coop. I have bathed several birds and will continue to rotate through the flock, giving Poultry Protector bath soaks. It works for a short while, but now I have 3 broody hens and not only are they bogarting the nest boxes, but they are sitting targets and COVERED in the bugs.

I interact and handle my chickens a lot and it is creeping me out when I touc a chicken and get all kinds of bugs crawling all over me. I'm starting to freak out thinking I always have bugs crawling on me. I don't know what else to do but what I've been doing and just keep on keeping on.

I refuse to use Sevin Dust or any other pesticides, so please don't even bother mentiioning it.

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

Gosh, I feel your frustration.

I had read that straw was bad because the mites could hide in the tiny straw tubes. I know you just made that switch but you might consider going to sand. I use sand with a healthy dose of DE in there and don't have issues.

I have pine shavings in my nest box but I know people do put sand in their nest boxes and you could load that up with DE too.

Also, there's a place I order stuff from, Treats for Chickens, that has non-toxic bug relief:
http://www.treatsforchickens.com/categories/Non%2dToxic-Bug-Relief/

I do have their next box blend in my nest boxes. I can't say if it really works because I also have DE in there. But I don't have any bugs and it smells nice.

Hang in there.

 

[Chick Norris]

I would think that "rotating" treatments through your flock would do no good. You need a scorched earth approach where you clean everything/everyone all at once. I understand that this may be a Herculean task if you have a large flock, but otherwise the clean birds will just get re-infested by the dirty ones.

 

[TriciaHowe]

I used 7 dust and haven't had mites since....
Good luck to you!

 

[chicmom]

I know how badly alot of people want to stay all natural or organic. Sometimes you just have to break down and get some of the good stuff to kill those parasites. My flock had lice one year, and I used Seven Dust, which worked great. Powdered every chicken from head to toe (twice) and I gutted the entire coop and dusted it with seven dust as well. That did the trick.

 

[ReikiStar]

I agree with all the previous posts:

Straw harbors mites. Sand is fantastic!

Scorched earth tactic is the only way to attack any parasite. And since eggs can stick around, you do it all again in 7 to 10 days.

We won't resort to using Sevin either, but what about bathing them with a dog flea shampoo? Just make sure it contains PERMETHRIN and not Pyrethrins. This way you're upping the ante with something made to use on animals.

 

[sourland]

Well, how long has the DE not been working for you? I recommend a TOTAL cleaning of the coop. Sanitization with a 10% chlorox solution. Painting of roosts, corners, floor/wall junctions with old crankcase oil. Utilization of pelleted wood horse beddng. Redusting of your birds with DE and flours of sulfur. You will continue to have problems, but hopefully they will be reduced. I am seriously concerned that you have reached the infestation overload where only chemical intervention will eliminate them. Sorry, but it's a reality.

 

[Blue]

I would use a poultry dust with Permethrin in it; I get mine at the feed store for around $6 or $7 a can, and a can lasts a long time for me. A flea dip or something with Permethrin would also probably work well. If you use a poultry dust, you'll have to reapply it to your flock 7 days after the first application, but 2 doses is usally sufficient. I also sprinkle the dust on the coop floors and roosts when I change the bedding. One other solution if you can't dust all the chickens yourself would be to build a box for your chickens to dust in, and mix in some poultry dust, so that they can dust themselves.

I've never used DE; it just doesn't seem to be readily available in my area, and the cost to ship from the websites I've checked is double or triple the actual cost of the DE, so, for me, it's just not worth the expense.

 

[welasharon]

I admire your desire to not use chemicals but these bugs can and do weaken and kill chickens.

 

[Keltara]

We just started with chickens this past spring. I have sand in our coop. We have not seen a single mite or bug on our hens. The only thing I put in our sand was Sweet PDZ (and I really don't even think that was necessary. We have an odorless coop even on the hottest days. It takes less than a minute to clean it each day with a kitty litter scoop. The floor of the coop is 4x4 and raised. A good friend of mine who has MANY chickens and has been doing chickens for years, gave me something to spray on our birds "if" they get mites. It's premethin-10. He said he mixed .75 oz with a gallon of water. You just put it in a spray bottle and squirt it on the birds. He said it works great! Hopefully, I won't need to use it, but it's nice to have on hand just in case. Unfortunately in my experience when it comes to bugs, I have found that it's the chemicals that work. Natural stuff doesn't usually do much of anything. Good luck though.

Once again....sand is sooooooo clean, odorless and easy. I highly recommend it! ✿◠‿◠
~Kelly~