Those of you who have battled mites please advise

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I know how frustrating mites are. I was going crazy after bringing these birds in!

We are certified organic here. I have 100 birds and I have never used Sevin. Mites usually live in the wood in your house and come out at night. I would spray all wood with neem oil every 3 days. I would rub the roosts down with DE in between coatings. I would find where your birds are dusting themselves and add some DE.Clean the coop out of everything and leave it bare while you are spraying. You should be able to smother them with the oil in the wood and you will take care of new emerging eggs if you spray every 3-5 days. Really spray your corners. Get your ceiling if it's wood. Get under the nest boxes if they are wood. Be as crazy thorough as you can. I use a backpack sprayer. A bottle of neem oil will last you for quite a few sprayings. I use about 1/4 less water than suggested to really make it strong.

Is your feather loss around the vent? and on the back? That's a sure sign.

I feel your pain. This was so frustrating. It took me a month of spraying and garlic in the water and dusting my hens to get rid of this. I swore of birds from a non NPIP breeder because I spent so much time and energy on this.

I am sending a prayer that you will get divine strategies.
 
Quote:
Yes, however, I find those who pay for the certification and maintain their flocks are (by and large) pristine. They are folks concerned about their reputation putting out birds of quality. Most are serious breeders who know their stuff!
 
Heron's Nest Farm said:
I know how frustrating mites are. I was going crazy after bringing these birds in!

We are certified organic here. I have 100 birds and I have never used Sevin. Mites usually live in the wood in your house and come out at night. I would spray all wood with neem oil every 3 days. I would rub the roosts down with DE in between coatings. I would find where your birds are dusting themselves and add some DE.Clean the coop out of everything and leave it bare while you are spraying. You should be able to smother them with the oil in the wood and you will take care of new emerging eggs if you spray every 3-5 days. Really spray your corners. Get your ceiling if it's wood. Get under the nest boxes if they are wood. Be as crazy thorough as you can. I use a backpack sprayer. A bottle of neem oil will last you for quite a few sprayings. I use about 1/4 less water than suggested to really make it strong.

Is your feather loss around the vent? and on the back? That's a sure sign.

I feel your pain. This was so frustrating. It took me a month of spraying and garlic in the water and dusting my hens to get rid of this. I swore of birds from a non NPIP breeder because I spent so much time and energy on this.

I am sending a prayer that you will get divine strategies.
Click to expand...

Hi Heron's Nest Farm. I wonder if you (or others on this thread using organic solutions) could reply and help me gather information about neem oil use. I am not running an organic farm like you, but I am very concerned about the long-term effects of introducing chemical pesticides -- both on the environment and my health (because of some health vulnerabilities of my own, I have to be especially careful about pesticides) -- and so I have been trying to get as much specific info as possible about non-chemical remedies. I am also concerned about the issue you raise regarding how many things to try at once, letting the birds' systems settle, etc., and it is hard to get protocols for the natural stuff. Could you tell me:

1. Exactly what concentration of neem oil you used in the coop and what the other ingredients in the solution were?
2. Do you ever apply neem oil directly to your birds? If so in what concentration?
3. Do you ever use the garlic juice spray that some have tried from the Fresh Eggs Daily website (basically just garlic juice and water)? Is this something I could put on 24 hours after putting a drop of very diluted neem oil under their wings (as someone else suggested)? Or would that be too much on them? Does this work at all or is it a total waste of time?

I would be so grateful to hear more specifics about your experiences and techniques, since it sounds like you have a clear protocol going. Thanks.
 
The other posters are right - It certainly IS possible that you aren't fighting a mite infestation at all. Do you have a rooster? They can do untold damage to the hens' feathers, and yes, they can break them off rather than pluck them totally out. The other funny thing about roos is that they will sometimes pick a "chick of the week" and breed her almost constantly, then move on to another hen and repeat that process. My roo Scout was like that. He'd focus on one or two for a time then find another couple to harass. That might account for why some seem to get better then suddenly get worse again.

Just because you aren't seeing your chickens pecking at feathers doesn't mean it isn't happening. I was particularly struck by your comment that you aren't seeing the coop or run full of feathers. Then where are all the feathers they're losing going? With 20 birds out there they can - and will - also devour feathers that are laying around. If that's the case, then that could be a deficiency in protein. And it is possible that they are molting at the same time, which I am sure is adding to your frustration.

If you want to know beyond a doubt that you are fighting mites, then get yourself a flashlight. Go out after the birds have been roosting. The first thing you want to look for is the chickens' behavior on the roost. Are they stamping their feet a lot up there? Doing a lot of scratching and head shaking? Shine your flashlight on the roosts and see if you spot any creepy crawlys on the there heading for a meal. Mites hide during the day and come out to feed at night....if you have 'em, you'll see 'em. They aren't always black, either. The ones I have in my coop right now are a sort of gray color except for the full ones - they are red.
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As for the Neem Oil. I mix it at the rate it says on the package, 2 TBS per gallon of water. I have a sprayer that I use for nothing else. And I put a dab of Dawn dishwashing detergent in the mixture. It helps the Neem Oil mix better with water.

If I were you I'd back off on the chemical insecticides for a bit. You don't seem to making progress with them, despite saying that you see improvement in their feathering after they've been dusted. I have 28 chickens in my coop, and we are fighting this battle right now. We DID actually see the mites with our own eyes, so we knew what we were fighting. I go out after dark with a flashlight. I have a blue washcloth rubber banded over the light so I have enough to see with but not enough to overstress the roosting chickens. I grab each one by the legs, let it hang upside down to calm down and to make the feathers open up, then I dust them, making sure I dust the vent area and under the wings well. Then I put her back up there and after a little fluffing and fussing at me she settles right back down. Grab chicken, dust, repeat. Just makes sense to do this after roosting time when they are calmer, and as my good friend Lazy Gardener advised me, since mites feed at night why not attack while the birds are carrying a heavy load of them on board? You kill more at one time that way. But if you can, give your birds a short break from the pesticides for a bit. The combination of feather loss and stress might be causing some of the problems you are seeing. That endless spray spray spray. irritating already irritated skin might just be like a revolving door. Their skin might be reacting to so much Sevin. Continue treating the coop, but give the actual birds a rest. You'll still be working on getting rid of them in the environment and you can always go back to the dusting after a short break if you still think you need to. If you did find mites when you checked, believe me, they didn't become an infestation in one night so you won't be able to eradicate them overnight either. It's going to take time, and you sound like you are determined to take as much time as you need to get this under control - IF, and I repeat, IF you do find those pesky mites when you check after dark. I urge you to look and try to positively identify the problem before you go much further, especially since what you are basically saying is that nothing you're doing is working long term anyway. It could just be time to try a different approach, that's all.

Check the area where your roost is attached. Look on the underside of the roosts. Just because you haven't introduced new birds doesn't mean the mites haven't decided your coop is a nice place to eat. They can come in on wild birds, as you suspect. Mice and rats are common vectors as well. And no, I'm not saying you have a rodent infected coop. Just a suggestion. We found where our mites came in - turns out the latest bales of straw we brought to put in the nest boxes had them. Now so do my chickens. I so wish you luck with this. It's a pain in the hiney and it's no fun for the owners or the birds. Our job is to make it even less fun for the mites!
 

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