Tiny all red (orange almost) bugs on my eggs!

[augustwest]

As the title says, I found tiny little red mites of some sort crawling on one of my eggs this am. I've never seen them before and my chickens look fine. I will catch a chicken tonight and inspect closely, but I can't find any bugs on the one chicken that I can catch.

The bugs are tiny, orange red- all over. No black legs and it didn't appear that they were red because they were full of blood.

Is Pour on Ivomec the way to go? I will pull all bedding out of the coop and dust with DE too.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[stoopid]

Those are mites.

 

[elmo]

Sounds like you have mites in the nestboxes. In addition to getting rid of the bedding inside the boxes, you might even consider replacing the nestboxes. If they're wooden boxes, the mites can hide in the crevices and sometimes escape from the effects of DE or poultry dust. That's one reason I love plastic nestboxes so much: no crevices, and cleaning them is a breeze.

You reminded me: I haven't changed the shavings in my nestboxes for a couple of months. I usually try to remember to do this at least monthly in the summer when it's prime mite season. I put down a layer of poultry dust in the bottom of the box, then fresh shavings.

Got to go do that now!

Good luck getting rid of the mites.

p.s. If they're red mites, they don't typically live on the bird, but only in the environment. Oh, also forgot to mention: be sure to check your roosts, especially underneath and in any crevices around the roost.

 

[augustwest]

UGH. My husband tried to convince me that these were mites that just lived in the environment. Darn it.

I will pull everything out, dust and refill with clean bedding.

If they don't live on the chickens, do I need to use ivomec?

Darn it!

Edit: of course my entire coop is wooden! Next boxes are external.

 

[klmclain1]

Will Sevin kill these mites? If so, isn't there liquid Sevin? If so, it seems to me that wooden coops/roosts/nest boxes could be sprayed well with that and left to dry well before putting in new bedding. Someone? Anyone?

 

[ChickiKat]

there is liquid seven.. dont know if it will kill mites though.

 

[augustwest]

So, are these the kinds of mites that I can find on my chickens? Or the ones that live only in the coop- and feed on the chickens at night?

I'm trying really hard not to, but I am FREAKING out! We have a whole flock at point of lay- only one is laying. I'm now convinced that only one is laying because I have not noticed the mites and I am a bad chicken momma. I have one older chicken that molted about 2 months ago and never laid an egg again. I just thought to leave her alone and she'll get it done. I STINK!!!!

Husband got 2 bales of shavings on the way home and a big container of DE. We'll start there (on Wednesday- I'll have to call in sick to get it done). He's convinced they are red clover mites and this is their annual migration inside. I have to agree that they do look just like clover mites and not like the pics of red chicken mites that I have seen.

I will check tonight when all are asleep- I'll pull a few chickens and check them under a flash light and will look on the roost like some posts have suggested.

For the record, I found about 10 crawling on a pretty green egg- all during the day in the dark nest box. I will dig through the coop as well.

Still wondering if I should ivomec the chickens? Or use seven dust? Any advice?

 

[heatherkh]

They sound like the mites we were battling at the farm where I volunteer to tend chickens. They generally live in the coop and feed at night. But it is extremely difficult to eradicate them from the coop (you have to treat and retreat). Like you, I first noticed them crawling around on the eggs in the nesting boxes. You're not a bad momma, mites can happen to anyone.

Here's a UK site with some helpful information.

http://poultrykeeper.com/chickens/health/red-mite.html