Treating Mites in 3 week old chicks.

[Willowspirit]

Any feedback would be helpful. We have just discovered we have mites! We have 10 baby chicks. We keep them separated but had a sick hen in a quarantine cage and discovered she has mites. We have elector and are prepared to treat everyone and clean everything in the chick room, but I want to know if it’s safe to treat the babies. I think I read it was okay to wipe them instead of spraying?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I've never used Elector PSP, so see if we can get @azygous to chime in with her thoughts about using it on chicks.

Hopefully the Elector is o.k. to use on the chicks. If not, then I'd get a Permethrin based poultry dust and dust the chicks.

Mites could be really bad for chicks, so I'd do what was needed to get rid of them.

 

[azygous]

Are you certain it's mites you have? Usually it's the coop that has the mites. When it's lice, the chickens have them. Mites are worse. But both are dangerous to baby chicks.

It's just me, but I like to know what I'm dealing with so I can use the best means to treat them. Fortunately, it's easy to tell mites from lice by counting the legs under magnification. Everyone should have a magnifying lens, probably it's in the kids' toys or in your junk drawer.

Mites have eight legs and Elector is the best way to treat them. Lice have six legs, and permethrin in fine for them. If you use Elector on the chicks, be ready to immediately soak up the moisture in a prewarmed towel and blow dry.