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- #21
UPDATE
It's been a while since I last updated. The situation has improved, and I've learned some things that may be of value to all of you. The mite numbers, as of now, are equal to, if not lower than when I first noticed them back in December.
However, none of this success is because of the permethrin. I can say that because I decided not to use permethrin for the flock, even though I had acquired it in liquid and dust form. The safety instructions for both the dust and liquid were quite excessive.
I began looking into other methods to deal with the infestation, and read about elemental sulfur, and how it works. I also knew that Garlic is filled with sulfur compounds, which, while not elemental sulfur, have shown some effect for me. So I acquired this garlic powder (which is finer than the flour I have), and dusted the hens with it. They ended up smelling like Olive Garden when this was done. The dust itself didn't seem to bother them much at all.
I had done this maybe twice when I noticed something about the hens' infestations. The hens with health issues had significantly more mites than the ones without health issues. The number of mites on the hens with health issues was increasing, while the number of mites on the hens without health issues was decreasing. One of my hens' ended up going through a week of rapid decline before dying of something that caused her to bleed internally. As she was declining, the mite population on her exploded, while the healthy hens' mite populations virtually disappeared. When she died, thousands of mites were buried with her. The other two hens with health issues (one with gout, the other with a big bumblefoot) still had mites, but their numbers eventually decreased also. For a while the mites were almost exclusively on the hen with bumblefoot.
I decided to bathe the bumblefoot hen in a bin filled with warm, soapy water, with a few drops of essential oils (lavender, lemon, melaleuca, peppermint) added to the water. You can remove mites with a soapy paper towel both in and out of water, and rinse the hen by gently pouring some water on her. I proceeded to get as many mites and eggs of her as possible, then dried her with towel + blow dryer, and released her back to her friends.
I repeated this a week later, and then a week after that. With each bath, the number of mites seemed to have decreased by about 50%. The mites would also tend to concentrate on her neck and wings, and lay eggs there. This made it easy for me to track their life cycle, and to wipe out both current and future generations of NFMs. As of now, her mite population is much lower.
I've also noticed that spikes in NFM population correlate with lack of dirt bathing. Recently, mites began crawling to some of my other hens after a prolonged period of saturated ground. However, now that the ground has dried, and these hens are dirt bathing, the mite numbers look like they are decreasing. I also dusted the affected ones with garlic dust. I believe the total mite population is equal or lower now than when I first noticed the mites on my chickens.
Conclusions
So, in my mind I've established that NFMs will generally target less healthy hens. Less healthy means either a): a lack of dirt bathing, or b): pre-existing health conditions. If there is a hen who is struggling with a health issue, the mites will migrate to her and more or less abandon the healthier hens. The worse the hen's health is, the more mites will migrate to her relative to the other hens.
I've also established in my mind that garlic dust repels and kills some mites, but it is not a 100% effective solution. But for me, the garlic dust is more effective than the garlic juice since the dust is easier to apply, and it remains on the hens for longer.
Weekly baths are quite effective at reducing mite populations over time, in both the crawlers and their eggs. I would highly recommend this approach for instances where the infestation is concentrated on a few hens, as long as you have a drain for the mites to go in. I have an outdoor drain where the water goes after I dump it.
It's been a while since I last updated. The situation has improved, and I've learned some things that may be of value to all of you. The mite numbers, as of now, are equal to, if not lower than when I first noticed them back in December.
However, none of this success is because of the permethrin. I can say that because I decided not to use permethrin for the flock, even though I had acquired it in liquid and dust form. The safety instructions for both the dust and liquid were quite excessive.
I began looking into other methods to deal with the infestation, and read about elemental sulfur, and how it works. I also knew that Garlic is filled with sulfur compounds, which, while not elemental sulfur, have shown some effect for me. So I acquired this garlic powder (which is finer than the flour I have), and dusted the hens with it. They ended up smelling like Olive Garden when this was done. The dust itself didn't seem to bother them much at all.
I had done this maybe twice when I noticed something about the hens' infestations. The hens with health issues had significantly more mites than the ones without health issues. The number of mites on the hens with health issues was increasing, while the number of mites on the hens without health issues was decreasing. One of my hens' ended up going through a week of rapid decline before dying of something that caused her to bleed internally. As she was declining, the mite population on her exploded, while the healthy hens' mite populations virtually disappeared. When she died, thousands of mites were buried with her. The other two hens with health issues (one with gout, the other with a big bumblefoot) still had mites, but their numbers eventually decreased also. For a while the mites were almost exclusively on the hen with bumblefoot.
I decided to bathe the bumblefoot hen in a bin filled with warm, soapy water, with a few drops of essential oils (lavender, lemon, melaleuca, peppermint) added to the water. You can remove mites with a soapy paper towel both in and out of water, and rinse the hen by gently pouring some water on her. I proceeded to get as many mites and eggs of her as possible, then dried her with towel + blow dryer, and released her back to her friends.
I repeated this a week later, and then a week after that. With each bath, the number of mites seemed to have decreased by about 50%. The mites would also tend to concentrate on her neck and wings, and lay eggs there. This made it easy for me to track their life cycle, and to wipe out both current and future generations of NFMs. As of now, her mite population is much lower.
I've also noticed that spikes in NFM population correlate with lack of dirt bathing. Recently, mites began crawling to some of my other hens after a prolonged period of saturated ground. However, now that the ground has dried, and these hens are dirt bathing, the mite numbers look like they are decreasing. I also dusted the affected ones with garlic dust. I believe the total mite population is equal or lower now than when I first noticed the mites on my chickens.
Conclusions
So, in my mind I've established that NFMs will generally target less healthy hens. Less healthy means either a): a lack of dirt bathing, or b): pre-existing health conditions. If there is a hen who is struggling with a health issue, the mites will migrate to her and more or less abandon the healthier hens. The worse the hen's health is, the more mites will migrate to her relative to the other hens.
I've also established in my mind that garlic dust repels and kills some mites, but it is not a 100% effective solution. But for me, the garlic dust is more effective than the garlic juice since the dust is easier to apply, and it remains on the hens for longer.
Weekly baths are quite effective at reducing mite populations over time, in both the crawlers and their eggs. I would highly recommend this approach for instances where the infestation is concentrated on a few hens, as long as you have a drain for the mites to go in. I have an outdoor drain where the water goes after I dump it.
