What to do if your flock has mites, and how to help prevent it from happening again

[ChickenGirl300]

Last year, one of our hens had mites.( We think) After a bit of research, I settled on the organic remedy of adding garlic powder to their food, and cloves of garlic in their water. I am not sure whether it helped or they just got them off themselves or maybe it was just a really tough molt. It was not the right season though. But now as a preventative add apple cider vinegar to our hens' water, not much though. Hope you respond, ChickenGirl300.

 

[cleoandtheflock]

Garlic is very nice for healthy birds but for getting rid of mites you will want to use it other ways.

If your not sure they are mites post pictures of them.

Most people reccomend the permethrin sprays and poultry dusts, I haven’t used them so I can’t say they are bad but I bet they get rid of them quick and nice. Personally for my flock I have cleaned out my coop thoroughly and then made a homemade mite spray for coops and one homemade mite spray for the flock.

Here’s what I used to rid my flock from mites

For the coop spray
Get a spray bottle that is clean and put in 2 cups of water, 1 cup of cooking oil (I used olive oil), and a tablespoon of safe dish soap and then spray the coop after you completely clean it.

For the bird spray
Get a clean 16 oz spray bottle and put in 20 cloves of peeled and smashed garlic, 45 drops of eucalyptus essential oil, 30 drops of lavender essential oil, 30 drops of peppermint, 2 tablespoons of white vinegar, a handful of lemon balm leaves and then fill 3/4 the way full with water then spray the birds under the wings, on the preening gland, around the vent, and near the keel is the most important places to focus is spraying. And repeat once the next week

 

[coach723]

Neither garlic or acv is going to take care of mites. Either a permethrin product or Elector PSP (expensive) will take care of them. You have to treat the birds and clean out and treat the coop also, usually at least 3 times at weekly intervals to get all those that hatch.
This link has lots of pictures which will hopefully help you ID if you are dealing with them, some mites live in the coop and only come out at night to feed on the chickens while they are roosting.
https://the-chicken-chick.com/poultry-lice-and-mites-identification/

 

[ChickenGirl300]

Yes, we tried the permethrin. It worked, but I only listed the organic things we tried.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Last year, one of our hens had mites.( We think) After a bit of research, I settled on the organic remedy of adding garlic powder to their food, and cloves of garlic in their water. I am not sure whether it helped or they just got them off themselves or maybe it was just a really tough molt. It was not the right season though. But now as a preventative add apple cider vinegar to our hens' water, not much though. Hope you respond, ChickenGirl300.

Yes, we tried the permethrin. It worked, but I only listed the organic things we tried.

Thank you for the post.
Glad to know that the Permethrin worked.

 

[bmintzer7]

Garlic is very nice for healthy birds but for getting rid of mites you will want to use it other ways.

If your not sure they are mites post pictures of them.

Most people reccomend the permethrin sprays and poultry dusts, I haven’t used them so I can’t say they are bad but I bet they get rid of them quick and nice. Personally for my flock I have cleaned out my coop thoroughly and then made a homemade mite spray for coops and one homemade mite spray for the flock.

Here’s what I used to rid my flock from mites

For the coop spray
Get a spray bottle that is clean and put in 2 cups of water, 1 cup of cooking oil (I used olive oil), and a tablespoon of safe dish soap and then spray the coop after you completely clean it.

For the bird spray
Get a clean 16 oz spray bottle and put in 20 cloves of peeled and smashed garlic, 45 drops of eucalyptus essential oil, 30 drops of lavender essential oil, 30 drops of peppermint, 2 tablespoons of white vinegar, a handful of lemon balm leaves and then fill 3/4 the way full with water then spray the birds under the wings, on the preening gland, around the vent, and near the keel is the most important places to focus is spraying. And repeat once the next week

Thank you for the post!
And here’s some research on garlic for those wondering.

https://pdf.sciencedirectassets.com...f155c52055207005201&rr=86b2bc6f4fe5c339&cc=us

 

[dawg53]

@bmintzer7
You really need to hit external parasites hard and fast, especially mites since they suck blood, cause anemia, then death. In addition to Northern Fowl mites, there are Red mites. Red mites not only suck blood but can transfer spirochetes into the chickens bloodstream. Introduction of an antibiotic will kill spirochetes but a massive spirochete kill-off will kill the chicken. It requires low doses of antibiotics to simply control the the spirochetes. Then again, who wants antibiotic residue in the eggs?

Coops must be thoroughly cleaned then sprayed. I prefer Permethrin concentrate which has a 28 day residual effect. I've also used Permethrin powder to dust birds and coops.
Your goal is 100% kill rate, nothing less.

 

[Debbie292d]

Thank you for the post!
And here’s some research on garlic for those wondering.

https://pdf.sciencedirectassets.com/776861/1-s2.0-S0032579119X6294X/1-s2.0-S0032579119410821/main.pdf?X-Amz-Security-Token=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&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20240327T221454Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=300&X-Amz-Credential=ASIAQ3PHCVTY4ALEJRNV/20240327/us-east-1/s3/aws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=a53605f89c30150319269ce2d24970cce1d85481ab3f02ad3fc146692e3b1126&hash=36caf6d5db1f0d8cc51758b41d1c63636ae90181ee7391cb12c18ea967d5505b&host=68042c943591013ac2b2430a89b270f6af2c76d8dfd086a07176afe7c76c2c61&pii=S0032579119410821&tid=spdf-514c81ff-d817-419d-8664-88dfa2890e15&sid=45c9797a520e8843e03959308b1b4beb4e48gxrqa&type=client&tsoh=d3d3LnNjaWVuY2VkaXJlY3QuY29t&ua=0f155c52055207005201&rr=86b2bc6f4fe5c339&cc=us

Garlic is good for a lot of things for chickens, but cures nothing. The same for those of us who use Diatomaceous Earth, otherwise known as food grade DE. It's a good preventative for mites, but would take eons to ever take care of an infestation in a coop.

Both may keep mites away if applied faithfully to coops and/or chickens, but when there is an infestation, @dawg53 is spot on. You have to attack them with a vengeance. Permethrin spray or dust are both effective and way more economical than other "famous" treatments.