What type of bug?

[ramirezframing]

Cleaning out some coops and my son noticed these bugs in the wet dirt (had a lot of rain lately). They don't get off of the dirt unless knocked off, not even when I held the clump of dirt in my hand of a while (so not seeking heat or anything like I thought a blood sucking mite would). Does anyone know what they are? The whitish colored ones on the clump seem to be youngsters. I knocked a few of the brownish red ones off on to the white paper. Thanks for any help.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Cleaning out some coops and my son noticed these bugs in the wet dirt (had a lot of rain lately). They don't get off of the dirt unless knocked off, not even when I held the clump of dirt in my hand of a while (so not seeking heat or anything like I thought a blood sucking mite would). Does anyone know what they are? The whitish colored ones on the clump seem to be youngsters. I knocked a few of the brownish red ones off on to the white paper. Thanks for any help.

Your photos didn't come through. It's either Northern Fowl (poultry) mites or Red Chicken mites. The former NFM spend all of their time on the chicken. The latter are harder to control because they often spend the daylight hours hiding in cracks and crevices in a wooden coop.

This link is perhaps the easiest to understand primer about the mites and other external parasites commonly found on poultry.
http://www.extension.org/pages/66149/external-parasites-of-poultry#.VMB7iLtMGM8

The external parasites of chickens are: Northern Fowl Mites.
Scaly Leg Mites
Red Mites (a.k.a.) Roost Mites
Chicken Lice
Stick Tight Fleas
And several other species of poultry fleas, lice, ticks,
bedbugs.

As for myself I don't try to be to specific about what I see on my birds. I just try to periodically kill them all if I see any creepy crawlies, and then let the old master sort out the good from the bad, if in fact there are any good chicken lice, ticks, fleas, and mites.

I would recommend that you print off the above link and keep your copy handy for quick reference.

 

[ramirezframing]

I know it's not Northern fowl mites, lice, or scaly leg mites (I have dealt with those before). I don't think these are red mite either, or any kind of blood sucker for that matter. I held a clump of cold wet dirt that was full of these bugs for several minutes and none crawled onto my warm hand. I managed to knock one off the clump and all it did was walk back across my hand and onto the dirt clump.

 

[ramirezframing]