What's the Best Way to Treat Lice?

[citychickinthecountry]

I noticed today that my Ameraucana Bantam has lice. They appear to be head lice because I saw two running on top of her feathers (no signs of sores on her skin at the base of her feathers). My other chickens (I have 8 total) appear to be lice free.

What's the best way to treat the lice? Should I just treat this one hen or the whole flock?

My chickens free-range when I'm home in the evenings and on the weekends during the day, but the rest of the time they are together in a large inside coop.

In case this matters, this hen (the one with lice) is just over 1-year old. I have two other hens that are the same age. The other 5 chickens are 18 weeks old on Monday (7/5/10).

 

[Dar]

I use dri kill with great results

Please be really careful and wear a mask if you use this product. Its not nice on the lungs. I did not wear a mask a year ago when i used it and I ended up with pneumonia that required hospitalization (on the up side I quit smoking after that

)

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

I'm a firm believer in Sevin dust. Dust all of your birds AND the coop.

 

[DragonEggs]

You can buy lots of different kinds of dust that is safe to use on pets and crops at your local feed store. Many people use DE or sevin dust, just make sure your sevin is no greater than 5-7%. DO WEAR A MASH! That stuff is extremely toxic to humans if it gets in your lungs. Thouroughly dust ALL your birds, the coop, their bedding, everything! The easiest way to dust your birds is to fill a bag with the dust and put your chicken in up to it's head and shake the bag (gently). I just finished going through this a few days ago. Make sure you do it all again in 10 days to get any larvae that may have hatched.

 

[Pardee_Boy]

to cover your chickens in sevin dust place the chicken inside of a plastic garbage bag with its head out of the top close the bag around the neck by hand and shake the dust over the chicken. Place the dust in before you put your chicken in. I would do this then again in two weeks since the eggs of lice can take up to two weeks to hatch. I've read that cleaing the coop then giving it a good dust bath will help. Painting used motor oil in cracks and roost bars will help keep mites and other creepy crawlers at bay too.

 

[dawg53]

Sevin 5 dust is what to use, not sevin 10. I also the use the garbage bag method to dust them. Use sevin dust to dust their house; nests,roosts etc... Redust everything including all your chickens in 10 days. Dont use motor oil anywhere around your chickens. The sevin dust will get in the nooks and cranies to take care of the lice/mites. Where a mask or a towel wrapped around your nose/mouth.

 

[citychickinthecountry]

So I take it that Sevin dust is okay for the chickens to digest. I presume that the chickens will breathe this stuff in and I know they'll eat it when they groom and root around in the coop.

My coop floor is dirt with about 2 inches of hay on top. Inevitably the little suckers dig holes through the hay and make themselves little dust bath holes.

I'm a paranoid chicken mom. I have to ask all of the morbid paranoid questions.

My local feed store won't be open until Tuesday, so I'll have to wait until then to get my new bales of hay and the Sevin dust anyway. It's time for me to completely clean out the coop anyway....no better time than now to do this.