Chickens with mites

iamtony

Good evening farming folk. I hope you will be the best people to advise.

Have a few chickens out the back the last few years. But last year we took an extra few battery hens from an animal sanctuary and the were missing feathers and all sorts bit I assumed this was just down to the living in close proximity to each other and pecking but shortly after, we noticed out other 3 hens were missing feathers.
Then I started noticing mites on the hinges of there nestbox and later all over their coop.
I can't get rid of them I keep spraying the coop with specific mite spray and powering with that demicos(bad spelling sorry) earth stuff and power hosed everything but the little bastards won't go away!
Anyway the other day the missus sent me a picture of our bread bin in the kitchen full of them and we're freaked out. At the moment we're not bringing eggs into the house and actually started to buy eggs.
We are going to get rid of them as it stands because I seem to be fighting a loosing battle.
So before I do is there a better solution rather than the petshop treatments in currently using?
Am I actually fighting a loosing battle? Has anyone ever found them in the house before and will that problem get worse without a live host? I've a parrot in the house and 2 dogs and I dont want them to get effected.
Thanks for any advice.

Regards,

Tony.

Genghis Cant

We had an issue with red mite here.
It's an absolute hoor of a job eliminating them.

I would have thought that the winter weather would be a help to you.

Forget about pet shop treatments. Get Smite ( lk poultry or maceoin sell it) make it up as per directions in a knapsack. Kit yourself out with disposable overalls and masks. Spray everything in the coop, and I mean everything, soak the place, every day, for a week. We were making up 10 liter doses in the knapsack and lashing it out every day.
All bedding must be removed. Anything else inside that can be removed, remove. Every hole, crack nook and cranny soaked.
When dry, lorry out the diatomaceous earth.
Spot treat the hens as per directions.
When red mite gets a grip you need to go nuclear on them.

If you look in the coop at night you should see how treatment is going and where the little fcukers are congregating. You could douse these with diatomaceous earth.

I can't emphasis enough that you must hit every nook and cranny, nail holes, every hiding hole.

Best of luck.
You've a battle here.

iamtony

Thanks, Yes the weather has helped alright but now they appeared in the kitchen which is obviously warmer. Never seen them in the house before but yesterday they were all over the bread bin, in the middle of the day. They are horrible little ****ers alright. Everytime we feed the hens we need to take a shower afterwards as we feel itchy.

I'll try that stuff you recommended. I don't want to get rid of them but the missus really isn't happy they are in the house, and for good reason I suppose. Can this kind of treatment be used in a house do you know? Best I've done in the kitchen is spray wd40 into any cracks or crevices they could be in bit I'm afraid to use anything else. Obviously we had to throw out the bread bin and it's contents.

Genghis Cant

I'd be fairly sure you could use Smite in the kitchen. I think it's a detergent of sorts.

http://www.lkpoultry.ie/smite-organic-mite-louse-powder-1kg/

Click on the product description there.

We used the liquid form. I think it penetrates better from the knapsack as opposed to dusting it on.

iamtony

Genghis Cant wrote: »

I'd be fairly sure you could use Smite in the kitchen. I think it's a detergent of sorts.

http://www.lkpoultry.ie/smite-organic-mite-louse-powder-1kg/

We used the liquid form. I think it penetrates better from the knapsack as opposed to dusting it on.

The discription does say suitable for food prep areas thanks for that I'll grab some tomorrow and see how it goes. Thanks again.

Genghis Cant

This is a marathon of sorts, not a sprint. Be absolutely ruthless with the spray and powder and you will get on top of them.
Preemptive strikes are where we are now. From late spring on we'll be hunting them down.

iamtony

Genghis Cant wrote: »

This is a marathon of sorts, not a sprint. Be absolutely ruthless with the spray and powder and you will get on top of them.
Preemptive strikes are where we are now. From late spring on we'll be hunting them down.

Yeah I know what you mean, to be fair my assaults this far have been inconsistent. I might do it two weeks in a row and then leave it for a few months until I see them again and freak out and go at it again. I'm just gona have to keep at it religiously. Do you know if eggs should be discarded while using that Smite stuff?

Genghis Cant

iamtony wrote: »

Do you know if eggs should be discarded while using that Smite stuff?

No, I think you're safe enough.
Don't forget to treat the laying boxes too. Replace all straw, if that's what you use with fresh straw, having treated the boxes.

Centrepassage

Few things that really help. If you could minimise the timber in the poultry house. I.e. have the hens roosting at night on tubular steel instead of timber. Secondly I found that the old black creasot wood preservative painted on every bit of wood in hen house will get great results overnight. The mites travel along the roost and suck the blood from the hens and travel back into the wood every night

larthehar

Centrepassage wrote: »

Few things that really help. If you could minimise the timber in the poultry house. I.e. have the hens roosting at night on tubular steel instead of timber. Secondly I found that the old black creasot wood preservative painted on every bit of wood in hen house will get great results overnight. The mites travel along the roost and suck the blood from the hens and travel back into the wood every night

Apparently lime is suppose to be great stuff for getting rid of them.. never had it ourselves but i heard tell of it.. cover the place in lime.. hens and all.. if you try it report back!

L1985

For going forward when you think they are gone, I would give them a bucket of sand they can given themselves a dust bath regularly with. We have a lot of fine sand occurring naturally around and we never have any problems with mites as a result as the hens are in there the whole time cleaning their feathers.

iamtony

L1985 wrote: »

For going forward when you think they are gone, I would give them a bucket of sand they can given themselves a dust bath regularly with. We have a lot of fine sand occurring naturally around and we never have any problems with mites as a result as the hens are in there the whole time cleaning their feathers.

There's a wheel barrow in the coop full of a mix of sand diatomaceous earth and sand it need to be changed out though. Thanks.

iamtony

larthehar wrote: »

Apparently lime is suppose to be great stuff for getting rid of them.. never had it ourselves but i heard tell of it.. cover the place in lime.. hens and all.. if you try it report back!

Yep I'll try some lime aswell thanks.

Genghis Cant

iamtony wrote: »

Yep I'll try some lime aswell thanks.

We used lime ourselves after everything else, we fumigated the place with lime. No doubt they ( the mites) didn't like it. The insides of our coops are still white from the lime.