[TonyW]

Hello everyone

Whilst cleaning the chooks out about 3 weeks ago I noticed some red mite in the chicken house so I sprayed the house with disinfectant (virkon) and when it had dried I put some diatomaceous powder in the house and also on the chickens which I hoped would do the trick.
The following week I noticed them again in the house so I took the whole house apart, moved it out of the run, sprayed it with poultry shield, jet washed it and sprayed some more poulty shield but when it had dried I noticed thousands of them still crawling around.
I did my best to get them all off before I put the house back together but there was still a few of them about.

I invested in some red mite powder at the weekend and treated both the chickens and house again. Whilst this has worked in their house, every time I go in their run I get covered in them.

I am not sure if they are red mite as they are a sort of white / grey colour.

I am at my wits end now as I don't want to get rid of the chickens but I feel that this may be the only option as I am getting covered in mites whenever I enter their run and obviously I don't want them to start getting into my house!!

Any help would be really appreciated.

Regards


Tony


PS. Not sure if its worth mentioning but I have had 2 of my girls die in the last 2 weeks :-(

[Casey76]

Unfortunately red mite can be very tenacious.

Try to get a hold of some Ficam W (?) and again, take the house apart and disinfect.

You may have to do this every few days for a month or so until you have killed all stages of the life cycle of the mite.

Unfortunately your girls deaths, may well be due to the mites, as they can become very anaemic when the mites feed on them over a period of time

Also, you can make up a paste with the DE, using Vanadine 18 as a diluent and a little house hold detergent.  You can then paint the inside of the house, especially any nooks and crannies/perch ends with this, and it should also be a good deterrant for the RM (and be mess irritating to the girls' respiratory system.

[kegs]

I haven't had these - yet - but I know they are grey until they start feeding on the chickens and they could well have caused the death of your two.  I do know that any bedding has to be carefully disposed of (burnt if poss), double bagged and thrown away as the mites can survive for many weeks.  Typing red mite into the search will give you lots of tips for getting rid of them especially anything written by Hillfooter, such as this thread:
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=57569.msg720238#msg720238

When you have treated the coop rather than using the powder on its own use Hillfooter's slurry on the coop which you will find here:

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=81422.0

There'll be lots that I haven't mentioned so I know others will add further advice.  The mites are really hard to get rid of but you will be able to.  Good luck.

[joyfull]

do not clean your coop anywhere near where it normally stands as the mites will simply climb back in. They can survive without food for over 30 weeks  .