[Aunt Sally]

They can come in from many directions :evil:
wild birds / new stock / and especially from second hand equipment  

[KathyH]

Yes you can do it routinely. A farmer friend says she dusts one month for lice and the next for mites routinely. I am using a multipurpose spray but I am not sure how effective it is being.
The Diatrom would be a good regular dust as well I think.

[too many girls]

phew, glad you said that, pip and i have dusted ours, ended up with more of it on us than on the hens.......

[Aunt Sally]

Don't breath it in TMG  :!:

[whistler]

I'm so sorry about Doris Kathy.

Our coop has been infested too, one day it was just one or two on the end of the perch and despite spraying it was thick with red mite within a week.

OH used a blown lamp, we scrubbed scraped, re-varnished and even sprayed the last few little blighters with hairspray.  Since then we have used spray on the coop everyday and powdered the girls from top to toe twice (in one week).   The number have dropped there are still a quite a few lurking around the white coloured water bowl every morning! Yuk.

My question is, does anyone know where we can get Diatrom and Milbenex in South Devon please?

Yup, we're both itching too!!!!

[Aunt Sally]

I buy Diatom on line here:

http://www.sprcentre.co.uk/diatomandpoultryshield.htm

[KathyH]

You have my sympathy Whistler  
We did the blow torch thing too - and 4 consecutive days of scrubbing with Jeyes Fluid and then we grouted all holes/cracks, sanded down that lot and then painted the inside white so we could see what was happening.
Since then we have been using Diatrom which does seem to kill them but not straight off. You also still get new hatched ones daily. So far we have been going at this for two weeks  :?

Its a nightmare  

Tonight our two remaining girlies are roosting on top of the coop again refusing to go in. each night we now have to put them in physically and each morning there are a few more mites on the perch ends. So tonight, as its warm anyway, we are leaving them on top of the coop overnight. Their pen is netted over so they should be safe.
Maybe it will stop a bit of the cycle and let them have a night off of being nipped.

having been bitten by these critters ourselves we are very mindful of what the chickens are going through. To be in the situation of being bitten nightly and no way of stopping it must be awful for them

[SnooziSuzi]

I know it's drastic and expensive, but I'd be sorely tempted to burn the place down and start again  :cry:

[KathyH]

Well the next best drastic thing (financially anyway) is to get an Eglu!
I am sorely tempted to get an Eglu cube but not the run and use it in our existing run as that works well in our garden. Its an investment of sorts as they seem to have an excellent resale value.

THEN we can burn down the old one  

....now where's that bank that I can go and rob  

[Foxy]

Red mite are awful -had them once this year on a  new broody house  which I hadn't treated -was appalled at how quickly they spread -although not into the "treated" sheds which was a relief.
I use milbenex and have never looked back. I do wonder kathy if you could take apart you henhouse to spray it?
Anyway this is where I get Milbenex from they are extremely helpful -yes its expensive and strong stuff but I wont use anything else now. I have tried just about everything else now and rely on this a few times a year plus diatom to keep them at bay in nestboxes, dustbaths etc. Bowden and Knights are also extremely helpful.

http://www.bowdenandknights.com/

[rainie]

The mites love it under roofing felt. Sometimes its a good idea to remove it, spray the roof and renew with something else.

[KathyH]

Thanks all. The roof is pretty accessible and we can slide it off and have sprayed all in, up and around - but will give it a go with the Milbinex when we get some. We now have quite a stock of chemicals!
 :shock:

This morning the coop had been empty all night as they spent the night up on its roof - so we looked to see what mite activity there had been.
There was an expectant teaspoonful of the mites sitting in a heap in the middle of the perch right where the chooks should have been
There were a few stray strands of bedding material on top of them and Chris swears it was moving slightly as they shifted about  :o

Hens look ok today and have both laid good sized eggs - so at least they seem healthy despite all this.

[Ruby Red]

I have some Poultry Shield made up and when I let the hens out in the morning, I clear up the poo from the coop and spray round every morning with it. I have it made up in a plant sprayer and just do it as a matter of course.

[Badger33]

Advice PLEASE

Found red mites for the first time ever 2 weeks ago. dismantled hen house, disinfected, sprayed etc etc moved hens into clean house, dusted etc etc

Infected house on the drive in pieces and i am cleaning it regularly but now every time I go into the garden or onto the drive I come in covered with the little critters. I am really distressed this morning as they seem to be everywhere -on the cat, sofa and even after a wash and tumble dry I found some alive on clothes. I want to get rid of the hens, the house and all my furniture.

Any less drastic solitions -will they go away from my house eventually?
Do I have to leave all clothes outside?
The cat?

What a horrible experience this is

[SnooziSuzi]

Hi Badger, I can understand how distressing to be finding them in YOUR house... I'd reccomend using frontline on the cats, remove all of the sofa cushions so that you can access all areas and go to your vets and ask for Nuvan Staykill (don't be tempted to use an over the counter type from a petstore, this stuff is so lethal that it can only be given by a vet).

Spray the entire house (you might need 2 cans at about £15 per tin if you have a big house, don't be tempted to skimp either) and anything that you want to keep alive, ie pets and yourselves to stay out of it for a whole afternoon.

When you come back give everything a good hoover over and clean your surfaces with anti bacterial wipes and hopefully you shouldn't have much of a problem, however for the one's in the infected house I'd follow everyone's advice in the posts above.

cleanliness and hygeine is the key so don't move the birds back into the infested house until you are 100% sure they're gone.

It is drastic, pricey for the Staykill and a lot of work but it's the only way to win against them I'm afraid  

Welcome to the forums by the way