[death of rats]

I have not found any yet but I expect them to be there soon if not already.
I wonder if steam cleaning the hen house would eradicate the little swines. Steam will penetrate the cracks in the timber and hopefully would boil the little swines alive.
Obviously the chickens will be no where near the coop for the action.
Any thoughts

[Rubellite]

Someone else on here has done that fairly recently, I believe.
Come on own up  who was it and more to the point, did it work?? 

[8doubles]

Last year i steam cleaned, jeyes fluided, and pressure washed one coop. Still didn`t get them all. I think that you get so many packed into a crevice that you only manage to kill the ones at the front, the survivers crawl out later.


You`ve just got to keep at it till you win or winter gets here and slows them down.

[nzdunn]

I have not found any yet but I expect them to be there soon if not already.
I wonder if steam cleaning the hen house would eradicate the little swines. Steam will penetrate the cracks in the timber and hopefully would boil the little swines alive.
Obviously the chickens will be no where near the coop for the action.
Any thoughts

why would you expect them to be there soon , i was under the impression that if diatom and poultry shield and good husbandry is used regulary then you can keep on top of things.   NIckyx

[death of rats]

I expect them because I have heard so much about them appearing on here.
I wonder how they get to places except on the chickens themselves so since some of mine came from auction I expect they have brought them in,
If I expect them to be there then I want to have the strategies ready in place for their mass destruction.

[nzdunn]

but they dont live on chickens so you might just be ok, having the tools though for mass destruction sounds a good plan though, im very much paranoid about them aswell, gees the thought of them makes me itch,  please excuse me for laughing but i just have images in my head of you drawing up plans like a military operation " We will take them here, here and here"  nickyxx

[joyfull]

The thing is on here you often only here from people when they have problems - there are hundreds who don't. Yes red mites exist but like Nicky says - use poultry shield either several times a year (or if you do see signs) and diatom every week/fortnight when you clean out also don't forget to sprinkle it in their nest boxes. If your dust bathing area is under cover you could sprinkle it there as well so the girls would self dust it onto them selves.
If you do get them and after doing your military campaign against them don't forget the cigar and victory sallute    joyfullxxx

[BarnBrian]

As from my previous post using a steam cleaner and then putting a couple of scoops of Diatom on the floor and hit it with the leaf blower, a hair dryer would do ladies, it's been a great success.
I repeat the process every seven to ten days.
The steam cleaner is just one of those small cheap ones, ours was a fiver in a charity shop.

Brian

[Rubellite]

As from my previous post using a steam cleaner and then putting a couple of scoops of Diatom on the floor and hit it with the leaf blower, a hair dryer would do ladies, it's been a great success.
I repeat the process every seven to ten days.
The steam cleaner is just one of those small cheap ones, ours was a fiver in a charity shop.

Brian

'Twas you, Brian, I remember now, had a vague recollection of a blowing thing..............