[Tykelad]

Hi all,
       I have kept chickens for only a couple of years so am still new to all this. A few weeks ago 3 of my Light Sussex girls decided to stay out of there house on a night. After a few nights of this i investigated the house and discovered lots of little mites (transparent) in the bedding. I thought that this may be young red mite and so cleared everything out. Dusted all the girls and the big cockerel with mite powder and put them in another run. Then i jet washed the house, put down Jeyes fluid on my OH instructions. Let that dry then used Johnsons Poultry Housing Spray and Harkers Duramitex Plus. I sprayed absolutely every thing and under every thing. Then for good measure i dusted everything with Diacom inc all the cracks and crevices.
Put the girls back in and all but one now sleeps back in the house. That was 4 days ago.
I went in this morning and the perches (and only the perches) are crawling with Red Mite. With beg red patches of the nasty little critters.

What else can i do ? My next plan is to removes the perches and burn them. Can i replace them with plastic or metal perches ?

Thanx in advance.

Neil & Emm

[orchardlady]

Red mite are the one thing that would eventually make me stop keeping hens, however all is not lost. This is what I have done when I've had a bad infestation in the past.

Clean the bedding out as carefully as you can trying your best not to spill it on the ground and burn or dispose of it away from your premises. DO NOT put it on the compost. The mites will just troop out of there and back onto a passing hen.

If you have roofing felt on the hen house remove it and dispose of it away from your premisses. Red mite just love felt to live under felt and unless you can get under it to spray you will just be fighting a losing battle.
Do not replace with felt but use Onduline or similar. (It looks like black or sometimes green) corrugated sheeting.

I use Poultry Shield but another member here (HF) thinks it is just not so bubbly washing up liquid. The point of Poultry Shield  (or washing up liquid) is to permeate the waxy coating these red mite have. Make up the solution in a garden pressure sprayer, most garden centres will sell them, they can be a bit pricy but will be well worth the investment. Drench you house, perches and the ground surrounding the house and if your birds are in a small run do the run for good measure. Take special care with all joints in the woodwork. Have your sprayer ready and waiting if and when you remove any felt, you will be repelled and repulsed by what you will find there, heaving

Remove all perches and anything else that's removable. I paint mine in a product that is not good for you but used to be used on fences. I am not allowed to recommend this step but am simply making you aware of what I do....

I keep a spare set of perches and paint this product on and soak the ends in a bucket of it for a few days and then leave to dry/soak in until the next time I need to treat the next lot of perches.

Make a slurry of diatomaceous earth of water and a really good glug of washing up liquid or poultry shield. You are looking for the consistency of gloss paint of pouring custard. Paint all the interior of your hen house including perches and nest boxes.

Put you house back together and instead of using your usual bedding put shredded newspaper in the house. Remove this in two days and burn or dispose of it off your premisses. Repeat all the spraying and cleaning out every three to four days for not less than three weeks as you want to catch the newly hatching eggs.

Keep your hen house winter and summer as dry possible.

Failing all this there are chemical resolutions which I'm sure others will tell you about. It's a big task. I did this on one large hen house and three small ones last summer and (hands held together in prayer) I've not had any red mite this year.

Best of luck.

Orchardlady

Also every time you introduce new hens give them a squirt of Frontline for cats and dogs, one squirt on the back of the neck, one under one wing and a final squirt up the bum!

Keep all new birds quarantined from your main flock and don't introduce them until you are absolutely sure they and their quarantine quarters are red mite free.

[orchardlady]

Just a few additional comments. Keep the shredded newspaper to a minimum, it' only a stop gap until you've got rid of the red mite. It's not a permeant change of bedding as it tends to loop around the hens legs and the print transfered onto moist new laid eggs giving interesting reading on your breakfast egg and a certain amount of litter around the hens roaming boundaries!

Do not use straw or hay as bedding as both of these can give wonderful tubes as homes for the mite especially straw to live and thrive in. Hay can be very dusty and carry fungi spores. Try using something like Aubiose. It's very absorbent and smells good, can be swept or shovelled from a hen house with much less spills than straw and hay and can also be turned over regularly to help keep the hen house sweet(er) smelling.

OL

[henamoured]

Why not use just sheets of newspaper temporarily? You can change it every day then with little hassle.

[Tykelad]

Thanx for all your advice. Am seriously considering burning the shed and starting again.....have even considered not keeping chickens anymore. Especially after my Mrs found some mites on the back of my jumper.....in our front room !

[orchardlady]

Don't give up they can be controlled! If you burn you hen house and start again you will most probably get them again as not every mite debunks from the hen at the end of the night to hide in the woodwork, so if you transferred your hens to a new house they would probably bring one or two mites with them and the horrible cycle would start again.

A comment about sheets of newspaper. I did try this but the hens just tromped through it and spread their poo everywhere. The shredded paper worked better but as it's only for a short period of time I was prepared to put up with the occasional printed egg and stray bit of paper.

Orchardlady.

[cejx]

knowledge is power, and had I known what I know now, I'd have bought an eglu.  Currently up to my elbows in poultry shield.  They are repulsing me.  I loathe the little red *****. grrrr

[retribution]

i have done the slurry thing myself, have mixed washing uop liquid with a mix of V18 vanodine (watered down and then the dia powder as suggested by hill footer then painted it on, it sets a bit chaulky and you get in a mess. not seen any red mites will be a hell of a lot cheaper than a new coop so well worth a try.