Hillfooter gave me excellent advice recently which I have taken and it certainly works. I have copied this below (hope this is OK moderators!)
If what you are refering to is a white cardboard tube call Red Mite Powder made by a company called Barrier it is useless other than smelling nice. It costs between £10 - £12 for 500 grammes and will have NO benefit in preventing Red Mite. All Barriers "insect" treatments are based on the active ingredient Citrodiol a "natural" mosquito repellant. Not RM aren't insects they are in fact related to spiders. Citrodiol works on human skin to repell mozzies and even used as intended it needs reapplying every 20 minutes or so to be effective. Even iif it worked on mite swhich isn't proven. I've investigated this with the manufacturers of Citrodiol and barrier and the manufacturers say they've no knowledge of it's effectiveness on RM and Barrier decline to offer any test results. Barrier use this in several products such as Louse Powder, RM spray, and Fly repellants for horses it's all basically the same in a different packaging. Chx naturally use dust to rid themselves of parasites which live in their feathers and RM Powder is as effective as dust (actually less so) and RM only live in housing not the birds so dust bathing is ineffective on the bird for RM. Repellants which work on human skin won't work on wooden houses which don't produce the chemical attractors a host would.
Generally using powders in the confines of a hen house is a dangerous practise anyway as floating dust particles can carry hundreds of viruses and are a well established vector of diseases. Also chx respiratory systems are very prone to infections and dust in the air or mould spores can iritate their airways and lungs. If your house is wood and is NEW it will have been treated with a wood preservative which will also include an insecticide to protect it against woodworm and other wood boring insects. This will also prevent RM unlill over time it leaches out usually about 2 years or so. Upto the mid 2005s this was a copper arsnic compound which was very effective long term (5 years or so) but modern preservatives aren't as long lasting due to EU regulations banning such treatments as potentially danerous to the environment (mainly in and around treatment plants). As an amatuer you can get these preserrvatives as they are pro use only however there are a few you can get and my recommended RM treatment scheme is listed below and will cost no more than £6 to £8 a year for a one off treatment that will last at least a year.
RED MITE TREATMENT - the ultimate solution
"Basically Red Mite are EASY to kill so don't despair. The problem is they are difficult to get at as they hide in inaccessible places so although cleaning regimes will kill the ones that are exposed to the cleaning detergent the ones hiding and in different stages of their life cycle escape to carry on breeding. They breed very quickly going through four life stages in as little as 7 days in warm weather. Larvae, proto-nymph, nymph and adult. Only the latter we generally see and are familiar with. They breed in colonies in tight spaces particularly in seams, under roof felt and cracks. The Nymph stages look completely different from the adult stage, like little grey flecks with 6 legs (the adult has 8 ) and moulted skins almost invisible to the naked eye. Their eggs can last up to 8 months in a dormant state. All this makes eradication using cleaning and spot treatments alone very very hard work and lots of frequent cleans and even then they will re-infest unless you apply deterrent methods such as Diatomaceous Earth painting. I stress all this because if you have an infestation you have to be prepared to use a pesticide which has a residual effect. Spot treatments and repellents you can buy in pet and animal feed stores won't do the job and will involve a lot of work and cost. Spraying with a pesticide if done well is a once yearly treatment in April and very cheap approx £5.50. The pesticide I recommend is Ficam W which is easily available, not unpleasant to use, safe with the right simple precautions and won't harm your birds. If you aren't prepared to use pesticides burn your house and buy a decent plastic house. If you are prepared to use pesticides read on.
FICAM W pesticide
You can buy a sachet for £6.60 ish from Bowden & Knights (buy two just in case,
http://www.poultryhealth.co.uk/ficam%20w ) which will treat about 4 houses but doesn't keep once mixed so use it in one application.
First strip off any roofing felt and replace with either Onduline corrugated roofing board, or good quality ply sheeting or tongue and groove roof lap roofing board. Clean out the house well with a detergent washing up liquid or Poultry Shield will do and let dry before spraying.
You add the whole sachet of FICAM W which is a gel and dissolves, in 5 litres of warm water (see the instructions). You then spray this using a coarse spray with a fan nozzle if you have one or a coarse one under lowish pressure otherwise. The idea is not to cause too much mist. A garden sprayer will do but clean out afterwards. It's odourless and not unpleasant to use (it can be used indoors for silverfish for example) but use gauntlets or rubber gloves, goggles or other eye protection, a smock (old shirt reversed will do) and breathing mask preferably for complete safety. Let it dry before reintroducing the birds. One application if done well should be effective.
A paint with Diatom slurry giving particular attention to perches and in corners completes the treatment.
Inspect regularly in the next few weeks and if you see RM spot treat with diatom slurry or a spray treatment. But my bet is you won't see any.
For further cleaning try not to dislodge the Diatom paint and touch it up as needed. Perches should be easy to scrape clean and the house should be swept out of old litter and a disinfectant spray applied with NO washing needed (you can wash perches if heavily soiled but if you follow this advice they shouldn't be). I use Vanodine V18 disinfectant which is recommended for poultry and pigeon houses. Replace with clean litter. Every 6 months you can do a deeper clean but be aware you are leaching out the pesticide when you do so try to limit cleaning to sweeping out and scraping. If you do this and touch up the DE when it gets worn off the house will stay mite free for over a year before you need to repeat the treatment.
DIATOMACEOUS EARTH DE
Diatomaceous Earth is the generic name for the natural mineral which is formed from fossilised microscopic plants. Hemexsan (
www.quillproductions.co.uk/insect-fly.../hemexsan-powder-25kg.html - Cached), or Diatom (Wells Poultry and many others) are product trade names for it. Use this to make your house RM unfriendly. Don't waste your money on expensive Barrier treatments (like Red Mite Powder or spray) or other spot treatments which are no more effective than spraying with detergent, if indeed as effective. DE works by habitat denial RM can't colonise and reproduce in the dry abrassive conditions it produces
To use DE in a coop, mix as a slurry and paint on. Start by making a disinfectant base (dilute disinfectant with water as directed). I use Vanodine V18 an Iodine based disinfectant. Add the DE while stirring to a batter creamy consistency, add a dash of washing up liquid to provide wetting and paint on all surfaces of the perches and into corners. This works equally well as dusting and is less dangerous to a chx respiratory system (dust particles can carry viruses as well as irritate their "
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August 30, 2014, 15:36