Silly question about red mite

Quote from: Helenaj on April 21, 2011, 09:17

So far, I've been lucky and not had to deal with the the little blighters, but are red mite the same as red spider mite you see in the garden? I have see a few of these outside on a concrete wall in full sunlight, but don't think that they are the same thing.

No, they are different things Helena, the poultry red mite are even smaller than the red spider mites and v. light grey or whitish or black in colour until they feed on teh chickens, then they turn red.

Nasty little blighters!

Phew    I did the coop this morning with the slurry mix and I covered everything I could - including myself    I had the bases out of the nesting box and roosting house and painted them outside and when I went to go and see how they were drying I saw 2 little bright red specks running along the top of one bases  :blink: 
Ok - I admit it, I hit panic stations, ran into the house (after squishing said red specks), logged onto the forum and scoured it to see what these little blighters look like (the red mite that is).  Having read that post I can now breath normally again as I suspect they were these little spider doodees. 

Right, now to get back out there and put the coop back together again  :happy:

I always thought red mites and red spider mites were the same thing.

I pulled a bit of wood of the coop today to find a huge colony of the little * 

15lt of Smite later and the best part of a bottle of talc (diatom powder on order) and a sun burnt back  and the coop is back together.

I thought the girls wouldn’t go into the roost if there were mites, but obviously that’s wrong.