[arthriticpie]

At home I have 6 hens: 3 auracanas and 3 white leghorns

We've been raising chickens for over a decade and this was something new for us- chicken head lice. Or this is at least we've diagnosed them to be based on the fact that they're only found on the heads of the hens and with their biting seem to have caused them to lose the feathers on their heads.

We attacked this with ivermectin diluted into their water, creoline dips, poultry dust on their bodies and mixed with vaseline for on their heads, and finally frontline.

None of these treatments have proven effective in getting rid of these pests!

What is there left to do? Has anyone dealt with something like this before?

[hillfooter]

Frontline 4 drops of the cat type on the SKIN at the back of the neck should be effective.

How did you apply it and have you also treated the house with an insecticide?

Forget teh powders etc.

HF

[arthriticpie]

We actually placed a total of seven drops on each hen over 3 days: 4 the first day and 3 more the on the third-

We tried spraying their home creoline and dusting it with powder...

[hillfooter]

One treatment I've read about in Gail Damerow's Chicken Health Handbook but not used for feather mites is to bathe the birds in a solution of 30grammes of soap, 60grams of sulphur in 4 litres of warm water.  They are however difficult to control and she also recommends culling badly infested birds.

What powder have you tried, sevin powder is an old fashioned remedy used as a garden insecticide mostly but now frowned on as potentially dangerous to use and damaging to the environment and  honey bees in particular.  Again I've never used this and I'm not sure sevin powder is still available.
HF