[snowwolf]

For the last 6 weeks I have been having a battle with a serious red mite infestation, I have used powders (battles) sprays and every day burn the red clusters of mites with a blow torch and burn all the wood of the coop with the blow torch as well, I am at my wits end now, and really need some good info to rid my chicken run of these mites.

The chicken run is 30 feet by 15 feet and 6ft  tall, it has a wooden coop inside the run where they all sleep and lay eggs, there are 14 hens and one cockerel.

[Spadefighter]

Thats exactly what I have been doing.

[joyfull]

have you given the coup a really good all over and in all the nooks and crannies spraying with poultry shield?

[snowwolf]

have you given the coup a really good all over and in all the nooks and crannies spraying with poultry shield?

Yup, everyday with blow torch and spray and powder all over coop for last 6 weeks!!!  I really dont know why they are not dying :-(

[GrannieAnnie]

They multiply very quickly snowwolf!

Richy Rich paints everything with paraffin, particularly the ends of the perches,  but if you try that one, I'd leave the blowtorch behind!! 

Someone else swears by using the steam cleaner.  I haven't tried that one yet, but I'm going to if my extension lead is long enough!!

[nicky d]

Really feel for you, i hope you get on top of it soon, i think all you can do is just to keep on doing wot you are doing, dont give in to them,  spraying poultry shield and the blow torch should get them in the end, also have you tried Diatom,  failing that and if the coop is just too infected with them, you might have to resort to buring the entire thing and replacing with a new one,   are you checking your girls aswell and powdering them with something like diatom.

[Wild Pony]

You can get ground silica sand that is good, you can either put it in a cat litter tray as a dust bath or if feeling uber rich get a blower for it and you blast this stuff in the houses while the birds are out and let it settle. How it works is that its really sharp to the mites, and when they go across/through it it shreds their undersides and dessicates them. I'm very fortunate to be able to borrow a local egg producers blower having got my own silica sand, ask your local agri merchant about it.....I think its produced by either Battles or Carr, Martin & Day and comes in 15 kg sacks

[meterman]

after trying everything for 7 weeks last year, poultry shield,diatom and  many other potions said to remove RM. i got milbenex 3 days all gone. EXpensive but cheaper than all the other remedies put together that only control and not eradicate.

[Squibbs]

I use Smite with good success - never completely gets rid of the blighters - but keeps their numbers down. Creocote also works - they don't like it - when I missed a spot they were all congregating on the missed area. in a few weeks I'll respray the house with it

The other thing I did when we had a horrendous infestation was to take all the chickens out - put them in the conservatory and use a sulphur candle (tarpaulin over the house) - millions of dead mites and other things too.

[joyfull]

sadly creosote is now illegal (yes I do know you can still buy it but legally you cannot use it) and can only be used by certain people for retreating wood that has previously been treated. You can buy creocote to use but that is not as good.

[GrannieAnnie]

Squibbs did say creocote Joy!  I did hear from someone else that creocote isn't as good as creosote, but I've now got red mite back in my layers house and because I haven't at the moment got a spare shed (no I'm NOT using my new garden shed!  ) I can't creosote it, so I had a jolly good time this afternoon blow torching the house before I poultry shielded and chucked Hemexsan (a diatomaceous powder) all over it!  :

[joyfull]

think I need new glasses   

[pandora]

I had them last summer and for weeks I was only keeping the numbers down, not getting rid of them. I used Diatom, Poultry Shield, blowtorches, you name it, I tried it. I lost a broody hen to mites, and decided it was all out war. I bought a bottle of Milbenex and sprayed everything with it, and overnight the mites just disappeared. This Spring I found a couple of mites one morning - sprayed all the houses and haven't had a single mite since, this year. It is expensive, toxic, and only needs one application in quite small amounts. The only stuff that works, IMO.

[nicky d]

Im so thankful my new hen house came with creosote already applied   nickyx

[8doubles]

I had a constant battle with red mite last year but since i started dusting the coop with diatom i have not seen a sign of any.