[Silkysmooth]

Hi everyone (and happy halloween!)

Just wondering whether the red mite smokers/fumers are any good. I heard you need to use them twice. Once initially to kill the adults/young and 5 days later to kill the newly hatched eggs.

Anyone have any comments or experience of using these?

Thanks

Andy x

[Knight Family]

mmm intrested in them, but never head about them before.

[Silkysmooth]

yes they sound almost too good to be true...

[orchardlady]

I think you will probably find that they are indeed too good to be true. My only couple of tip would be that if you 'tent' the hen house under a very large piece of plastic sheeting and secure the outside with bricks you may have better results that just popping it in and standing back.

Also to do a real belt and braces by doing it more than twice, I would go for three times with a space of no more that 5/6 days between treatments.

I would love to know how you get on and if it really does work we will all be beating a path to your door to know where you get them from.

[bantam novice]

  I'll probably be first in line!

[joyfull]

not sure about the red mite ones but the cat flea ones work really well 

[VeggieVirgin]

I tried it because I thought it might get into all the nooks and crannies that you can't get to with sprays. It was a bit tricky to seal up the coop - I ended up stuffing black plastic silage wrap along the ventilation grill at the top, but smoke was still getting out in some places.

To be honest, after spending around 100 quid on various expensive anti-mite measures, I've found the most effective approach to be a thorough spraying of the whole of the coop (inside and out) with a strong solution of Dettol, followed up with regular smaller-scale spraying of areas where I've spotted mites, coupled with regular application of diatom powder on the floor and perches.

After the first Dettol treatment, the mites were literally crawling out of the woodwork, but since then my Dettol + diatom regime seems to be keeping the little blighters under control.