[Wyandottie]

Hi everyone,
Have recently discovered red mite in the chickens' next box.  I have dusted the whole chicken house out with Diatom powder, and also given the girls a good dusting too.  It is working albeit slowly in reducing the infestation, but there were still some bright red insects clustered on the next box side this morning.  It does say that it will take some time for Diatom to work.  I wondered whether to scrub the house out with Jeyes fluid and then dust it over?  I was at the vet's this morning and I chatted to him.  He suggested 'Ivermectin' - has anyone used this and do you have to discard eggs after use, and for how long?  There seem to be several preparations available - Poultry Shield and Red Mite powder.  Which would be the best bet?
Just as a follow up - further to my last post about Eggwina who seemed to be wasting away - sadly I had to kill her - my first time doing it.  It was awful.  I looked on this site for information about how to do it which was very helpful.  However, I would stress to anyone in the same predicament who has not done it before that it is much harder physically than you imagine.  The chicken's neck is very strong and I fluffed it first time around.  Awful and upsetting.

[joyfull]

so sorry about Eggwina and yes it is hard to do  xx.
I would recommend that you do try and spray the inside of all your coup with poultry shield and also use the DE. I have never used ivermectin so unless anybody else has on here it may be worth a phone call to your vets for the advice regarding the eggs 

[Spana]

If you can find  'the factory' you stand a better chance of getting rid of the little biters.  Its often in the nest box area .  If you have nest boxes that you can remove to give a good clean behind and under the nest box roof  thats were you may find it.  Keep looking, you may first notice smaller than tiny white flecks around cracks and there may be several places were they are being bred.  They then go off closer to were the food supply is, your chickens blood.  Horrible things. If you can get them at the white fleck stage they haven't started to feed.  Its after they  feed on blood that they start to breed.

[nicky d]

Does the ivermectim go on the chicken,  if so i wouldnt suggest you only use that product,   it wouldnt do the coop any harm to give it a good scrub with jayes fluid, then when dry you can spray in some poultry shield or diatom which ever you use, thing is you may find you have to repeat the process a good number of times.   Also if your  girls roost at night make sure you treat the perching bars aswell, i was told a good tip was to paint either ends of the the roosting bars with neat jayes fluid.   Good luck    nickyx

[Sue33]

hello, i've got the same problem, red mite and have been cleaning with jeyes every couple of days, then thoroughly dusting the coop and nesting box with diatom, seems to be getting on top of it, i'm also only putting paper in the coop of a night time and taking it out completely during the day, fresh paper every evening, hope you can get on top of it, seems there's lots about this time of year 

[flowerpot]

Hi,  my vet prescribed invermectin - once a week for four weeks - couldn't use the eggs for 5 weeks !!!  maybe because its unlicenced for chickens. I decided to go with it as my girls are really suffering at the moment.  I did get the impression the vet was reading it up in a book before I arrived, certainly not a chicken expert.

[stujem]

Will Jeyes fluid, help with killing things like Red Mite?

[Devonian]

I have used Jeyes which seem to control the mites - never heard of the 'neat Jeyes on perch ends' before so I will try that one - thanks.

However, I would suggest from time to time you disassemble the coop (or parts of it) if possible as I found loads today hiding well away from where my girls sleep' eg, around the entrance door which is 30" away from the boxes and perch. 

[Thingy]

My red mite infestation went from manageable to O.O in a few days.

I dusted them with red mite powder and I dusted the coop and the chickens and sprayed all the red mites i could find with mite kill, so hopefully that will keep numbers down

I also powersprayed the whole coop.

The idea about the paper is good...I may do that.

Check in places you wouldn't think of. I lifted the felt on top of my girls nest boxes...There were thousands...needless to say thats being burnt on the bonfire

Sorry to hijack your thread but do Red Mites die in the winter? How long is there reproductive cycle? Is there a light at the end of this long and itchy tunnel?

[meterman]

last year i had red mite so bad tried everything but kept coming back(cost a fortune) then tried milbenex, 3 days no rm did respray in late feb this year still no rm so with the right product you can eradicate not just reduce.

[Thingy]

I personally cleaned out the chicken coop, then powerhosed the whole coop including crevises (got the hosepipe right in). In the evening I powersprayed the outside of the coop.

Then at night I removed the chickens and put them in a dog crate, I went round the whole thing and sprayed any mite I saw with Poultry solutions Mite Kill Spray. They all died muhahahaha.

Then the next day I removed the felt from the next box and burnt it (bye bye miteys) and I covered where the mites under the felt (my mite stronghold as it were) with Diatomaceous earth. I dusted my birds in Diatomaceous earth to, annnnd I dusted the coop...all of the coop...including nest boxes and all the walls, ceiling, floor, perches, aaaaaaand straw.

 I went a bit crazy with it really but that was a couple of days ago and I haven't seen a mite since...Still holding my breath though...its not over yet I am sure.

[hillfooter]

I personally cleaned out the chicken coop, then powerhosed the whole coop including crevises (got the hosepipe right in). In the evening I powersprayed the outside of the coop.

Then at night I removed the chickens and put them in a dog crate, I went round the whole thing and sprayed any mite I saw with Poultry solutions Mite Kill Spray. They all died muhahahaha.

Then the next day I removed the felt from the next box and burnt it (bye bye miteys) and I covered where the mites under the felt (my mite stronghold as it were) with Diatomaceous earth. I dusted my birds in Diatomaceous earth to, annnnd I dusted the coop...all of the coop...including nest boxes and all the walls, ceiling, floor, perches, aaaaaaand straw.

 I went a bit crazy with it really but that was a couple of days ago and I haven't seen a mite since...Still holding my breath though...its not over yet I am sure.

Phew what a laborious approach!  Thorough deep cleaning will help enormously albeit after prodigious effort, however as meterman found a simple application of Milbenex (or there are other effective pesticides too which are licenced for pro use) in the house will have a longterm residual effect.  Diatom is a good preventative too but won't cure a heavy infestation.  Paint this on as a slurry add it to a dilute disinfectant base, stir to a light batter constituancy and paint on the perches and into every nook and cranny.  Don't dust it as dust is very risky for chickens respiratory system and is a major vector of virus infection in the confines of a house.  Also don't dust the birds directly for this reason and mites don't live on chx they just visit to feed so dusting the birds is less effective than treating the house and is dangerous to health.

If you are deep cleaning steam cleaning is far better than power hosing, if you've heard the story of the itsy bitsy spider you will know what happens after they get washed off and then they dry out, they crawl right back again.  Use detergent when cleaning which will kill on contact only and has no residual effect.  You can use Poultry shield or cheap washing up liquid as effectively.


Things to waste your money and effort on.  I've tried all these with no or very ineffective results - top of the list is Barrier Red Mite Powder and spray which is expensive deodourant for chx at around £10 a pop whose active ingredient is a mosquito repellant.  You can spray it on yourself and it will keep the flies off for 20mins or so but RM aren't mozzies or even insects and I've never known anyone who found these products effective in dealing with a red mite infestation.  "Mite kill" a well named product.  RM are very easy to kill, as I've noted, detergent will do it effectively on contact and so will Mite kill but at many, many times the cost.  A £10 spray can won't last you one clean out and several repeated applications will be needed to be effective so not a solution on cost grounds.  Blow torching - only effective on those on the surface and any hidden away escape to return again, satisfying though it is to do, but quickly reduces the interior to a charred black.  Steam cleaning is better.  Jeyes fluid an old fashioned quat disinfectant - the modern stuff isn't as potent as it used to be and I suspect has been significantly watered down to satisfy modern safety rules.  Used neat it might work on RM but again seems to be only effective on contact when wet.  You either love or loathe the smell but I've found the results on RM disappointing.  Invermectin - will work for mites (like Northern Fowl Mite) and other parasites which live on the bird however RM don't, they only visit to feed so although this will kill them when they feed it won't attack them in the harborages where they breed and spend most of their lives.  Also the nymph stage when they don't feed they'll be untouched.  It will either take a long time to be effective if at all.  I wouldn't bother with this or only use it in combination with other house treatments.  See the reference for DE below which also discusses mites.  The life cycle of RM is around 7-8 days.

The problem with killing RM is access as the little blighters hide in every seam and crevice which is why as has been observed felt is a massive no no in a chicken house.  If you are buying a house and it has felt on the roof or nestbox you can be sure it was designed and built by someone who knew zilch about chx so you can quickly walk away from such a design.  Felt is so well known as a harbourage for RM I wonder at the shear crassness of manufacturers who still use it.

So the answer is for a simple, little effort, long lasting solution use an effective pesticide (observing the safety precautions), or for a non chemical "organic" laborious solution clean, clean clean again every few days for several weeks then probably admit defeat and use a pesticide.  Once clear, Diatom (a product name for diatomaceous earth DE) will discourage further infestations but don't dust it and although regarded as natural and safe by many, you should still use it with caution see www.shagbarkbantams.com/de.htm

Best regards
HF

[Thingy]

WOW!! Thank you so much, you have saved me a lot of money

don't worry about DE. I know how much to use that is safe for my birdies and how to apply it without them being able to breathe it in

[hillfooter]

Just an update.  If using Diatom slurry the disinfectant base should be Vanadine V18 at the surface dilution strength (as advsed on the bottle) with a dash of fairy liquid or similar for wetting purposes.  Add the powder to the liquid not the other way round and stir as you add to get a creamy batter consistancy.

I've recently heard from a friend who in the course of their work had heard that power hosing is more effective than steam cleaning as it's difficult to wet into cracks and get their hiding places hot enough to kill them with a steam cleaner.  This was in a commercial situation.

My advice in the earlier post wasn't based on first hand experience but from another friend who had very successfully used a steam cleaner in a small house setup and swore by steam cleaning.

I've used power hosing in the past but next time (in a coupe of weeks) I intend to borrow my friends steam cleaner and compare the results personally.  So I maybe watering down,  or steaming up,  my advice on cleaning above, depending on how I find it.
Regards
HF

[joyfull]

But wouldn't power hosing though would just blast the mites out onto the ground where they can live for weeks and then find their way back into the coops. Whereas steam cleaning would hopefully kill them. keep us informed HF, thanks.