Red mite hell!

Hi everyone,

Well I have been lucky up to now but a week ok I was going into the coop and itching with a few creppy crawlies on my arms.

I have a MAJOR infestation of red mites..every crack and crevice is covered..millions of the *!

I have got some Ardap spray which is coming wednesday and some DE too. I am going to scrub with Jeyes fluid and then let dry and apply the ardap.

has anyone had any experiences of using ardap and DE for red mite? are they effective?

Thanks in advance!

Andy

Hi Andy, how did you get on with the coop? Did you 'front line' spray your chooks too? Tam

Hi everyone,

finally getting ALL the products for the coop tomorrow...

I think the greatest problem I face is that I made the coop from shed panels and therefore lots of overlapping wood slats to hide in! (and there are millions!) *despairs*

Thanks for your advice..shame nobody knows about ardap

Andy x

I had the same in my stack of breeding cages and my serama pen

I got rid of them really easily in the serama pen but the stack has been a nightmare.....

I used Mite kill and soaked it..... put it back in the shed (which shows no sign of beasties surprisingly) and almost immediately there was a fresh hatch..... I dragged it out again and sprayed it a further three times at 4 day intervals.....

There are still * hatching out every  couple of days

In desperation I have sprayed it with Raid  ant and crawling insect spray......  I may have to take the top off and replace with wire instead as this is where they are all living despite there being no felt on it

I am aware that this stuff is horrid for birds so the intention is to wash it all out before using ..... But anything to kill them.....

Good news is that all I have found are grey ones, no blood been sucked.... and I have treated all the birds with ivermectin so anything that sucks blood will die!!!

I must admit I hate red mite thats why  I made my new coop out of marnie ply, but they fine other ways to hide like cracks in the roost bar..

Best way i would was reguar cleaning and treating.

They sure are a huge problem.  Kopperdrake; you said you are trying a compost bin - sounds like a good idea. How is it going? Have you any pictures?