[sundancejim]

hi all.. after noticing my hen house had mites  and was horrified! i blitzed the house yesterday with poultry shield and then made a slurry mix with the diatom powder and coated the whole of the inside of the house paying special attention to the nooks and crannies which are prone to these critters to take sanctury!! then i dusted the girls with the diatom powder and also gave a scattering of powder in the house and new bedding etc..after hours of itching and scratching went to bed and was up early this morning, fag and coffee in hand went to check on my girls and my handy work, to my amazement could still see  mites scurrying round!! im at my wits end with them now and feel so sorry for my chooks to be sharing there home with these parasites...surely there must be some sort of a spray that kills on impact and lasts for weeks to deter them? rant over. kind regards.jim.

[orchardlady]

Hello Jim.

What you have done is perfect, however even though you will have really sprayed well the Poultry Shield will only kill the mites it touches and there is always some areas you will not have been able to gain access to. I would suggest that you spray the Poultry Shield at a minimum interval of 5 days so that you will be getting all the hatching eggs and the young ones as they develop. Remove all bedding and dispose of it off your property in double bags or burn it in a garden incinerator (dustbin with holes).  Put sheet or shredded newspaper in the house as bedding and remove regularly and dispose or burn as above. The hens will be fine in their feather coats for a while. You may have to repeat this process over several weeks. Also get hold of some Frontline (dogs and cat) spray from your vets. Give your birds a squirt under each wing and one up the fluffy bum feathers.

Hope this helps.

Orchardlady

[sundancejim]

thankyou orchardlady for the responce, yes i will repeat again next week. regards.jim.

[JACDORE]

yes we too suffer with the dreaded red mite.  We use poulty shield too every 4 days so just like explained you kill the new batches before they lay eggs and stop the dreaded life circle.  Takes a good few weeks but worth doing so keep up the good work.  Oh yes, we also steam clean the hen house too.

[nic n dave]

ive been told that creosote is excellent for getting rid of mites, spray inside and out of coup, very messy and some rubs of on the hens but very effective

[joyfull]

creosote is also illegal to use unless you have a licence (and then it can only be used on previously treated wood) so please do not use it nor recommend it on this site - 

[Yorkie]

Creosote has been illegal to buy store and use for several years now.

The only occasions it may legally be used are by licensed professionals, to retreat wood originally treated with it.

It has carcinogenic properties    I really don't think you'd be wanting that to rub off on your hens!

Edit: beaten to it by Joyfull!!

[joyfull]

here is a link that will tell you all about it:-

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=81407.0

[joyfull]

some red mite products that are legal:-

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=83342.0

[nic n dave]

omg i never new that but ive only heard it as i get a newsletter through by email from a local chicken farmer and that was in this months newsletter!! and it even told me a local shops name where i can buy it from - i havent brought any though !

[ManicMum]

We found a steam clean weekly over 2 or 3 weeks dealt with the uninvited guests, coupled with DE (known in my family as "tenacious dirt") mixed with washing up liquid so it would stick to all the surfaces painted on after each clean.  And all bedding bagged and binned.

I also realised the 2nd time that I needed to put a layer of DE on the concrete blocks that the coop legs rest on....

[hillfooter]

Forget, Poultry Shield, repeated cleaning, sweat and scrub, just one spray application of FICAM W, a few minutes work, job done for another year cost £6:50 for enough to do 4 small houses.

HF

[Aunt Sally]

You shouldn't be recommending that on the forums HF.  Ficam W is a professional only product and not licenced for amateur use.

[red]

Obviously Ficam is for professional use, however I have just been talking to wife (unusual I know) but she is the manager for animal health at a local authority where there are huge number of farms and they use Ficam as and when required.

If I am understanding HF correctly does Ficam only have to be sprayed once a year?

If so surely it maybe worth peeps ringing their local authority and see if they do use it, if they have red mite bad.

I would have to pay a flat fee of £30 to have the coop sprayed, so dont know if this is cost effective or not, any thoughts?

[hillfooter]

Obviously Ficam is for professional use, however I have just been talking to wife (unusual I know) but she is the manager for animal health at a local authority where there are huge number of farms and they use Ficam as and when required.

If I am understanding HF correctly does Ficam only have to be sprayed once a year?

If so surely it maybe worth peeps ringing their local authority and see if they do use it, if they have red mite bad.

I would have to pay a flat fee of £30 to have the coop sprayed, so dont know if this is cost effective or not, any thoughts?

You understand me correctly. 

Notionally it is pro use but isn't the pro product of choice.  You could of course have it applied by a pesticide company which is perfectly OK it's up to you what you do.  It is available from several suppliers on the web. 
HF