sandyhas3chucks Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 Well only seen them once before and having looked at the ref section, I am not sure what these are. They are very tiny & move very fast. not fleas and do not jump. I THINK they may be baby lice but they are 2 tiny and look more elongated than the picture iof the adult one! I have sprayed with Johnsons antii mite spray which I think should fix it. But would still like to know whick itchies they are. I only have one girl not feathery, no one is losing, all bar one is laying ok, and there are 3 Eglus with 2 in each. The softee layer (3 now) did have crawlers but could see nothing on her pal, but did them all anyway, just wondering if I need to strip all 3 Eglus down or just use red mite poweder & the spray? Should really post this on a forum with lots of wooden coops as they will probably be "real experts" on them I reckon 1 year with never seeing a crawly is pretty good going! but does mean "no Knowledge" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwing Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 Are they on the house or on the chickens? what colour are they? The mite spray is a good call though and I would treat the Eglus just in case Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FruitandNutCake Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 Do you have a picture of them? If they are tiny and white and mainly on the chicken coop in the cracks, and grouped together, they could be what I had ( a major infestation)of possibly northern fowl mites? which Johnsons spray didn't touch. They almost look like flour mites. Anyway, after scrubbing and jet washing with hose, I tried Johnsons which didn't work, so I got Eradamite spray to spray on coop, but could only get one 500ml bottle and it wasn't enough for my coop. It did seem to kill the mites where I sprayed. So today I went to another place and got to two 1 litre bottles of poultry shield which you dilute down and spray on coop. This is supposed to work. On my birds, I also noticed red mite, which were dropping off and living in the water container. I treated the birds with Xenex spot-on, which you can get from vet for rabbits ( though not licensed for chickens).It seems to have worked, as I treated chickens Monday, and red lice have gone. They are mostly noticeable on the back of the necks. These red lice definitely feed on the chickens as the ones that have fed are very red and enlarged. I also have the red mite dust powder to sprinkle around the coop as a preventative measure to reduce the risk of re-infestation. Hope this helps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandyhas3chucks Posted July 11, 2009 Author Share Posted July 11, 2009 It would apear that tey are only on the girls and not all of them. Sorry they are soooo tiny and fast a picture is not possible. Using poultry sheild, red mite powder & DE when big strip down clean. they came to me with similar, but identifying seemed easier as there were white clustery clumps on the shaft of the feathers. Could these be the same only the babies hatches maybe as they are smaller! titchy tiny! I do have to be careful with powders etc as I have one with air sac damage and she wheezes anyway, any dust has to be sprayed down as she sleeps on one big nest as she and her pal are disabled and cannot roost even if they wanted to. all tge bedding I have tried is alledgedly dustr extracted , but clouds pillow when you shiufle it! So I limit DE only to cracks etc.... Surely any mites will also live in the Auboise on the run floor too? Thanks for the suggsetions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
