4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Biker Betty]

Hello all - looking for a bit of advice here. I have discovered a ton if red mites tonight when cleaning out my girls. It's not that long since I last did a thorough clean of the inside so this has cropped up really quickly but there were loads of them!

 

As it was getting dark I didn't have time for a total scrub down. I did however jet wash their perch where most of them had congregated. Then I sprayed the whole of the inside of the coop very thoroughly with normal household disinfectant and left it to dry off before puffing loads of DE in there. I also dusted each of the girls bums (they wouldn't let me do their top halves very easily) and vaselined their legs to stop the mites biting there so easily.

 

The girls do seem fine - I have been lacking eggs for a while now but I don't think this is related - more like ex-battery hens who just don't lay very well.

 

Does anyone have any advice on this? Is it worth getting red mite powder or does DE work as well/better?

 

Adding to the difficulty, I am going away next Thursday for a week or so and having to leave them in the hands of my non-confident-with-chickens housemate. I am also working 12 hours a day until I go - so any quick solutions would be great!

 

I'm now going to go and wash my clothes in an exceptionally hot wash and am even tempted to add a bit of DE to my carpet to make sure I didn't bring any into the house. Makes me itch just thinking about it!!

 

Thanks

[laurmurf]

Is this in an eglu or cube, or in a wooden coop? If it's wooden i think you're going to have to give it a real going over before you can get away - I'm afraid - as red mite can be very damaging to your chooks

 

I think DE is useful but the Poultry Shield (diluted 1:9) is usually recommended. You have to completely soak the interior and allow it to dry, paying particular attention to ends of perches and any nooks and crannies in the wood. When it's dry you can sprinkle DE everywhere (and I've heard it's useful to make a paste with DE and smear that on ends of roost bars).

 

There's loads more advice and better detail than I've offered elsewhere on the forum, bikerbetty, try FAQs to start and then a search under red mite.

 

Good Luck with your chooks and hope you get rid of the blighters!

[Gamebird]

Unfortunately, once you've got a heavy infestation of red mite there is no quick solution (apart from getting a new hen house).

 

As laurmurf says you need to soak the hen house thoroughly with Poultry Shield. It's easier if you have a pressure sprayer so you can get into every nook and cranny and even in the roofing material.

 

You need to do this every 3 to 4 days until they have all gone and then every week to stop them coming back again.

 

After each application allow the house to dry then sprinkle DE in as many places as you can.

 

Dusting the girls with DE will also help.

 

Good luck.

[Biker Betty]

Thanks for the advice - after I posted this I did have a look at the FAQs and found out lots from there. I have now ordered some poultry shield and pressure sprayer and will just keep disinfecting and DE'ing until it arrives. Following that, I have no choice but to do it really well the day before I head off and then again as soon as I return. Then when I return, I will have to do a strict regime of the every 3-4 days thing until I have some control over them. On the plus side, I have checked this evening and the DE seems to have done the trick for today at least - I couldn't see any live ones in the same areas as yesterday.