Jump to content
Doris 12

Red mite help & experience - post all red mite issues here

Recommended Posts

I am having a nightmare with red mite........help!! I have just spent £40 on 'stuff' for the house, the chooks and everything else but cannot get rid. Any suggestions? When I was in the animal feed shop to buy all of this, there seemed to be lots of other in the same boat so thought a few of you out there could help?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you have a wooden coop or an eglu?

Ideally, you need to dismantle the coop as far as you can (within reason!) as the mites will be lurking in the nooks and crannies. The best product to use is something containing permethrin as this will kill the mites. Something like total mite kill spray can be sprayed all over the coop and is safe for the hens. Poultry Shield is another alternative although this works in a different way. Spray it liberally all over the coop, including into all the cracks and crevices. If you can take your perches out, spray them all over too as the ends of perches are a favourite hiding place for mites. Sunlight also kills mites so, if you can, leave your coop open to the sunlight as much as possible. When you put your coop back together, sprinkle a generous amount of louse/mite powder around, such as Battles louse powder or Buz Busters (you want a powder containing permethrin), that way any mites that have escaped your spraying will crawl through the powder and be zapped.

You may need to repeat this process at least a couple of times a week at first. The breeding cycle of red mite is alarmingly quick so you need to catch any eggs that have hatched in the meantime, before they then breed.

If you have a wooden coop, another suggestion that I have read is to (carefully!) use a blowtorch to blitz the little blighters. However be careful, you don't want to completely torch your coop :shock::lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Evil little things :twisted: Not sure what stuff you got, poultry shield maybe? We've used decimite in the past and that was really good but I think that has been withdrawn now.

 

Last summer we had a dreadful problem with redmite. We kept spraying it and dusting the girls but still we found evidence of them. We took the whole coop apart and they were hiding in cracks everywhere. We got a blowtorch in the end and fried them, people laugh when I say that you need to fry until you hear the second pop - first is the mites, second is the eggs exploding. Obviously it goes without saying that you need to be very careful if using a blow torch in a wooden coop. Also - keep the hens well away. After we had fried them we sealed the joints with vaseline, the girls did get quite dirty as they got vaseline in their feathers and then dust bathed but it was better than them being eaten. :twisted:

 

After that we put some poultry shield in a wall paper steamer, poked it into the coop and steamed anything that was still left alive - again, keep the hens well away. We sprayed it down with poultry shield and then dusted the girls with barrier red mite powder and that finally did the trick. We took the coop apart every weekend for a while after that though to make sure none of the eggs had hatched.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know the feeling at the moment. We're struggling with an infestation that just appeared out of no-where. So far this week we have powerhosed the house until the little blighters were swimming. Then we scrubbed using flash (ran out out of Jeyes), sprayed with Total Mite Kill (the pink stuff?), sprayed with Raid Ant & Cockroach killer (Someone recommended it), used Poultry Shield and Diatom liberally.

 

But the nasty little things are still crawling about everywhere. And what's worse is that the cats have brought them in the house :evil: so now everything is being sprayed with Indorex. I was not impressed to find one on my sofa. Needless to say it didn't live long.

 

Our neighbour is going to ask his mate (a farmer) if we can have a small amount of creosote from him. They WILL die. :twisted:

 

Got to admit I'm liking the idea of using the blowtorch. I imagine it's quite a satisfying thing to do! :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The blowtorch is satisfying - I can testify for that! :twisted:

 

But my chooks live in a wooden stable - so I am on a losing battle with the evil mites. I cant dismantle it but I just blowtorch the roosting bars and spray/powder everyhere else.... Has anyone tried the creosote substitute - Creocote?

Would that seal the places they hide in? The clusters of mites seem to be in the knots and cracks in the wood so perhaps it would help to seal them up ....?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hubby strips his shed religiously. He uses hot air gun & yacht varnish. He also uses Poultry shield, red mite powder, diatom, total mite kill pink spray & the latest great thing - a portable steamer! The steamer really is great, as is the hot air gun.

I'm battling with them at the moment in the green eglu. :doh: I finally think I am winning! :pray: That total mite kill is fab along with diatom.

Evil little devils red mites. It's all this hot weather, must be as our chooks are well clean & their houses are.

Emma.x

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you all for your advice. My girls live in a 10ft x 10ft wooden stable so it not an option to dismantle it. I have seen something online where you put it in the coop, light it and shut the door and all the fumes kill the mites. Do it again five days after and it kills the mites eggs. Has anyone used this? I am still spraying (both wood and chooks) but am thinking of moving them back to their old house (which is a converted metal horsebox body) until I can get rid of them for good. Someone I worked with suggested Creosote - he has some of the proper stuff so may ask him for some and do it that way. Thanks again everyone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you all for your advice. My girls live in a 10ft x 10ft wooden stable so it not an option to dismantle it. I have seen something online where you put it in the coop, light it and shut the door and all the fumes kill the mites. Do it again five days after and it kills the mites eggs. Has anyone used this? I am still spraying (both wood and chooks) but am thinking of moving them back to their old house (which is a converted metal horsebox body) until I can get rid of them for good. Someone I worked with suggested Creosote - he has some of the proper stuff so may ask him for some and do it that way. Thanks again everyone.

 

Mine also live in a stable so I have the same problem - if you can find the online fumigation stuff then please let me know! Whether it would be safe for the chooks to go back in there for a while would be my only worry .....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I also keep some of mine in a stable, its brick which helps but mites are rife in the beams as wild birds nest there :roll:

 

The smoke bomb things need to be used in a tightly sealed area and sealing up a stable isnt easy, the smoke needs to have nowhere to escape from and needs to hang in the air for some time (hours usually)

 

I now use a pump sprayer and some hard core chemicals that have a residual effect which seems to be doing a good job, its a full on mask, goggles, overall affair but is the best I have tried yet. pm me if you would like the details.

 

Mind you the Nettex total mite kill does a good job when used with a pump sprayer too

 

the solution is to keep up the fight and dont get complacent

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I seem to remember checking the back of a tub of TMK powder recently - to find that the active ingredient was diatom!!

so I wouldnt buy it again, just stick with the diatom. I'm going to do a precautionary ant spray the next time I clean out, just in case (tho I dont 'think' we have any).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have had great fun this year with the little blighters. We made our own wooden house 2 years ago from external plywood and painted it with external gloss paint. However we made the mistake of having roofing felt on the roof, we have stripped that off taken the thing apart repainted it and made the nest box removable, and still they come. I think that they are in the wood of the WIR and in the russian vine that grows nearby, we just clean out thoroughly every other day and spray with pink total mite kill. The numbers are manageable now but with the warmer weather only my large Light Sussex and her companion have been sleeping in there and Bertha is more than enough to eat for the remaing mites :roll: We have quite a few perches in the run and the girls have been sleping there since the mites increased in the spring and we can't persuade them to return, we have posted them in on a couple of occasions after a thorough clean but the next night they are back outside again.

 

We have even had them in the Eglu for the first time this year and we inscrewed the whole thing and jet washed it but haven't entirely got rid of them :x It is an ongoing battle, we have also dusted the birds with a menthol smelling powder which is meant to be a repellent, we will see.

 

There is no easy solution, just regular cleaning and checking.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm so relieved it's not just us!! Have had our girlies for nearly three years and have just discovered our first red mite infestation - yuk! Have done the whole stripping down, blasting, poutlry shield and diatom powder routine. Fingers crossed we've caught it in time because the ladies really didn't take kindly to being dusted with mite powder last night.

 

I agree with the earlier suggestion to try and get sunlight on the house/perches etc - we pulled the egg boxes and bits out to spray them again this morning and left them in the sun for a while to dry and even more of the little blighters appeared so we blasted them too :clap:

 

Gutted some of you have mites in your Eglus - I was hoping this was a great opportunity to get OH to agree to swap our wooden houses for a shiny new Cube. Doh!

 

Quick question - has anyone tried the new red mite/predator mite treatment being advertised via Chicken Vet? Sounds like a good idea except the house has to be chemical free for a couple of weeks before you use it. I think the girls will have been eaten to pieces by then!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.







×
×
  • Create New...