My eco solution to rat problems

[Jools]

It seems that in the good old days our grandparents didn't have the benefit of the internet to share experiences - thank goodness a lot of those old fashioned remedies do actually work

 

Please let's not turn this into the plastic vs wood farce. Red mite love poultry and dark hiding places, regardless of the material.

[Tutti Frutti]

I found a few red mite in my Cube this afternoon, down the bottom left hand corner on the inside (as you look through the door from the front) and in the big dimples in the roof - one had a tiny bit of grey dust in it

 

So we've taken the Cube apart and given it a thorough clean then sprayed it with Total Mite Kill. We've squirted it in the manufacturing holes (roof and back panel) too and will seal them shut with a glue gun.

 

The weird thing is, they weren't moving, were just tiny grey/black dots and looked like specs of dirt. TINY, less than 1mm. I wasn't sure so used sellotape to lift a couple off (stuck it back over on itself, just in case!) and then put it under a magnifying glass - definitely red mite, one even burst and a bit of blood ran out

 

My poor girls Fortunately, I think I've caught it early as I've only found half a dozen mites at the most and it's 4pm so they should be in the house, not on the girls. I've been checking a couple of times a week and there was nothing there 2 or 3 nights ago. Our girls seem fine - bright, chirpy with good combs so I hope I've caught this early.

 

Will powder the girls with Johnson's Anti Mite powder in a min then repeat (girls and house) on Wednesday and then again next Sunday too. Cleaning out the Aubiose in a min and will put fresh dust and tons of Diatom in the dust bath.

 

This is war! itch itch itch

[Patricia W]

My vet ( who has kept chickens) says just to treat the house and not to bother with the hens. What do others think?

 

Tricia

[Tutti Frutti]

Could we possibly have a stickie for red mite please? Along the lines of the fox attack experiences, so just for reports - only because I thought I had a "few" mite but it turned out to be dozens, hidden UNDER the front panel - if I hadn't unscrewed it I'd never have known

 

It might help others to know these things. And we can update it with extra treatments, what worked/what didn't etc. Something like...

 

Date: 8 August 2010

House: Eglu Cube

Flock size: 6 girls

What have your ant-red mite measures been so far? Occasional diatom in dustbath and Cube. Regular (twice weekly) evening/night-time checks. Observing the girls' health

Do you think your measures worked? Diatom - not vigilant enough. Visual checks - spot on!

Where on house found - obvious ones: (1) Inside front left hand bottom corner, as you look in through the door; (2) underside of the roof panel, with grey dust and a single visible mite in one of the large dimples

Where on house found - hidden ones: Once I took the cube apart (unscrewed sides and front), I found two small infestations - under the front panel where it rests on the base at the roost bar joins - nothing on the nestbox side

How many: Obvious ones - just half a dozen or so but thankfully prompted me to take the cube apart. Hidden ones - a small infestation, possibly a few dozen

How would you classify this? (Early, small, major, infested) Early

How would you describe them? Tiny and dark, a bit like dirt. Almost like small (under 1mm), oval poppy seeds - not long and thin. They were so small, I couldn't even see their legs until I used a magnifying glass. They weren't moving but I was suspicious so used sellotape to pick them up and squeezed one between my finger nails and blood came out!

Treatment: Total Mite Spray on the house. Sealed manufacturing holes (eg bottom of nestbox divide, roof) with glue gun. Girls dusted with Johnson's Anti Mite powder.

Any prevention measures for the future?: Diatom'ed dust bath. Battles Red Mite Powder in Cube - under poo tray and roost bars and all over roost bars and in nest box. All bedding and flooring thrown away. Keep special, plastic shoes for cleaning the run and leave them outside - trying not to invite them into the house!

Environment: Cleared out Aubiose, Virkon S'd run.

How are you feeling? Shocked - didn't think it would happen to me. Worried - will I get rid of them, will the girls be OK, will I beat the RM, will they come back next year?

 

Please come back and edit your post to tell us:

How many treatments it took to win the RM battle? TBA

How long did the battle take to win (WE WILL WIN!)? TBA

Edited August 8, 2010 by Guest

[Patricia W]

Good idea - And whether one treatment is enough/how long it takes to get rid of the critters.

 

Tutti Frutti - have you looked under the plastic roost bars? Especially in the corners of the bars? That's where I found a hoard.

 

Tricia

[Tutti Frutti]

Yes thank you Tricia - we took the whole thing apart!!!

 

My clothes are in the wash and I've had a bath

 

And good suggestions, btw - thank you

[esta]

Hey guys,

 

Thought I would jet wash the coops today to get rid of some of those horrid red mites. Did the bantams and it looks so clean, and killed i would say 90% of the red mite The rest I got ye olde red mite killer on them

 

The big coop however I thought wasn't too bad, but i realised i could take the roof off, so i did and underneath was MILLIONS of red mite I could not believe it So hopefully now my chookies will have a peaceful night then usual as I have found and killed the little blood suckers They have been jet washed and red mite sprayed so they won't come back to soon

I think the chookies will really appreciate it

 

Do you think that would have got rid of a lot of the red mite and their eggs, well I hope so

 

P.S anyone with an infestation, JET WASHING all the way!

Esta x

[Snowy]

It is likely that you have missed some I'm afraid. You need to redo them every three days to get any new ones that have hatched.

[shoura]

I think it's going to be an ongoing thing until the cold weather sets in....

I've never wished for winter to arrive early before!!

[Chicken Licken]

Date: 9 August 2010

House: Eglu

Flock size: 4

What have your ant-red mite measures been so far? Johnsons Anti Mite Spray on the girls and barrier red mite powder in the bedding and around the eglu. Vigilance!!

Do you think your measures worked? not too bad.

Where on house found - obvious ones: Under the poo tray of the eglu on both the removable tray (green in my case) and another small cluster on the housing. In the past they have been in the different parts of the egg port and rim

How many: about 20 - not nearly as many as the wooden house which was quite literally crawling earlier inb the summer

How would you classify this? (Early, small, major, infested) Small

How would you describe them? Small and dark and easily squashed with the shaft of a piece of straw - good popping sensation!!

Any prevention measures for the future?: Put mite powder liberally over the house rather than on the chookies and use anti mite sparay if there are any visible mite movement on the chooks. Also as we have a merged flock of 2 x+2 and two houses the chooks vote with their feet and sleep in the house they prefer. After my clean up today they have moved intot he wooden house for the night!!

Environment: Washed the eglu with ecovert and citronella and left to bake dry. Then dusted it with anti mite powder

[The Dogmother]

Chicken Licken, bear in mind that you can also use the anti-mite spray directly on the housing

[Heidi-Hi]

Just wondered whether the Red Mite will live in the grass where I've cleaned the cube? I've jet-washed the cube, and now have images of the kids playing on the lawn and collecting mite as they go along

[Patricia W]

I seem to think they are destroyed by UV light and only survive in dark corners - hence the need to get into any holes etc in the cube.

 

Tricia

 

PS - is it worth moving this to the red mite thread ? I've done it - ANH

[Tutti Frutti]

These little so and sos really are vampire-esque! Not liking daylight, drinking blood... is it TRUE that daylight kills them? Or will they just retreat to somewhere dark?

[The Dogmother]

I understand that they are killed by UV light; hence the recommendation (when buying chicken housing) to look for one that can be taken apart to let the UV light in.

[HENthusiastic]

is it TRUE that daylight kills them? Or will they just retreat to somewhere dark?

 

Very good question.

[BONNIE-CAT]

Hi Everyone

 

I've been reading the forum on and off for a year or so and have finally decided to introduce myself.

 

I'm hoping some-one can help. We've had an infestation of red mite in our eglu. I've been pulling the eglu to pieces, spraying it with poultry safe, blasting it with a pressure waster, waiting for it to dry and then spraying it with poultry safe again and then using diatom, erm, everywhere really and burning the old bedding. There are a lot of dead mites around and I can't see many live ones at night when I go at with a torch so I think I'm winning the battle for the chickens.

 

The problem is, the dog got covered in the damn things and now where seeing them all over the house. I've treated the house with RIP flea spray from the vets, but I'm still seeing them. They're all tiny though so I think the dog (or us, even though we were stripping in the kitchen, throwing our clothes in the washing machine and imediately having a hot shower) must have bought in some which have now laid eggs.

 

My daughter has found five on herself tonight when she was lying in bed.

 

Anyone had any experience of having them in their home and what did they do about it? Also, will the RIP flea spray kill them or do i need to use something else?

 

I've had chickens for nearly two years with no problems but I'm starting to get desperate. Good diet though, I'm so stressed I've hadly eaten for the last week!

 

Thanks for any help

[Heidi-Hi]

Hi Bonnie-Cat, that is absolutely horrid for you. Don't know the answer though, but I'm sure someone will be along shortly with some advice. I don't think you are the first to go through that!

[Tutti Frutti]

...seeing them all over the house. I've treated the house with RIP flea spray from the vets, but I'm still seeing them. They're all tiny though so I think the dog (or us, even though we were stripping in the kitchen, throwing our clothes in the washing machine and imediately having a hot shower) must have bought in some which have now laid eggs.

 

My daughter has found five on herself tonight when she was lying in bed.

 

Anyone had any experience of having them in their home and what did they do about it? Also, will the RIP flea spray kill them or do i need to use something else?

 

That is my absolute worst nightmare

 

I haven't experienced anything like this but I hate creepy crawlies so my gut (over-)reaction (!) would be to ring the council and ask their advice and get fumigators in!!! But that's probably me overreacting - I'd have thought the flea spray should work but not sure if it kills the eggs - so you should treat again in 3 days once they've hatched but are still immature and unable to lay their own eggs.

 

Good luck.

[The Dogmother]

Sorry to hear that Bonnie.

 

I'd suggest that you carry on with the flea spray, using it on the beds too, and treat your dog with Frontline COMBO, which will render the bugs sterile and unable to breed.

 

I've not heard of Poultry Safe, but I recommend using Total Mite Kill Concentrate followed by Buz Busters powder, both are excellent at getting rid of mite/lice infestations.

[Tutti Frutti]

I've been composting the poo-pickings from the poo tray and the run - so now I'm wondering if RM could have been in the poo tray and now infesting my compost bin

 

Is that possible, should I remove it all and burn it?

[Jools]

Yes I have heard of that before Tutti Frutti, so you might be better bagging and binning or burning it.

 

Bonnie, red mite don't enjoy being steam cleaned, so that's another option if you want to avoid too many chemicals in the house.

 

I've also read recently about Ant Powder being very effective and considerably cheaper than the branded poultry products. Any products containing permethrin are not advisable if you have cats though.

[Patricia W]

Yikes! I put mine in the compost bin - and where do the little dears like digging? You've guessed it! Oh well, here comes another job! How can something so small cause so much devastation??

 

Tricia

[Tutti Frutti]

Oh no No prizes for guessing what I'll be doing this afternoon

 

I had my suspicions as I put some bokashi in there the other day - a bit like Little Jack Horner only it wasn't a plum* I pulled out on my hand but ONE SINGLE crawly thing!!

 

Ugh.

 

(*Hello Plum! )

[shoura]

I've had them in the house and on me/my clothes and on the dogs.

REally horrid!

I recommend spraying the carpets in the whole house wiht RIP flea spray---it is vry effective and any insects that land on the carpet perish PDQ so it has given me much more confidence about being able to get rid of the pesky blighters eventually. I have never had so many showers/hair washes or washed my clothes as frequently as in the past 2 weeks!and I still find the odd one somewhere or other indoors, but am getting less upset by them....