My eco solution to rat problems

[The Dogmother]

It's best to get rid of them before the heating goes on, or they'll breed like mad.

 

Folks, please be careful with any spray which contains Permethrin or Pyrethrum as they are toxic to cats; they can even absorb a residue through their paws, so make any sprayed rooms out of bounds for a few days and air the room thoroughly.

[HENthusiastic]

Can ant powder be used on the chickens? Or just in housing and perches please?

[The Dogmother]

It contains permethrin HEN, so it's not licensed for use on chooks. Some people use it though.

[BONNIE-CAT]

Thanks Folks

 

I've scrubbed the Eglu again this morning with Poultry Shield and there weren't any mites in there so I think we've won the battle out there for now. My barnevelder, Pecks, is attacking me again, and they're all squabbling so I think the girls are feeling better

 

Haven't seen as many in the house this morning, so I think I'll leave the RIP flea to work for a few more days. If I'm still seeing them then I'll steam clean he house, that's a great idea, thanks, I hadn't thought of that.

 

The dog isn't scratching as much and I've had a look in her fur and can only see dead one's. I already treated her with Frontline and dumped half a tub of Diatom on her and rubbed it in - she wasn't happy!!

 

Feeling better today than yesterday, so I'll just keep on fighting.

 

Thanks again and good luck to everyone else who's fighting the little critters.

[The Dogmother]

glad to hear it!

[chickencam]

I was wondering how long they will survive in a plastic compost bin with a lid? I really didn't think so just emptied the bedding in there and have been adding the usual layers of other compostable material. I have been cleaning the bedding out every couple of days, so there are probably quite a lot of red mite in my compost bin now.

[Tutti Frutti]

I did my 2nd treatment of the Cube today, 3 days after the first (Sunday) and the cube was CLEAR!

 

So then onto the compost bin... I'd sprayed that with Total Mite Kill too on Monday after finding that critter crawling around on my hand Nothing attacked me today BUT... I found LOADS of deal earwigs :( And TONS and TONS of eggs - brown, like demerera sugar Flies? Earwigs? Red mite? I have no idea but they're dead!

 

I'll carry on with the compost bin tomorrow. Definitely a gloves and wellies job

 

I've read that RM can't survive under zero degrees or above 60 - how hot does a compost bin get, hot enough to kill the critters does anyone know?

 

Hope everyone else is winning the battle. Glad to hear you're on top of it Bonnie Cat.

 

Claret, THANK YOU for the warning about cats absorbing permethrin through their paws My three aren't happy at being locked in!!!

[The Dogmother]

When you think about it, red mites are reported to be able to survive under the roofing felt on a wooden coop for a year without a feed, so they're pretty resilient!

 

Worse than cockroaches for being indestructible!

[Chicken Licken]

No sign of redmite this morning when I checked the eglu. Let's hope they stay away. The chooks have moved back in which is a good sign it is mite free. I have not investigated the wooden house yet!!

[The Dogmother]

Good news, keep up the vigilance though

 

I've just ordered another big tub of Buz Busters I decant it into an empty washing up liquid bottle and squirt it along all the cracks and crannies.

[Jools]

When you think about it, red mites are reported to be able to survive under the roofing felt on a wooden coop for a year without a feed, so they're pretty resilient!

 

Red mite are able to survive without a blood feed for a year anywhere. Don't be fooled into thinking that it has to be wood or felt.

[Jools]

No sign of redmite this morning when I checked the eglu. Let's hope they stay away. The chooks have moved back in which is a good sign it is mite free. I have not investigated the wooden house yet!!

 

Just a word of caution. If you think there is red mite in the wooden house, be careful about not inadvertently transfering it to the eglu! As well as being resilient little b*******, they don't miss many opportunities to repopulate!

 

A good test for the presence of red mite is to place a piece of folded paper, or corrugated cardboard, in the coop over night and then to examine it the next morning.

[Jools]

Can ant powder be used on the chickens? Or just in housing and perches please?

 

HEN, I think it contains the same active ingredient as other products, such as the oft recommended Buz Busters.

 

IF that's okay for use on the chickens, then I don't see why you can't use ant powder (with the not licensed for poultry rider) ???

[HENthusiastic]

Just a note for interest. the red mites favourite places in my wooden shed are: the chairs (plastic) (put in to deter them from gaining access to wooden perching bars, the cat carrier (plastic) that houses the eletric fence battery the top of the door frame (wood) the electric fence generator (plastic) and the perches (wood)!

Conclusion - they dont care where they live. Anywhere will do.

 

I think plastics easier to treat though, and easier to spot them.

[CallyChook]

after finding none of the critters a week ago when i painted in and out of my wooden coop with bird-friendly wood preservative, and used "total kill" aerosol spray when putting it back together, especially on the perch ends and corners, when I cleaned the girls out yesterday I found..... mites. A small number on the end of one perch, but a cluster of them behind the section which holds the perches and sliding floor tray beneath them grrrrrr

 

so have spent today re-pulling the coop to pieces and sloshing poultry shield throughout. Then the pink trigger spray total kill stuff in the nooks and crannies. Now I'm waiting for the inside to dry before brushing buz busters into the corners and hoping the wee blighters are dead. The rain isnt helping though, i just hope enough of the poultry shield will be absorbed in the moist conditions. I've used frontline before, but since getting pregnant i moved to diatom powder on the actual birds as I was worried about eating eggs when frontline is, as we all know, not licenced for poultry. Now I've been doused in permethrin and all sorts anyways... here's crossing my fingers that baby is ok (at least she's definitively free of mites ). As soon as this babs is born though, I'm afraid it's back to frontline, as diatom powder obviously doesnt work! Neither it seems did the net-tex total mite kill aerosol, as I had liberally sprayed it all over the coop only a week ago (and monthly prior to this).

 

Just what I wanted when am 32 weeks pregnant and on night shifts in the hopital (I'm a nurse)... having to poultry shield the coop at my equivolent of 1am in the of the night followed by a long shower! The cockerel is going crazy now as all three ladies, by 11am this morning, hadn't laid, and now they're pestering back and forth around trying to get int he locked up wet coop. He's alarm calling and driving me nutty, I'll never sleep in this commotion! I think he's trying to tell me I've forgotten to replace the bedding and make it cosy... if only he spoke English or I could make a better buc buc buccaw and explain! I've put the pet carrier in the corner of the garden near the coop, with some bedding in it and a teatowel over it, but so far no takers for my makeshift nestbox. Oh well, ladies, I'm sorry but it's for your own good!

 

Now to try to sleep...red mites are almost as bad for people as they are for the birds themselves....

[Jools]

Oh that doesn't sound like much fun!

 

You may be suffereing from using too many different products at the same time. I do know it's a good idea to keep a varied armoury, but I'm sure I've also heard that using more than one at a time reduces the overall effectiveness - I have no idea why, but I'm sure someone can explain it.

 

It does take several goes to get rid of an infestation as you have to deal with new ones hatching and it's pretty difficult to get them all in the first hit anyway.

 

I'm on a couple of other forums and I keep reading that a lot of traditional poultry keepers don't have too much good to say about Poultry Shield, Diatom or even Total Mite Kill, preferring creosote, ant powder and ivermectin instead.

 

My only other suggestion would be to use a steam cleaner (not power/pressure washer) as apparantly red mite aren't too keen on being boiled alive.

Edited August 14, 2010 by Guest

[shoura]

I've becoem a bit less paranoid and upset since I came to terms with the fact that I'm unlikely to get rid of the mites completely and forever---it's just going to be a permanent state of keeping on top of them to keep the numbers down to levels where the birds aren't affected....

Hopefull I'll be able to go into the WIR eventually without getting a single mite on me---currently that isn't happening yet as I've realised they must be between the overlapping layers of Onduline on the roof---I can see them floating down whenever ther's a gust of wind if I go in there with a torch in the evening...

I am trying to get someone to help me to take the Onduline roof off in order to treat it all over---is Poultry Shield really the best stuff to use---it doesn't actually contain any Permethrin or similar insecticides??

Claret where do you get your big tubs of Buz Busters from? The websites I looked at only seemed to stock the small bottle-type container and the Net-tex site doesn't sell direct to the public.

[The Dogmother]

Here it is Shoura

 

I'll PM you with where I get it from...

[Jools]

I've realised they must be between the overlapping layers of Onduline on the roof---I can see them floating down whenever ther's a gust of wind if I go in there with a torch in the evening.

 

Yes, I'd imagine that's a perfect hiding place for them! I know that onduline (and corruline) are recommended over felt, but I've always wondered about the overlap. My newest (and biggest house) has an onduline roof ..........

 

Claret where do you get your big tubs of Buz Busters from? The websites I looked at only seemed to stock the small bottle-type container and the Net-tex site doesn't sell direct to the public.

 

If you can't post details, could you pm me too please Claret (and probably everyone else who reads this thread )

[The Dogmother]

The Net-Tex site DOES sell it directly to the public, but I think there's a glitch with their site, just give them a ring though and they will send it out.

[Tutti Frutti]

I've realised they must be between the overlapping layers of Onduline on the roof---I can see them floating down whenever ther's a gust of wind if I go in there with a torch in the evening.

 

Yes, I'd imagine that's a perfect hiding place for them! I know that onduline (and corruline) are recommended over felt, but I've always wondered about the overlap. My newest (and biggest house) has an onduline roof ..........

 

YIKES

 

Claret where do you get your big tubs of Buz Busters from? The websites I looked at only seemed to stock the small bottle-type container and the Net-tex site doesn't sell direct to the public.

 

If you can't post details, could you pm me too please Claret (and probably everyone else who reads this thread )

Can you PM me too please Claret? Thank you

 

after finding none of the critters a week ago when i painted in and out of my wooden coop with bird-friendly wood preservative, and used "total kill" aerosol spray when putting it back together, especially on the perch ends and corners, when I cleaned the girls out yesterday I found..... mites....As soon as this babs is born though, I'm afraid it's back to frontline, as diatom powder obviously doesnt work! Neither it seems did the net-tex total mite kill aerosol, as I had liberally sprayed it all over the coop only a week ago (and monthly prior to this).

 

DOUBLE YIKES! I know you have to treat twice within 3 days or so to catch the newly hatched critters before they get old enough to lay themselves (which is only a week, IIRC - feel free to correct if I'm wrong, probably am!) but I was hoping Total Mite Kill worked on eggs as well so to get more within a week is alarming, to say the least!

 

I hope you're winning the war now though!

[CallyChook]

after finding none of the critters a week ago when i painted in and out of my wooden coop with bird-friendly wood preservative, and used "total kill" aerosol spray when putting it back together, especially on the perch ends and corners, when I cleaned the girls out yesterday I found..... mites....As soon as this babs is born though, I'm afraid it's back to frontline, as diatom powder obviously doesnt work! Neither it seems did the net-tex total mite kill aerosol, as I had liberally sprayed it all over the coop only a week ago (and monthly prior to this).

 

DOUBLE YIKES! I know you have to treat twice within 3 days or so to catch the newly hatched critters before they get old enough to lay themselves (which is only a week, IIRC - feel free to correct if I'm wrong, probably am!) but I was hoping Total Mite Kill worked on eggs as well so to get more within a week is alarming, to say the least!

 

I hope you're winning the war now though!

 

 

Tutti I didnt even have ANY last week, I just did the mite kill spray as my usual monthly treatment/preventative. I've never ever seen a mite before yesterday... but the fact that I sprayed a week ago and had a big cluster of them this week makes me think that the spray is rubbish and it's just been due to good luck that I havent encountered any so far!

[CallyChook]

well, just got home and checked the coop after letting the chooks out, they seemed happy enough. Quite a few mites around the ventilation hole, so i grabbed the buz busters and a paintbrush to dust them, and they fell off dry... guess they had perished while tryin to escape! hahahahahaha *evil laugh*

 

will get DH to try to check after dark tonight and hope he finds nothing

[The Dogmother]

You sound like you're enjoying this!!!

[The Dogmother]

If you're stuck for a good powder for the coop/housing, then you can always use ant powder (containing permethrin) from Wilkos.... cheap as chips and as effective as other poultry branded stuff. I recommended it on here a few months ago after a conversation with a retired poultryman (Phil's dad in fact!), he used to use it in the old days. I only got onto the buz busters stuff more recently when a friend (who uses it for their sheep) told me about it; the latter does come in larger sizes, but I haven't sat down and worked out which is cheaper.

 

Now that the backyard poultry market is growing, there are more and more new products coming onto the shelves, which is good news for us folks