Unsecure chicken perches

[SueChick]

I am so very confused and broke! After yet another shopping trip to the poultry suppliers, I think I have bought the wrong stuff.

 

I found the red mite recently after my lady drew blood on herself scratching and pecking. They are really hard to see on her as she is dark but I did see some on my ginger lady (not many and looked like grey sand). I did the Omlet advised test of running a tissue across the bars (plastic even) and voila there they were - red from the blood all over the tissue. Yuck and sob!

 

I have so far sprayed my ladies with Johnsons Anti-Mite spray (not licensed for poultry in UK) and will withdraw eggs for 48 hours but when do I spray them again? Within 7 days or on the 7th day? Before or after the new eggs hatch???

 

Now to tackle the eglu/run - I have washed out eglu and dusted with Johnsons anti-mite powder and really soaked the wood chip in the run with the same but then I found some more threads saying that this is only preventative and that diatom is the only way to kill them What do I do now? Is that true?

 

I can't use anything with pyrthreymin in it as I have cats and this is toxic to them (so is the anti-mite spray for the birds but I haven't caught my kittens licking the chooks yet!!!). Does anyone know if there is a safe but EFFECTIVE killer on the market??

 

Really could do with some help as I am literally pulling my hair out (very itchy every time I think about this whole thing!)

[Chucky Mama]

There are 2 stickies on red mites towards the top of this page that you might find useful

[Patricia W]

The advice I had from my vet was to clean the house and spray that - but not to bother with the chicken. They don't live on them but come out at night and feed on them.

 

He gave me a flea spray to use on the house which worked. Now I take it apart from time to time and put ant killer all along the joints. It seems to work and keep it mite free.

 

If they are on the chickens and you can see them, it's probably not red mite.

[The Dogmother]

'grey sand' sounds like Northern Fowl Mites (NFM) to me, but it's hard to say without seeing them... best read those threads that CM pointed you to - those will help with diagnosis and treatment.

 

BTW, I have cats and have used permethrim based products for years.

[francesca88]

The only thing that worked 100% for me (and I tried it after about a YEAR of trying to get rid of the horrible things) was Frontline Spot On for cats... I used 6 pipettes for 18 chickens, so about a third of a pipette each. After a week, there were no more mites or lice - and still none at all 9 months later!! So I'm going to do them all again this weekend, before the mites show up again...

[eve]

i use smite on birds and house i also creacote house every summer.this seems to work good luck

[bevmatt]

i use smite on birds and house i also creacote house every summer.this seems to work good luck

But don't creosote your Omlet housing - it won't recover!