cluckingmad Posted June 2, 2013 Share Posted June 2, 2013 Oh *"@£$%>)(@. Despite dismantling the eglu, scrubbing with poultry shield AND spraying with permethrin, the blasted mites are everywhere again! Broody has one or two mites that I can see, but am very concerned about the chicks, as they're only 2 days old We've moved them to an indoor rabbit cage for today while we break down the eglu again but am really worried... there was one egg unhatched this am and when we went back to see how Mum was getting on she was off the egg and it was COVERED in mites. Have squirted everyone with diatomaceous earth (know its not a cure but figured it can't hurt), Mum had a dose of ivermectin a couple of days ago but chicks far too young for anything like that... Don't want to lose any of these little cutiepies to something that should be preventable but really need help to know how best to protect them... after doing the eglu etc before I'm not sure I'll be entirely confident as to its mite-proof qualities after this! x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted June 2, 2013 Share Posted June 2, 2013 Oh, how annoying . There must have been a swarm of the mites somewhere nearby and they have landed on your Eglu. I've been lucky and never seen signs of Mites in my Eglu(s), but from the sounds of it you are doing everything you can to cure the infestation. I've heard/read that Jeyes Fluid is good at wiping out the little beasties, but not sure if the treatment/smell might over-power the chicks too! Andrew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cluckingmad Posted June 2, 2013 Author Share Posted June 2, 2013 lol, funnily enough Andrew, was just chatting with a friend who's parents have chooks and they use jeyes fluid in their coops after a mite infestation!! Not totally convinced these are red mite now though as they little blighters were out and crawling along the run in the daylight and I thought red mite were strictly nocturnal? Mum and babies now safely tucked up in our spare room in the temporary coop (aka chicken cage!), have dusted Mum and the litter with DE thinking that the babies will get dusted by association as it were Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coco Posted June 2, 2013 Share Posted June 2, 2013 Could they be bird mites. We had an infestation around this time of yrar about two years ago. The house amd run were covered in them. Good sprinkling of diatom got rid of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cluckingmad Posted June 2, 2013 Author Share Posted June 2, 2013 Am starting to think that way yeah... Mum hen had what looked like crusty scabbing almost on her face a week ago she wasn't her usual happy self and had obviously been scratching, the ivermec sorted that out and the scabbing is clearing nicely (almost looked like accumulated mite dirt), plus she's not got a pale comb and her behaviour is normal... she doesn't have any mites on her that we can see, they're around 1mm, round back end and are either pale cream or black x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
