Red Mite

Sassinak · Red Mite

I have spent the afternoon tackling an infestation of d mite in my main poultry house.

It was quite a bad infestation, as it is easy to miss the early signs. The mites hides in crevises during the day and only emerge in the dark.

They are tiny, not much bigger than a full stop !!! They are grey coloured until they have fed, when they turn the dark red colour that gives them their name. They tend to congregate at the ends of perches and in the crack between the perch and it's support.

The best way to test for them is to take a piece of white tissue and run it along the underside of the perch. If there are small smears of blood on the tissue then there are red mite present.

Eradicating them can be quite difficult as most of the traditinal treatments have been taken away from us.
Farmers used to spray the whole of the inside of the shed (including chickens) with sheep dip !! Understandably we can no longer do this lol
Second most effective treatment was creosote. The sunstitute stuff that we can buy nowadays does not work.
A blow torch can work, but is quite laborious.
Dettol sprayed over all surfaces and into all cracks and crevises is said to be effective.

I have tried a treatment today that I read about on a poultry forum. It iis said to be really effective. I shall report back in a week and tell you.

We cleaned out the shed completely including nest boxes and anything else removable. We then used a bug spray from B&Q. it is called 'Bugfree' A white container with an orangy spray lid. They do various ones including bug clear - but it is only BUGFREE that works. We sprayed the whole of the inside of the shed including all nooks and crannies. Inside nest boxes, ends of perches, underneath perches need a good soaking.

new bedding down and chickens allowed back in. I will let you know how things look in a week.

Oh yes and clothes off and straight into the washer. They can't live on people (I am assured lol) but they itch and certainly I had some crawling on the sleeves of my fleece. Make sure you don't go near any other chickens until you have changed your clothes as those stowaways can easily be passed on

baldowrie

Sassinak

I don't like to use Jeyes fluid very much because my cats spend a lot of time in the chicken sheds and a couple of them even came and 'helped' with the mucking out.
Jeyes fluid s poisonous to cats as indeed is Dettol or any other disinfectant that turns 'milky' when you add water

baldowrie

my cat stays away from my big 'scary' chickens

Martin

Must confess, we never had a problem with it, perhaps things have changed in 20 years - here's some natural remedies worth a try!

" * Creosote applied to the house. This has to be the old fashioned creosote, not creosote substitute that is sold in DIY stores. Old fashioned creosote I am told can still be bought at farm merchants in the UK. Paint Paraffin into cracks and crevices.
* Blow torches can be used around the cracks and crevices but be careful not to set fire to your coop!
* Steamers used for stripping wall paper can be used to get into cracks.
* Pressure Washers can be used to spray into cracks to wash out mites.
* Smearing a mixture of Paraffin and Vaseline into cracks and crevices. Vaseline is used frequently by poultry keepers to get rid of scaly leg mites. It smothers the mites.
* Double-sided sticky fly papers / double sided sticky tape on the underside of the perch and / or around ends of perches.
* Carbolic Soap can be spread in the cracks and crevices to smother the mites.
* Coke poured into cracks to wet the mites apparently works by dissolving the waxy outer coating of the mite which then causes them to dry out, dehydrate and die.
* A dust bath can really help the birds with mites and lice and is their natural way to getting rid of external parasites. Dusting powders can be added to dust baths (like Diatomacious Earth) so the birds get it into the places you have missed. When mites hop onto your birds at night, they will rub against the diatom"

Martin

and more..........

"Natural Red Mite Remedies

There are some natural insecticides and deterrents that can help you with a red mite infestation, many of these can be found in products suitable for human use - anti-mosquito products for example as well as in natural / organic powders. Red Mite Powder for example contains Tea Tree. Here is a list of some natural insecticides / deterrents that can be used to beat red mite.

Diatom - Diatom powder is actually micro skeletons of fossilised remains of deceased diatoms, which are a type of algae found in water.
* Tea Tree.
* Peppermint.
* Citronella - Often sold to prevent mosquitos.
* Eucalyptus - Trees grow well in the UK and can be bought from garden centres. Crush fresh Eucalyptus leaves and use in bedding to help to deter Red-Mites.
* Lemongrass - Can be grown from seed in the greenhouse.
* Cedarwood Oils.
* Soya Bean Oils.
* Garlic

I have used a few of these for red mite control with success the main two being garlic and diatom.

Garlic has many other health benefits as well as being a natural insecticide.
It is thought that the red mite don't like the smell that comes off the skin or the taste of blood after garlic has been eaten. I crush a couple of fresh cloves into their water, or, if I'm in a hurry, I will use dried garlic granules that I buy in big bags from an equestrian shop but it can also be added to food.
Diatom is very safe to use and can be used in organic farms. If it is dusted around the bedding and rubbed into the perches it can drastically reduce red mite numbers. Diatom has microscopically sharp edges and it works by piercing the outer waxy coating of the mite which will basically dry up and die after a short while. There is no chemical toxicity since diatom controls insects by physical means rather than chemical"

JamesB

A vet friend of mine send me something similiar to diatom, seemed to work very well.

james

Julie

I spray the hen house at least once a year with jeyes fluid solution in a pressure sprayer and shut the birds out of the house while it dries and airs. It helps that one house has a huge door and the other has a lift up roof on one side for cleaning. I don't think we have ever had any red mite problems but I like the white tissue test - that's one for the resource thread Sass.
I didn't know it was harmful to cats but I sort of imagined it wouldn't be good for any animal to have prolonged exposure to it anyway. Will bear that in mind for the future though.

Julie

I found a couple of useful info sites and have added them to the resource thread. One of them has some interesting red mite control suggestions for anyone who may not want to use chemicals, and the other suggests that creosote may make the eggs carcinogenic for a few weeks, although I've no idea whether that can be verified.

Ali

Does the garlic in the water not taste the eggs?

Sassinak

I've never tried it, but I would have my doubts about it

Julie

I've read in quite a few sources that garlic is widely used in the drinking water as a good, general tonic too. If it did taint the eggs, it might not be recommended so often.
Mind you, I can taste the fish oil in pork that has been fed meal with it in, and garlic can make your skin smell of garlic..........maybe it is down to the sensitivity of the individuals sense of smell and taste? We have had eggs that tasted slightly fishy in the past, so maybe they put fish meal into the layers pellets too?

Sassinak

If you feed goats and cows on too much cabbage (or similar) the milk definitely has a 'cabbagey' taint

baldowrie

argh!

Just been to clean the coop and guess what? Yep red mite.

So the hens are moving into the spare coop until I can get some stuff tomorrow. Given it a good spray out with Jeyes fluid, soaked it.

Martin

Came across something that may be of help this week, in of all places - Lidl - their "own-brand" (W5) Mite Spray, made for domestic use (bed linen, furniture etc), which has as it's active ingredients benzyl benzoate, and Neem oil - worth a try to spray the hen house, and loads less toxic than many remedies, or the thermonuclear strikes some are tempted to use..........

baldowrie

Thanks will take a ride over tomorrow and have a look

Maria

Wish i was closer to a lidl....s it worth dosing as a preventative...or 'i'm a worried owner' just in case?

Thing is, i'm getting more and more worried that the feather loss that my chooks have is something more than moulting?! Can mites cause feather loss? I've done the tissue test...and nothing. They are laying regularly, and look well enough in themselves. Beatrix looks like ive tried to neck her

and feathers, doesn't look much better. The other two don't seem to be affected...although they are shedding some feathers, not just around the neck...and not nearly so much as the other two.

Help! Should have put a new post on this really.

Sassinak

My pens look as if I've bedded them down on feathers at the moment.
I've worried a couple of times that there has been a fox attack there have been so many