Question Ahhhh!!! Mites! What to treat coop with??

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Penny
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Ahhhh!!! Mites! What to treat coop with??

Post by Penny » Tue Jul 03, 2018 11:25 am

Ugh, My girls have red mites! I feel like a bad chicken Mom and now I'm in for quite the battle I assume!

Ive got dusting powder for the chickens (I think its been since outlawed, so that means it strong enough it should work! lol). Yesterday I put some of the powder on the coop floor and mixed it with shavings, but I've read about permethrin spray for the coop but cannot find it in the 10% recommended anywhere! What do you use for treating coop/housing/runs??

Also...tips for catching the wild girls to powder them? Most of my hens are quite tame (even my rooster) but I have 2 that have never wanted to be freinds, not even for meal worms! lol. The coop they are in is NOT a walk in, and the 2 wild girls sleep on the far side from the door, not easy to get to while alseep.
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WLLady
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Re: Ahhhh!!! Mites! What to treat coop with??

Post by WLLady » Tue Jul 03, 2018 12:15 pm

do your wild girls have a favorite dust bathing site? you can always put some dusting powder in that spot and they'll dust themselves. Just if it rains there will be no more dusting powder in the bathing site and you'll have to add some more.
i take everything out of the coop, all the shavings etc, and then dust it too.....leave it empty of shavings for a day and the dusting powder stays in and then new bedding on the top.
you can still buy permethrin in quebec...lol. roundup too. ha ha.
also cleaning the coop out of birds and everything for about a month will move the mites elsewhere, but i'm assuming that you actually NEED the coop for the birds....
so the dusting powder is the thing to use, just make sure to sprinkle it everywhere, and wear a mask when you do it.
lye will also take care of them, but you'll need to leave it empty and then wash it out afterwards because it's caustic and will burn chicken feet. if you can find carbaryl spray for plants that will work too.
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Happy
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Re: Ahhhh!!! Mites! What to treat coop with??

Post by Happy » Tue Jul 03, 2018 12:38 pm

@Penny if you're a bad chicken mom then I should probably have mine removed and placed in protective custody lol. I battle mites most years but I found this past spring the absolute worst. I'm now blaming chipmunks digging around my coop (and going in the coop to raid food every chance they get. I do exactly as WLLady describes and I use poultry dust. I tried burning the removed shaving one year and they just smoldered and put up thick stinky smoke so now I haul them away from the coop and lberally apply poultry dust and stir. Key is to ensure you retreat in 10 days (and again in 10 days if you've got a particularly stubborn case OR you have wild birds or vermin entering your coop. I finally sprinkled poultry dust under and around the outside of my coop as well and that finally seems to have done the trick. I probably have the only mite-free chipmunks for miles around but if you can't beat them, join them. I don't have advice for grabbing the wild ones as mine all actually peck my ankles to get picked up. Off the roost at night with a headlamp on is the best I can offer. Good-luck!
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Re: Ahhhh!!! Mites! What to treat coop with??

Post by labradors » Tue Jul 03, 2018 1:08 pm

I think we have mites too. Everything was going pretty well until Isobel began to lay bloody eggs again. I bathed her two mornings running to get rid of the blood on her vent, so that nobody would peck her. Then, late yesterday, I saw her pecking herself! I sprayed her with Blu-kote, but she immediately pecked herself like a crazed chicken. I put her in a dog crate in the basement overnight because I didn't want her to make herself bleed and then get pecked, but I digress.

I have two with bare bottoms and I suspect that they have parasites (although I cannot see anything) . I really don't want to use the carbaryl (Sevin) again since I learned that it's so toxic. From reading online, that leaves me with garlic spray and rubbing a little oil onto the perch...….

Linda
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Penny
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Re: Ahhhh!!! Mites! What to treat coop with??

Post by Penny » Tue Jul 03, 2018 1:38 pm

Many horse fly sprays use permethrin. Anybody ever used those around the coop with success? ...im thinking the liquid spray would be good for undersides of perches, nooks and crannies, etc, but dont know if they would contain enough to be useful (most seem to be about .1% or less)
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Jaye
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Re: Ahhhh!!! Mites! What to treat coop with??

Post by Jaye » Tue Jul 03, 2018 1:49 pm

I have used Bronco spray in and around the coop and run. Also have sprayed bird butts when I suspected lice or mites. I have also sprayed my poop board contents to keep flies down.
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