Chicken Mites

[tortoise]

We have second year of chicken mites. They affecting our barn flock the worst, but as we clean out the barn, now they're in the barn cleaner / manure pile and our free range birds will get them (if they haven't already).

The source of the mites is wild birds. We have managed to get most of the pigeon population out of our barn, but no luck on the swallows.

The mites died off sufficiently in winter and chickens regrew their feather. I put DE in nest boxes and in the litter. Problem with medications is there is no known withdrawal time, in other words, the eggs and meat would never be safe for consumption.

What can I do?

 

[MoonShadows]

The DE didn't take care of the chicken mites?
Get some wormwood (perennial herb...also called mugwort). Hang some in your coop and put some in the nesting boxes. It is a mite repellent. You can also spray the chickens with a garlic juice mixture. It's supposed to have a 100% kill rate in 24 hours.

I also found an article with some other natural mite treatments:
http://www.fresheggsdaily.com/2013/02/mites-how-to-prevent-them-and-treat.html

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I know @Beekissed used to talk about dusting them with wood ashes?

 

[MoonShadows]

Yes, that's another natural remedy.

 

[Hinotori]

If you're not worried about the chemical, Dog frontline works to knock them out. 2 drops for a bantam, 3 for a large fowl. I had to resort to it when the mites almost killed my rooster.

I give dust bath with diatomacious earth and basic potting soil. They also get wood ashes when I have them. My birds love ashes.

The potting soil is because my birds have an obcession with it and will get in my planters and dust bathe if I don't give them their own

 

[Beekissed]

I know @Beekissed used to talk about dusting them with wood ashes?

The wood ashes didn't work. I finally got rid of them altogether and they never returned by simply dusting with pyrethrin dust, the organic version of permethrin. Each year before winter and after winter, I dust the roosts with the same thing and place a little in the bottom of the nest boxes, under the hay, and that seems to keep things good.

The pyrethrins occur in the seed cases of the perennial plant pyrethrum (Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium), which has long been grown commercially to supply the insecticide. Pyrethrins have been used as an insecticide for thousands of years. It is believed that the Chinese crushed chrysanthemum plants and used the powder as an insecticide as early as 1000 BC. It was widely known that the Chou Dynasty in China widely used pyrethrin for its insecticide properties.[8] Pyrethrins were identified as the potent chemical in the Chrysanthemum plants responsible for the insecticidal properties in the crushed flowers around 1800 in Asia. In the Napoleonic Wars, French soldiers used the flowers to keep away fleas and body lice.[8]

When I get new chickens to the place, they all get a good dusting and a coat of castor oil to their scales before they are integrated with the flock. No mites of any kind in the flock since taking these measures.

Sulfur dust is a great preventative to place in dusting spots too and can also be used topically for mites, though not quite as deadly to the mites as the pyrethrin dust.

DE and wood ashes are not known for being all that effective, particularly if you already have a mite situation on hand.

 

[tortoise]

Pyrethrins are on the "okay" list for egg/meat. However, our barn cat digs and eats out of the chicken litter and I'm afraid of poisoning her.

I don't really have a decent dust bath for them, not that I think about this problem more. That's easy enough to correct, even though it sounds like it's more of a welfare than parasite-control measure.

Might come down to bathing them. These are NOT tame birds and the rooster is frightful, so I'm reeeeeeeeeaaaally not wanting to bathe them.

 

[Beekissed]

Pyrethrins are on the "okay" list for egg/meat. However, our barn cat digs and eats out of the chicken litter and I'm afraid of poisoning her.

I don't really have a decent dust bath for them, not that I think about this problem more. That's easy enough to correct, even though it sounds like it's more of a welfare than parasite-control measure.

Might come down to bathing them. These are NOT tame birds and the rooster is frightful, so I'm reeeeeeeeeaaaally not wanting to bathe them.

Pyrethrin, safe for cats. Permethrin, NOT safe for cats. Flea powder for cats is just pyrethrin dust, so if they lick themselves they won't get sick.

 

[tortoise]

I will ask DH about it then! I know they're different but assumed they were close enough to be equally hazardous for cats. Thanks for pointing out the difference!

 

[Beekissed]

I found out the hard way they are different. Last spring I dusted the cats with some permethrin out of desperation, as they came to me so flea infested that I could see their fur moving all over their bodies! I didn't have any flea powder for cats on hand and bathing them~three times, mind you~and using the drops on their backs did absolutely nothing.

So, I pulled out the big guns and dusted them with permethrin powder. One crawled off under the cabin where I couldn't reach him and died and one was VERY sick....I had to bathe the dust off of her right away. The other kitten didn't seem affected at all, but he got a bath too.

After that, flea powder for CATS only. Permethrin can work on dogs but it's toxic to cats like crazy.