We seem to have our red mite problem under control – no red ones, mostly dead ones. The problem is working out which of the many things we have tried works.
the many solutions available are:
- a good clean out
- having a hen house design with very few nooks and crannies
- blow torching the little blighters (without setting fire to the hen house!)
- mite kill spray. Also Ardap has been suggested. As far as I can tell they have the same active ingredient
- red mite powder, laced with lavender and tee tree oil
- poultry shield
- creosoting the hen house. Creosote is no longer available to Joe public, and you have to let the house air for some days. Some people think creosote substitute works just as well.
- painting parafin on the inside of hen house (not to be used alongside the blow torch!)
- diatom
- ivermectin. frontline and panacur, have all been suggested by other people. All not licenced for use on poultry, unless prescribed by your vet. as they are not designed for use on poultry.. what egg withdrawal to implement is not clear, so not keen on these.
- limewashing the inside of the hen house
- jeyes fluid
and the conclusions we have come to:
Starting with a house with very few nooks and crannies, is a great start.. so that’s no larch lap, no felt. First reaction to re mite should be a good clean out , removing floor covering and nesting materials, then using either poultry shield – we have not actually tried it as it is not readily available around here, but as far as I can tell it has no magic ingredients, or jeyes fluid, but actually we just swept it out.
Blow torching the little blighters is very effective – and satisfying as you hear them pop!, but you can only get to the ones out in the open.. hence not having too many nooks and crannies.
We tried the lavendar and tee tree powder .. and apart from smelling nice.. did nothing. So, setting aside our no chemical principals (enough was enough), we used the mite kill spray , which does work. Apparantly it leaves a residue that keeps on killing them. I’m not sure about that, but we did spray it directly onto alive mite, and they soon became dead mite, so it definitely works on contact.
Diatom is like chalk, and made up of very tiny fossils. To something the size of a red mite, it would be like walking in a field of razor blades. At first we witnessed the mite tromping through the diatom with no worries, carrying their beach towels. OK, I exaggerate… But later we found dead ones. it is supposed to take time… and we feel it has worked – and the advantage of diatom is there is nothing particularly nasty in it. We plan to make a dust bath box and lace sand with diatom, in the hope it helps. I think diatom may be more useful as a preventative rather than a treatment.
We are in the process of building a new hen house, although the urgency is less now the mite appear to be all dead, and are making it as nook and crannieless as possible. Treating with creosote/ substitute, with a view to lime washing later, as this is more suitable for when the hens are in residence then the preservative. Lime wash also has the advantage of lightening up the house, and possibly extending the egg laying period as winter approaches. or that might be an old wives’s tale..
Meanwhile, mordun, funded by DEFRA are developing a vaccine.
Tomorrow, we are going for a clean out, a bit of a blowtorch, a jeyes fluid scrub and then, maybe, ivermectin. Considering ivermectin because my old boy, now in the freezer, brought in scaly leg and I want to nip it in the bud, so it’ll do the two things at once. Two drops on the back of the neck for heavy breeds, one for bantams, once a week for three weeks. Don’t use the eggs for three weeks whilst you’re using it, apparently – which since most of mine are thinking about moulting now and have gone off lay isn’t too much of an issue.
I also have some panacur – but I understand that that is just for worms? A friend was told to use it by her vet, who used it on her own birds. One drop per bird, every day for three days. Don’t know about withdrawl, but I guess one should, to be safe.
Am blogrolling you, didn’t know you existed here
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- Downsizer Chez
Hi Chez
let me know how you get on with the ivermectin. I heard it hits scaly leg too… though tht appears to be something we dont have yet.. It’s a risk when you introduce new birds.. what else you might be bringing in eh.
We are getting hardly any eggs either.. partly because our best layer is now sitting on the eggs you sent me!
I didn’t know you blogged either… ack.. i must pay more attention….
Ah well, I’m a bit embarrassed about it really – hence the vague pseudonym
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well, I’ve put a link up now……
How interesting – I’ve literally just been onto the soil association asking about their recommendations for controlling mange mite in cattle – they suggested Diatamaceous Earth – I’d never heard of it before. They said it was used in poultry houses for red mite and in grain stores for weevils, though no one as yet has used it for mange mite – they thought it worth a go…but it’s very expensive for a maybe!
Anyhow, there you are using it, with success, for red mite anyhow.
would be interesting to see how it works for cattle then. On the packet it mentions using on pigs.
It is expensive, but a little goes a long way.
Should have read this a few days back, might have given a few pointers – ended up using residual chemicals, as we had a serious infestation. Oh, one extra tip – power jet wash the exterior/interior of the housing as it removes any dirt/droppings that the blighters can hide under prior to treatment.
I can see power wshing would work. Unfortunately not for us as we don’t have power any where near the hen run.
We have not seen a red mite since this blog posting, and all we are using now is diatom.
we limewash the inside of the house and nestboxes every month or so. I have also heard that a woodash dustbath will help the birds. We put some woodash, saved up from the winter fires, underneath the blackcurrant bushes, where the hens go for shade in the hot weather. They have a dustbath in the woodash, and the blackcurrants like the potash.
Oh, I didn’t even know there was such a thing as red mites! Everywhere I turn there’s something horrible my poor chickens can get!
We’re on week 8 or 9 of a weekly evening petroleum jelly treatment on our chickens’ legs to get rid of scaly leg mites. It’s really working. No chemicals!
The sickest chicken has started laying again, and we caught it before any of the others got it.
We treat them every Monday night, when they’re on their perches for the night. So we say, ‘Monday night is scaly leg mite night at our house.’ How’s that for and evening’s excitement?!
well done – we have yet to have a problem with SLM – but good to know the no chems approach works.
and you sure know how to have a good night in huh….
same as us with our romantic late nights blanching and freezing veg….