[Declan]

Red mite- i've had poultry for 3 years. This spring i noticed an investation of red mite in two of the 3 (wooden)hen houses. Ive tried everything- power washed everything- burnt them off with a blowtorch, creosoted, varnished, dusted the birds, cleaned, red mite spray, everything- all ideas gleaned from this forum. Was out again this afternoon and lo and behold- under one perch of each house- there they are again.  Im at the end of my tether-completely sick to the back teeth.  Came in to go on computer to give the whole bloody lot away on ebay or gumtree but turned to you all in desperation. 

Where am i going wrong? Is there any type of housing that would be less susceptible to these mites? plastic oil tanks/coal bunkers you know the thing... What do the commercial poultry people do?

Any advice most welcome.

Declan

[Sylvia]

You don't have to just remove them from the housing but from the birds at the same time. I've always used a steam cleaner in the houses----boil the buggers to death and at the same time sprayed the poultry and used a powder in their dust baths. You will have to do all this a few times to keep on top of the little blighters. And when you steam the house make sure you do it well, not just a quick blast but a concerted and viscious blasting

[SallyintNorth]

How's your roof constructed, Declan?  Victoria Roberts always says roofing felt is heaven for red mite, and recommends us all to use onduline / cordyline.

[manian]

we had red mite back in the summer.....
we clean now using smite and have diatom on all ledges and around the edges and on the floor and perches
aqlso in the nest boxes.....
we went in at niight and killed loads,  did this for about a week.

touch wood the diatom is doing its stuff and we are clear (well i not seen any)

Mx

[gapcap]

Its horrible,I had the same problems, Diatom (touching wood!!) has done the trick here as well, I've also put it down where they dust bath(luckily they have dust baths in a covered open barn so they're staying dry) Brilliant stuff

[Hatty]

If I remember right you have to give treatment every few days to break the breading cycle of the little B's. last time we had them I used the pink spray net-ex I think and powder in the dust baths

[plumseverywhere]

That pink nettex spray was brilliant when we had redmite last year! We didnt' have any this time round thank goodness.

[Hatty]

That pink nettex spray was brilliant when we had redmite last year! We didnt' have any this time round thank goodness.

Smells nice too which is a bonus 

[plumseverywhere]

it does!! and having 4 young daughters the colour was another added bonus    Fleece wife suggested a weedwand to me last year and described a satisfying sizzle upon using it on redmite - I was tempted!

[Declan]

okey dokey- will give the nice smelly stuff and the diatom stuff a try. Maybe i wasn't persistent enough. I was stopping once i saw no more- maybe i should stick with the treatments t obreak the cycle as you suggest. Thanks for that.

Declan

[travis]

Diatom works for me, and nice that it contains no pesticides. I put down in the cracks where I know they appear as a regular routine. I reckon you can't eliminate them on a permanent basis as they will be reintroduced by wild birds which carry them.

[JEP]

i was reading in one of the mags about red mite
that you don't clean the shed for about 2 weeks and introduce
another mite that lives of the red mite and dies of when there is
non left to feed on

[CameronS]

i got it in both my huts and my rabbit run this summer, what i did was move all birds and rabbits into one shed, this was cramped but it was only for a short time.

power hosed the other shed, coated in diatom, 2/3 times a week for about 2 weeks, (during this time i was treating the birds and rabbits in the other hut),

them moved the birds into the other hut and gave it the same treatment, all the time treating the birds to stop any mites reinfesting the cleaned hut.

 Touch wood i havn't seen any since

[Fleecewife]

Diatom works for me, and nice that it contains no pesticides. I put down in the cracks where I know they appear as a regular routine. I reckon you can't eliminate them on a permanent basis as they will be reintroduced by wild birds which carry them.

That sounds right - we get swallows nesting in our hen houses every year and that's always when the little horrors start crawling around.  Ours were particularly bad this year, so we have added diatom on the birds (and in the swallows nests) and wood ash copiously sprinkled around the sheds and perches to our armoury - along with the weed wand to zap the little b****rs and Cuprinol everywhere several times a year.  If we have them, then I use the weed wand every day for about a week (being careful not to set fire to the baby swallows  ) but they re-infest quite soon.  It is tempting to stop keeping hens but I love them too much, with their gentle chatter and raucous screeches, and their funny henny ways which I could watch all day long....

[Heather]

good luck Declan. Don't give up