The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Oopsiboughtasheep on August 19, 2014, 03:41:39 pm
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I have just spotted red mite in one of my henhouses for the first time (which has made me feel like a bad person!) and I am worried about my hens. I can't see any mites in the other house but guess they might be there? It has passed the 'wipe the underneath of the perches with kitchen roll test'.
I have read some notes on the Forum but dismantling afftected houses or burning them but this isn't an option for me. I have 10 hens and would value your help as to how I can tackle this urgently and as thoroughly as is possible tomorrow but don't want to waste time (for my hens) or money buying stuff that will be ineffective.
I use shavings as bedding (cleaned out very regularly) red mite powder dusting in the house after cleaning plus diatoms. All chooks look perky enough and combs are red and they are laying OK. All putting themselves to bed happily every night but I want to get right on top of this before they are unhappy.
I would be very grateful for your help. Thankyou.
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I use cheap ant powder.
Spray it round the shed, onto the shavings where they nest, in the crevices, perch ends etc and rub it into the birds feathers.
Its not a licensed product for poultry but it kills the mites fast. :thumbsup:
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I had quite a heavy infestation about a month ago. I cleaned out the house (6x8 shed, so not small!) and sprayed with poultry shield twice- 4 hours apart. Make sure to get in all the crevices, end of perches, doors etc etc. Let it dry and then covered the whole house in diatom powder and minimal bedding. That got rid of a huge amount of them but it's still not totally sorted, the problem areas (door and frame, nest box lid) have been sprayed every week since and I've just about got on top of it now. I don't think it will ever be eradicated but I'd like to get it under control.
I also dusted the hens in diatom powder especially under their wings and put it in their dust baths.
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I think my son summed it up neatly when he said that anyone who says they don't have red mite this summer just hasn't found them yet! I put split feed sacks on the floor, weight down with large, flat stones then put shavings on top. When I clean out I lift the stones very carefully and any red mite will be clustered underneath. The stones are put to soak in a bucket of water or put on the fire. I then gather the plastic and shavings together very slowly and carefully and put them straight in the old oil drum we use for burning all poultry bedding, hopefully not allowing the red mite to get blown away (and, of course, inevitably ending up in another henhouse!) They are burned immediately. I use disposable gloves and pick up the shavings - using a brush and/or dustpan just moves them into another coop. If I encounter red mite I don't clean out another coop that day and give the red mite a couple of hours to migrate to my head for warmth (urghh!) and be disposed of before going near any other poultry.
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I use Nettex total mite kill as a last resort and it does work but I use it late afternoon and lock the birds out for a few hours. Then plenty of Smite powder around the place. You'll never really get rid of them in a wooden house in high summer but you can give them a really hard time of it and keep numbers down.
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give the red mite a couple of hours to migrate to my head for warmth (urghh!)
Think that about sums up my last 2 weeks!!
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All the above remedies will get rid of red mite for a while but I have found that the only long term solution is to paint the inside of the house with creosote or creosote substitute. It needs 24 hours to dry (in the summer at any rate) so the chickens will need somewhere else to roost for one night.
Well worth doing though. :)
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Thankyou to everyone for your helpful advice. I will get on and tackle this today and then do my best to keep them at bay.
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All the above remedies will get rid of red mite for a while but I have found that the only long term solution is to paint the inside of the house with creosote or creosote substitute. It needs 24 hours to dry (in the summer at any rate) so the chickens will need somewhere else to roost for one night.
Well worth doing though. :)
I would have thought that creosote would need a few weeks for the smell and harmful effects to fade.
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I creosoted a new henhouse last friday-and will be moving them into it over this weekend. Its in bits though and has been laid outside in sun and wind to dry off. It stank for the first few days so I'd not want to put anything in it before it'd been properly aired. Creocote isnt so bad.
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I don't think Creocote is as effective either though. I painted our main layers house inside last week with a 50:50 creosote/paraffin mix and the chickens are still locked out. I'll give it until the weekend at least and then see how I feel in there after a few minutes!
After weeks of trying to spray perch ends daily and doing my best to get in all the crevices, I reckoned there was an epicentre I hadn't discovered because I didn't seem to be getting the numbers down. I stripped off the felt on the roof and the nest box and found where they'd been clustered - under the edge of the felt on the nest box where it attached to the house. I had red mite last year and painted with creosote then which seemed to get rid of them but I didn't touch that bit so I wonder whether they just lay their dormant until it was safe to come out again. I've now replaced all the felt with onduline which I'm hoping will help - my Wells poultry houses just have onduline roofs and they're far less badly affected although they do have a few. Agree that they probably never all go but creosote definitely knocks them back better than any insecticide spray although you do have to have a short term alternative.
H
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I painted my wooden perches with real creosote, left for days outside to dry before putting back. Still the damned mite were on some of the ends. This was in a plastic house! What possesses a company to put wood in plastic? Either way they were also under the nest boxes which are plastic.
Only good thing is the ease to take house apart, wash with Jeyes and air before re-assembling. The solway houses never seem to get them but guess there is nowhere to hide on them. New ones might be different with nest boxes. I wish I could see the little blighters cos dust mites are around somewhere too and I go in scratching.
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I think the same as Hseter F. I tried a 50:50 parafin to "creocote" mix and it doesn't seem to have worked very well... I couldn't get hold of real creosote. Where can I buy it?
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I got mine from SCATS (which has now been taken over by Mole Valley Farmers according to my husband although he's not that reliable). HUGE container though - especially given you can paint a whole house with about 100ml. I think you can buy online too - there was a link somewhere on here before.
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Cooking oil works well. Spray on perches ect and the mites love it but they breath through there body so it suffocates them. It's safe for the birds and can be used on them as well!
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I think the same as Hseter F. I tried a 50:50 parafin to "creocote" mix and it doesn't seem to have worked very well... I couldn't get hold of real creosote. Where can I buy it?
http://www.creosotesales.co.uk/products-page/ (http://www.creosotesales.co.uk/products-page/)
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I too have had a mite infestation - first ever! I want to treat the birds but would find dusting them all rather difficult so ha thought of using ivermectin drops. Any advice please as they don't seem to come in 'chicken sized' doses1
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One thing that can help is a good dry dust bath area. Apparently adding DE or clean wood ash is great for the dust baths too.
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Thankyou all for your replies. I have made a note of all suggestions for future use incase I need to use them.
I decided to go for the ant powder option first as suggested by Clansman but didn't think I'd be that lucky. However, one week later, I have blitzed the henhouses, brushing the powder hard into all the crevices and joints inside and outside the 2 and rubbed it into the girls, liberally sprinkled on bedding as well. Added diatoms (which I always use anyway) just for good measure....not a sign of red mite since!
I couldn't quite believe it, so I repeated the whole procedure again after 4 days and so far, so good. Will watch like a hawk though. Hens all happy and bright. Laying as well as can be expected considering that they are moulting. Thankyou Clansman! And everyone else for being so helpful.
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:thumbsup:
I swear by it, it kills everything, ants, wasps the lot.
I do creosote every year but as a quick fix when you have mites and birds in then spraying some ant powder is as easy as its gets.
and its CHEAP! :thumbsup:
(http://thumbs3.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/pict/260969261130_8.jpg)
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is this bog standard permethrin Clansman?
I will try it-just a word of warning for those of you with cats and cats that go into chicken housing -permethrin is toxic to cats.
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Yep, just looked and that seems to be the active ingredient.
It only says dangerous to aquatic life on the warnings, don't eat, breathe it, mix with water etc
but i did just google permethrin and it does indeed seem to be dangerous for cats, most cases its from the concentrated flea spot treatments given to dogs but i'd guess a cat with ant powder on its fur/feet is going to ingest quite a bit of it when cleaning itself.
good to know :thumbsup:
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Hi ready for this year ..... if you loose all hope, a sulphur candle that you can get from an ORGANIC CATALOGUE will get into all the nooks and crannies and frazzle them including the eggs. Obviously follow the instructions on the can! Permethrin is a contact insecticide that they don't like. A spray with any soap based product such as Ecover washing up liquid will cut through their waxy protective coating making them vulnerable to other products such as gritty scratchy diatom so they become dessicated. Oil based products such as Creacote or even baby oil or vegetable oil will bung up their respiratory system. Natural products all need follow ups but you're eating the eggs or birds so .... A sulphur candle really hits them but are for quite large sheds or greenhouses so really permeate a smaller wooden house with the stink and sting of sulphur so your birds will need somewhere else for at least 24 hours after you've started the airing process.
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I have been using corrugated cardboard. I think it cost about £12 for a huge roll of the Internet. Just cut a piece for floor and nest box and burn and space every week
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But does it work? Surely they still get into the wood work crevices? Also not practical for more than a house or two - I have chickens in four houses at the moment and waterfowl in four more so that would be acres of cardboard!
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We tried ant powder in the houses. It contains Permethrin. Not only did it have no effect at all on red mite (they were nesting in it), the result of bantams inhaling the dust caused a total collapse of their immune system and two died. We also had an Orpington develop a urinary tract infection. My advice would be not to use a Permethrin based product because chickens flap their wings in the houses, raise the dust and then inhale it.
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I had one house with red mite last year and have creosoted it three times inside and once outside. It's been parked (empty and closed up since August) on a field all winter. I took a look at it when it got quite warm the other day and there were some red mite crawling around on the outside - I guess they'd been under hinges and not been clobbered by the creosote. Have now used a whole can of Raid on the house. I put a slab of stone to warm right through on the radiator yeserday and put it in the house overnight. Acts like a long-lasting hot water bottle and should attract any remaining red mite as they seem to respond to the warmth of the poultry. Have decided not to use that house this summer even if I can't see them any more. Would burn it but it's a good one from Smiths Sectional Buildings (made of T&G, alas).
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My chicken's current house is a lovely 8x6 shed with 6 nest boxes... it's perfect but absolutely riddled. Have to move them to a different part of the farm this spring so taken the opportunity to build a new house. The old one is great and on the outside looks fine but the only thing for it is to burn it to the ground. The new house is going to have an automatic pop hole opener, onduline roof and clad with onduline too (hopefully the wood will stop it getting too hot inside), the door is going to have a weldmesh window in and a couple of nest boxes on the side- going to be a palace :)
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I'm pretty sure ivermectin isn't licensed for chickens, especially layers BUT (!) your vet can advise the use of it off license via the cascade system.
I did mine with a rabbit/guinea pig/cage bird spot on called Xeno under my vet's supervision and that wasn't licensed but we pulled all the eggs for a fortnight and then suffered no ill effects
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Ivermectin definitely isn't licensed for chickens and you cant eat the eggs for about 2 weeks but Im told that it really does work very well and lasts for months.....the problem is knowing how much to give of the cat spot-on treatment. Obviously only a small amount but what is a small amount? And do you judge it by the hen's weight or what? Because its not licensed there's no product advice and my vet wont risk advising me. I don't want to experiment and wipe out half my flock in the process.
Maybe one of our vets here might feel like sticking their neck out?!
Im still learning .....my latest error might make you smile. I thought Id make a nice dust bath for the hens with DE to help with parasites. Got a good plastic shallow container that I could easily clean, put the DE in mixed with some of the earth they currently bathe in under the hedge, took it into the run feeling quite pleased with myself. The birds seemed to love it. Then I noticed that they didn't seem to be interested in it...... maybe that's because I had forgotten to put drainage holes in the plastic box so I had just made a very expensive mud bath! ::)
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Kimbo - the Xeno I used is small dose spot on of ivermectin - we weighed the chickens (was only 2) and dosed them with the appropriate dose as per the box. I'd give you my vet's name and number for your vet but sadly he passed away :( Its made by Dechcra if that helps?
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I agree with Possum creosote is the way for me. No red mites at all for over a year and l paint the ends of the perches once a month to discourage them. Have looked for mites and cant find any. Creocote does not do the same job for me. Like the idea of cooking oil, not tried that one. You need a smallholders number here to get creosote though, which fortunately we have.
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I think the spot-ons by weight should be fine - that's how I dose (for lice) and haven't lost a chicken yet. Fortunately mine are big chickens so they fall in the same weight range as cats which saves saving to divide tiny pipettes of liquid.