[Izzy]

I've had hens for nearly 3 years, starting off with 8 POL girls and a brand new flatpack henhoose. Mites appeared in their second summer and we have never managed to get rid completly. I had read about felted roofs being a haven for mites and so this summer I removed the felt and roof sections. The gaps between the roof sections and the tops of the walls were thick with the b*ggers, but there was nothing between the felt and the roof timbers. I creocoted everything, put it back together and refelted. Within months we were back at stage one.

What I have never done is treat the girls themselves, so maybe that is what's called for.

[daddymatty82]

i had major infestation and still got them they will go off for a while as they dont like the cold . but the best thing i find that works is diatom i bought 8kg of the stuff the other day.  but this week im  cleaning all the bedding out  then steaming the whole house taking every part i can take apart i am then im letting it all dry then spray with jeyes fluid mixed with water let dry again. add the bedding and  diatom  adding bit of diatom to the birds feed. best advice is not to give up i been battling all year long so far and steaming every nook and cranny  works a dream  but is very time consuming. i use a wall paper stripper with a nozzel addapter and you can just see them  burn. make sure you take the felt off the roof if you have felt as they will be under there  to do a small house about 150cm X 100cm and 100cm high it took me about 5 hrs to steam and multiple refills bear with it and you will succeed honestly. also put vaseline on the perch ends as it smothers them  be liberal with diatom aswell and spread everywhere house birds feed maybe even build a dust bathing hole if possible and put some sand and diatom in for them to bath in

[Anke]

Creosoting (with the old stuff I still have, and yes I let it all dry out, we always have a spare house) does it for us. Haven't seen a mite in over two years, no other treatment and wild birds (crows eating the eggs ) galore.

We also have plastic nestboxes and onduline roofs on all our hen houses.

[Heather]

I was desperate too, earlier this year, and I resorted to Milben Ex - expensive and lethal- you need to wear face mask. I bought it here: www.jsrservices.co.uk
Another product widely recommended is a liquied called Poultry Shield, but I haven't managed to track it down locally, and by post it's expensive because heavy.

Anyway, I used the milben ex twice, 6 days apart, having first removed the roofing felt and internal fixtures like the perch support.  Seems to have worked, but I intend to keep up the efforts every few weeks.  The milben goes a long way I've found, so in the long term not as expensive as I first thought.  good luck Declan

[Rich/Jan]

Hi - when in the UK we used Deosect - mainly used for red mite on horses.  We never sprayed the birds though just the housing.  Worst housing of all is the shed-type chicken house as the mites get in between all the lapped wood.  Never found red mites on the birds - just the grey ones - look a bit red when gorging on blood but a different type of mite.