[Marches Farmer]

My neighbour mentioned that she'd never found red mite in the poultry houses where her ducks shared with chickens.  That set me thinking and I haven't either, nor in housing occupied by turkeys or peacocks.  I've also never found red mite in the bird boxes (sparrow and titmice) that I clean out around the yard every year.  Thoughts, anyone?

[Eve]

Now you mention it, I don't recall my quail ever getting red mite, nor lice, though even they, like the peahen, did dustbathe so must be doing so for another reason, maybe general cleanliness and feather condition.


For red mite to get around, there must be at least one specie of wild bird that carries it...?


Good question 

[Fleecewife]

I thought swallows carried red mite.

[Marches Farmer]

I check the nests the swallows leave in our shed every year and have never found any.  Once airborne they so rarely settle anywhere wouldn't the red mite have to live on the bird, which would quite quickly lead to the bird being overwhelmed with the parasite burden.  I once saw a L/F soft-feathered cockerel that had been in a large cage without perches or any of the places red mite usually spend the day - they were clustered around a small piece of muck on his backside, a seething mass the size of a ping pong ball.  Snipped the whole thing off and dropped it on the bonfire.