Author Topic: it seems we are INFESTED ! (Read 2247 times)

zeeteecee · « **on:** June 21, 2011, 08:13:52 pm »

HELP- I have a small flock (10marans) and a larger flock of 20 new Rangers, kept separately at the moment.
The Rangers are all lice and mite free-but the Marans and their shed have a redmite problem, and seemingly a lice one too!
I ALWAYS visit the Rangers first every day-so as to stop cross infestation.

What can I do to rid the birds of lice and the shed of mites(am i right in thinking that the redmites dont live on the birds?)as I would really like to keep them all together.

I have a smoke-bomb kind of treatment for the shed-but I am still unsure how to get rid of the lice on the birds.
I can pick off the egg clusters. But how to break the dreaded life cycle?

jaykay · « **Reply #1 on:** June 21, 2011, 09:38:50 pm »

Lice - frontline spot on
Red mite - most effective (but renders the house out of bounds for a while) - real creosote or diesel
Needs doing every week but birds can go back in that night - poultry shield or Total mite kill then diatom powder in the nest boxes and under the perch ends.

PS welcome to poultry keeping, we all get infested (some of us personally

)

zeeteecee · « **Reply #2 on:** June 21, 2011, 11:06:15 pm »

thankyou-
with frontline do i have2 stop eating the eggs at all?

are there any reactions to frontline too, its not a poultry product is it?
thankyou again,
Z

Chrisw · « **Reply #3 on:** June 21, 2011, 11:14:03 pm »

I used erinex pour on for cows, i get it from the vets and costs about £30 for 250ml, use 1ml for hens, 1.5ml for cockerals. This gets ride of lice and prevents mite on the bird but not in the house, louse disappeared in just under a week

Fleecewife · « **Reply #4 on:** June 21, 2011, 11:21:23 pm »

Red mite do stay on the birds - not all of them but enough to allow them to reinfest if you don't also dust the hens. If you think about it, it's logical, otherwise where would the initial infestation and reinfestations come from? There are bound to be some mites which haven't finished feeding when the hen jumps off her perch in the morning, so they cling on til bedtime. Similarly some wild birds will be carrying a few.
We use a weed wand to burn them out of their nooks and crannies, and every now and then paint the houses inside and out with creosote replacement.