[Dizzycow]

After 18 months of chickens I have finally been invaded by the little bxxxxxds. After mucking out the hen house I saw my hands were smeared with blood, couldn't work out why, then found areas of the coop thick with them. Disgusting. I rushed up to Dobbies and spent my birthday vouchers on a weed wand which is, quite frankly, terrifying. I'm going to try to Diatom the flock tonight when they go to bed. There's no way I'll be able to do the Cream Legbars, though. At least they sleep in the rafters not the hen house. I've also Diatomed their dust bathing spots.
Any suggestions or advice on this revolting subject would be most welcome.
 

[Fleecewife]

The weed wand is terrifying but just think of the effect it has on the mites  .  I find that cobwebs tend to go up with a rather spectacular gout of flame, but if you don't point the gun at any one place for long you shouldn't burn the house down    or take off your eyebrows       Clumps and clots of mites are truly disgusting but you can get rid of them - when we have had an infestation I have done the houses with the weed wand every second day for several goes.  We have used pigeon dusting powder on the birds to good effect too - no idea what's in it but it's what we had to hand.
Have a nice hot shower or you will be itching for the next few days 

[TheCaptain]

shove the diotom earth everywhere - we've used all sorts to try and get rid of the little blighters and nothing has worked as well as this stuff. I just doused everything, including the birds for several days.

[Dizzycow]

Thanks Fleecewife - as ever you're full of excellent information!

That was revolting. The cobwebs DID go up like a rocket, and there was a smell like burning hair which I presume was the mites....? Bits of straw were quite flamable too! Funnily enough, when collecting eggs over the last few days I thought the hen house smelled different. Not just pooey.

I discovered the mothers of motherlodes. Our hen house came with plastic feet wrapped in bubble wrap. We had a Helpx-er who decided it would be better if the whole house raised up higher, so he built a frame for it and raised it. The bubble wrap was still on the feet...... Holy God the seething mass of mites, eggs, poo, etc inside the bubble wrap was repulsive. I couldn't really take the weed wand to them because there were still bits of plastic stuck to the feet, and I'd just put fresh straw and newspaper inside the house. I threw Diatom around the feet, do you think that will help? (Also there was a hen trying to get in to lay, didn't want to send her up in flames!)

I can't believe you did it every two days, what a drag. I might manage once a week! I hope the canisters last for a good while. Great that you managed to get rid of them. Horrible horrible horrible.

The dogs were snuffling around in old straw, should I Diatom them too? What about the shed floor (the hen house is inside a shed which is open on one side, straw on the floor from kids playing and lots of poo on the floor from Cream Legbars roosting in rafters. Also, do you think the empty hen houses will be ok?

I suspect that this is why my poor hens are bald, and it's not the cockerels' fault after all! I'd quite like to dip my poor hens into a bucket of something which would kill the mites in one go. I'm concerned I'm not going to manage to douse them well with Diatom, and I'm very nervous of my cockerels after having a vicious one.

They're still appearing on my arms. Yuck! A shower it is!

[Dizzycow]

Thanks, Captain. Luckily I bought a massive tub of the stuff, so I'll try to get the flock doused, and have put lots into the house and nesting boxes.

To add insult to injury, our cat took a dead mouse inside the pool table where we can't reach, pool table is in the study beside me, and now the study is filling with bluebottles. YUCK. Luckily it's a lovely day so windows are all open!

The trials and tribulations.....

[Womble]

Yuk!!

When we had an outbreak last year, I made a sort of 'mud', from diatom and water, and literally painted the inside of the coop, and all the nooks and crannies with it. It's still there quite some time later, and we're still mite free, touch wood.

[tizaala]

We always spread a good dusting of lime under the shavings on the floor and throw it up the walls and into the nest boxes, never had a mite problem.

[Dizzycow]

Excellent news. I like the mud, Womble. (The flamethrower scares the bejeesus out of me.) I can also get hold of lime which I will dust the floor with. Thanks.

One of our hens has just been killed by the neighbours' dog. They're mortified, of course. Luckily it died very quickly as I'm really not good at handling these things. So all in all a rather horrible day. I'm having a lovely glass of wine in the sunshine (while doing a fair bit of scratching) to cheer myself up.

[shearling]

Hi Dizzy - I have been reading but not talking as I thankfully have no experience of these mites. Sorry to hear you have not had a good day, yet again. Enjoy your sundowner 

[Dizzycow]

Lucky you, Shearling! Keep the houses clean and don't let them find you... horrible things!
 

[northfifeduckling]

selfish question, Vikki, any evidence in the duck house? 

[Dizzycow]

Not cheeky in the least - I'd ask the same thing! The duck and drake which are yours, (the duck, I mean!) are in our little courtyard and completely separated from all the other poultry.  When we catch her we can give her a good dusting of Diatom just to be on the safe side, however you will see on Sunday just how separate they are. I'm not worried about it, but I'd ask too if I were you!

That was my next question, however... The chickens check out the (exterior, NFD, not where the ducklings are) duck house regularly, but having cleaned out the duck house today I was really surprised to find no evidence of mites whatsoever - do they dislike the taste of duck? The fresh straw was doused with Diatom, but the ducks are AWOL as per usual. Ducking and diving in the pond, I suspect.

 

[northfifeduckling]

If I remember right one clever person on here wrote once that ducks have different feathers and harbour a different variety of mites? That might be the reason...I never found evidence in the house but my ducks have phases when they sit and rub their wings gently and I did wonder if they are itching. Did find nothing on the last one we caught but they are harder to check over generally.

[Dizzycow]

Hmmm. They certainly don't seem affected and the house is clear, despite chickens going in. Your duck has no contact with anyone except her brother, two free range guinea pigs and two dogs, the ducks bully all the others, they're very bold. I checked the glamorous plastic box which they sleep in, no evidence of mites. 

I think that person was right, and the mites don't like ducks. 

ps, looking forward to telling you my drake saga on Sun, you planted an excellent idea in my head which worked brilliantly! 

[northfifeduckling]

I'll get everyone up as early as possible, so we can have good time for a chat! Want to hear all about it!