[Kitchen Cottage]

Last year I had a redmite infestation equivalent to a biblical plague.

As my chickens free range and often nest on the hay and straw on my cartlodge.... it got in my stable block.

Molly (my horse) had a miserable summer culminating in £300 in vets bills to get rid of her mite problem

So, action needed to be taken.  In november I put Molly in the stable in the field and creosoted her stable, and my spare stable next door, as a preventative.

That should have given it plenty of time to disperse but.... it STILL is wet and I now need the other stable for Joan (of Arc) to come from Pets Corner so she can farrow down.

How long does this stuff take to dry?

It only little bits that are wet and the smell has dispersed, but its definitely creosote and not water as it comes off on your hands. 

The stables are very well ventilated and nothing else I tried seemed to get rid of the wretched mites. We creocoted last year to no avail

[Marches Farmer]

How dry was the wood you creosoted?  This is best done on completely dry wood so it soaks in quickly.  If put on damp wood it will just seal in the damp behind it, particularly if you did it both inside and out.

[shygirl]

i think its the weather/season. i painted my garage walls with white wash last nov and it took 3 months to dry - no joke but if i had painted it in the summer it would have dried in 12hrs.

[tizaala]

Can you stick a fan heater in there to help dry it out ?

[Kitchen Cottage]

the inside was dry.  I won't do the outside until summer cos it's too wet.  I shall try with renting a heater, but its a foaling stable so quite big

Thanks you the the help

[chrismahon]

Next time you use it for red mite treatment mix it 50:50 with paraffin KC. It dries much faster and soaks into all the cracks better. Just as effective for killing mites. I only use it neat as a wood preservative. Can't call it 'preservative' over here though as that's French for a 'condom', have to call it wood 'conservation'.


I can only suggest wiping the surfaces with kitchen roll as that's how I remove the excess on the outside of coops  so that they can be painted with Cuprinol Shades. Appreciate you will need a lot but getting creosote on your livestock is going to cause burns.

[Berkshire Boy]

You could just wash it off with water. I would spray with the hose and leave to dry.
 
I just posted that and then thought will it actually wash off with water.

[JulieWall]

I've been painting all new wood and any needing renewed treatment with a pine tar/boiled linseed oil mix thinned slightly with white spirit. I don't know if it will help prevent mites but I suspect it may help, my reasoning being that if bees collect pine tar for use as propolis - an anti bacterial and hole filler for their purposes - then it must be a good and healthy thing to use. As mites live in crevices if you can fill them with something sticky there is nowhere to go. Also, if it is safe for bees it should be safe for other less sensitive livestock.
It smells nice too