Another way to kill red mite.

chrismahon

chrismahon

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In the UK we had problems with whitefly in the greenhouse. I read they could stand heat and also read they could stand high humidity. But by way of an experiment I subjected them to both at the same time, flooding the floor with water and shutting all the vents. The temperature rose to 50 degrees and the humidity to 100%. Next day the plants were fine but every whitefly and every other bug in the greenhouse was dead.

We are having trouble with red mite at the moment. Treating the inside of the coop panels with a creosote/ paraffin solution inside results in them escaping to the painted outside. So I sprayed the outside with Nettex only to discover that a day later the surface was crawling with newly hatched. So into the greenhouse the panels went and all the vents were closed. Couldn't use water in there because we also have firewood stored. So the temperature in the sun hit 60 degrees (50 degree thermometer exploded) and every single red mite died.

I was wondering if the former method could be applied to a coop in-situ. I was thinking if the ground was soaked and a clear plastic sheet thrown over the coop and sealed to the floor, would the temperature and humidity get high enough to kill all the red mite? Perhaps something to do a few times every Summer? We can't do that here unfortunately as all the coops are under trees to help stop the felt roofing from blistering!

Any thoughts? Anyone already tried this?
 
How about erecting a mini polytunnel over the coop, Chris? That shoudl get the temperature up... Also, any chance of removing the felt from the coop? That must be something of a holiday camp for the red mite??

Personally I plaster my coop with diatom after I've cleaned it, & usually clean it with Poultry Shield (though it just got powder disinfectant today as it was about to lash with bank holiday rain). Following on from an earlier thread, I'm also expecting the ants in the enclosure to pull their weight... :lol:
 
The ants are coming and going at the moment Icemaiden. They eat the mite leaving just the shell -feet and head. They are in another coop unoccupied at the moment but which had red mite in 6 months ago, so red mite are clearly still there. They have returned to another coop to eat the hatched, having eaten all the mite they could reach previously. I've seen them reaching into a gap in the wood from both sides to get to them.

The felt isn't a problem. Any red mite that got under it would cook in the sun here. None of the coops have been so bad as to get red mite under the felt anyway. That's a long way for a mite to travel to get to the chickens anyway -not their first choice. If you had a coop with a very low roof it would be a possible hiding place though.

We have a coop that we bought second hand years ago. When the weather improves I'll pull it out from under the tress and cover it with clear polythene for a few days before I creosote it. Can't be dismantled unfortunately, so I have to crawl in and last time I got eaten! As the temperature rises the mite eggs hatch I've noticed. So just before the heat kills everything the surfaces are crawling with tiny unfed mite.
 
chrismahon said:
In the UK we had problems with whitefly in the greenhouse. I read they could stand heat and also read they could stand high humidity. But by way of an experiment I subjected them to both at the same time, flooding the floor with water and shutting all the vents. The temperature rose to 50 degrees and the humidity to 100%. Next day the plants were fine but every whitefly and every other bug in the greenhouse was dead.

We are having trouble with red mite at the moment. Treating the inside of the coop panels with a creosote/ paraffin solution inside results in them escaping to the painted outside. So I sprayed the outside with Nettex only to discover that a day later the surface was crawling with newly hatched. So into the greenhouse the panels went and all the vents were closed. Couldn't use water in there because we also have firewood stored. So the temperature in the sun hit 60 degrees (50 degree thermometer exploded) and every single red mite died.

I was wondering if the former method could be applied to a coop in-situ. I was thinking if the ground was soaked and a clear plastic sheet thrown over the coop and sealed to the floor, would the temperature and humidity get high enough to kill all the red mite? Perhaps something to do a few times every Summer? We can't do that here unfortunately as all the coops are under trees to help stop the felt roofing from blistering!

Any thoughts? Anyone already tried this?
Click to expand...

You've already forgotten the Great British Summer over here, Chris. An inch if rain in the last two days, and I put the central heating on for a bit yesterday afternoon as I was cold indoors.
 
It's not so great here either Marigold. We had 20mm of rain yesterday and the day before we lit the wood burner to warm the house after a cold and overcast day. Forecast is a week of showers.

Still finding red mite on all the perches, even the freshly creosoted coops. They are on the ground and hopping onto the birds during the day, hitching a ride into the coops in the evening and jumping off in the morning. I've creosoted the coop ends so they can't wander. So every morning all the perches are inspected and all the red mite on them squashed. Red mite powder on the birds has no effect whatsoever -perhaps it's past the use-by-date.
 
I know your not keen Chris, but given how bad it is, give permethrin based powder a go just as an emergency one-off, it works if dusted everywhere as it kills any mites on contact, including those emerging from eggs. I was put onto it by an old fellow who had kept large numbers of chickens for god knows how many years.
 
Presumably this is ant and insect killing powder Dinosaw? I'm using Barrier Red Mite Powder which is Organic classified -smells a lot but doesn't work. Strangely enough the Barrier Louse Powder, also organic classified, works very well for mopping up a few basic lice.
 
Yes, ant and crawling insect powder, I used to use Wilkinsons brand but any with permethrin as the active ingredient at 0.5% will do. The US military uses it as an anti insect pre treatment on their uniforms and it is also used as a spot on treatment in dogs. Obviously it is far from organic, but providing you clear the area of chickens when you dust and wear a mask you won't have any problems, I used it for 3 years with no adverse effects on my birds. The only caveat I would give is don't use if you have a cat that has access to the area as for some reason they can't process it through their system even though dogs and other mammals can. Barrier red mite powder I found bloody useless, as far as I am aware it is talcum with tea tree oil and lavender oil added smells nice but thats it.
 
Can't you just dust each of the birds with Diatom? That's what BHWT advised me to do when I first picked up my ex-batts...
 
Diatom doesn't exist here Icemaiden. In fact there is very little available for domestic poultry keepers. Keeping poultry in the 'pet' way we do is only just beginning with the first Chinese coops making an appearance just a few months ago. Usually they have a simple stone coop and wander around the farmyard. Predator losses are just accepted, although a farm up the road put all theirs into an enclosure earlier in the year, as our neighbour did. We have a lot of foxes here which move in daytime under cover of the surrounding crops. Foxes look rather different to the UK version as they have longer fur and are very dark in colour. The tail looks like a dog's -not the 'brush' that we are used to seeing. They spend a lot of time calling to each other across the valleys- presumably because they all belong to the same group, even though they hunt individually.
 
I have been using nipon ant powder mixed in with diatom, it works a treat. It kills the red mite instantly. I puff it along all the cracks, crevices, before eplacing the bedding. Along the perches rubbing it well in to the wood, dust all the ends etc. So far this year I have found a few on the feet of an outside perch which were soon disposed of. It really works well.
 
We had red mite in our small mobile coop last week. When I creosoted it nearly two years ago I was ill for days because it doesn't disassemble so I breathed in a lot of fumes. Not wanting to repeat that we moved it into the sun and covered it with a plastic sheet. After 3 hours the metalwork was too hot to touch and every red mite was dead. Subsequently there have been no hatched eggs either, so they must die in the heat as well. Appreciate its not going to be possible to do this in the UK, but perhaps if an oil filled radiator was put inside the coop as well?
 
Just stumbled across some DEFRA funded research by Newcastle University into using plant derived oils to control red mite, it would seem that Thyme oil was particularly effective in killing red mite with a 100% lethality in 24hrs and 60% lethality in just 4 hours, it showed no signs of tainting eggs or being damaging to the chickens. Very difficult to get a hold of the actual research, this little snippet from farmers weekly gives a decent summary.

http://www.fwi.co.uk/articles/04/02/2013/137510/new-strategies-for-dealing-with-red-mites-on-the-way.htm

a press release about the early stages of the study from the Uni
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/afrd/assets/documents/website_pressrelease2.pdf
 
Interesting reading Dinosaw. We appear to have things under control now. The perches are checked every morning and regularly come up 'clean'. One coop continues to puzzle me though. Freshly creosoted thoroughly, we are still getting about 10 red mite on the perches every morning and I have no idea where they are coming from? I can only assume they are coming in on the birds, dropping out of a Dove nest in the tree above? Sometimes we will see mite on other coop perches after strong winds. Something we will have to live with now and monitor continuously.
 
Yes, it is interesting. Thymol (not quite sure exactly what it is, but it is extracted from thyme) is used in beekeeping (it used to be used more than it is now as more commercial products are on the market) as something to try to prevent varroa mite and also to prevent moulds from occurring on winter feed.
 
Thymol is quite potent & not something you'd want to leave on skin. Concentrated thyme oil can dissolve plastic in my experience, so that needs using with care too! I'm not surprised that it kills red mite :-)11 Just because it's natural, doesn't mean that it's safe...
 
Yes its true, when using thymol we are always suited and booted anyway because of the bees, but it stinks and it is very strong! After applying it in a hive you put the lid back on and leave the bees to carry on huddling and keeping warm (its used in the winter), but thinking about it, if its used in a coop then I would imagine a period of ventilation might well be necessary.
 
Its not clear exactly what type of Thyme essential oil was used but the field study carried out in chicken huts lasted for at least 4 weeks with the findings being that Thyme oil was not harmful to hens even when applied at high levels. Pretty much anything currently used to treat red mite has some level of nastiness to it, even diatomaceous earth which is held up by many as being harmless carries a risk of silicosis if breathed in.
 
I had read few days ago on some poultry group on FB that Dettol works very well on killing red mite.This product to be egsackly http://dettol.co.uk/products-for-your-home-kitchen-power-and-pure-multipurpose-kitchen-spray-and-wipes in spray form.Aparantly somebody took it from cupboard by mistake (meant to use Poultry Shield) and sprayed the cop.Dead mites in great numbers.Hope sombody can use this with success as costwise is a fraction compared to Poultry Shield.
 
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