Fighting the Red Mite Army.

chrismahon

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After a few skirmishes fought off with insecticides we thought we had the Red Mite beaten last year. Much investigation came up with what appeared to be the ultimate weapon of mass destruction. A biocide called Elector. It attacks the nervous system sending the mite totally gaga. They can't find the hosts (hens) and they can't find their sleeping quarters. They wander around and after a week or so die. Last year it was apparently 100% effective but the DEFA senior vet told me that it couldn't be used two years in a row because the mite build immunity. Well he was right, as a few survived the Winter and Elector did nothing to them this year.

So back to the insecticides. Poultry shield is OK for cleaning our boots but won't touch our red mite. They happily bathe in it. The two dedicated products used again this weekend were Smite and Net Tex Total Mite Kill. But this time they were used in combination.

We have 9 coops. 7 were infected. The two worst had 1lb weight of mite vaccumned out before spraying last week, but we forgot to dust the birds the day before and they were bought back in with them. So this Friday we dusted the birds and Saturday we hit all 7 coops and worked 6.40am to 7.00pm to finish them.

Stage one with each. Clean out all the bedding, remove all the screwed on bits and vaccumn the entire coop paying particular attention to the tongue and groove joints in the weather boarding. With a round nozel that is completely flat when held to the boarding the suction goes all along the joints. This clearly disturbed the mite as 15 minutes later and they were swarming out of the joints. Several more times vaccumning and the flow had reduced. I wouldn't use a Dyson here as it will clog up with squashed mite.

Stage two. Liberal spray with Smite, particularly along all joints. This product also has a rapid degreasant which dissolves mite poo and presumably the egg clusters. A yellow brown liquid ran from many of the joints and all this was mopped up with kitchen roll. The smallest coops were turned upside down to get the treatment into the grooves of the cladding. However two problems -we ran out of Smite and the red mite were not all killed, there were still loads moving about 20 minutes later.

Stage 3. Liberal spray with Net Tex. This finally finished them off. They darkened in colour quickly and managed to stagger a few inches before they died. Hooray we thought. Wait a few hours for the smell to go as Net Tex gives off some fumes (which send me a bit woozy after a while). Then screw all the bits back on and add fresh bedding.

BUT. As I said before we ran out of Stage two, Smite. The coops treated as above are fine today but the biggest ones are not. They didn't get the Smite treatment first and the eggs in the cracks hatched this morning so we have hungry little pale mite swarming all over them already. Shopping today for more Smite.

Has anyone got a better product to use apart from old style creosote (which needs a spare coop as hens can't go back for 4 weeks at least)??? What product do the commercial outfits use -accepting you may need full protective clothing and a chemical mask to apply it?
 
Additional note. Today (Tuesday) more mite hatched in the two big coops that didn't get Smite first. This is in the same areas as yesterday which were blasted with Net Tex yesterday and again today. The other coops are OK with no hatched eggs. This weekend we will strip them out again and do the job properly, as listed above.
 
Red Mite is horrible, what does everyone think of smite, I have used it for a few years now but does not seem to have worked well this year. I am trying total mite kill instead.
I always spray anti mite spray then jet blast the arks then spray again, this seems to work.
 
as i write this im squishing red mits
iv cleaned out the shed and duck coop and il do the old duck house in a min when back stops hurting. iv already done the chickens with spot on and the wood and bin with jays but thousonds of little bug swaming again so got harka-aitex which that contains cypermethrin
see how it goes
 
Update on our mite problem. The coops treated as above are still clear. We re-treated the two that didn't get smite first yesterday and got a fair few more out of the cracks. But then I spotted a few in another coop. Just some in the corners. Took the heavy lid off and hundreds of them. Vaccumned all I could see and then hit them with Smite in a strong blast to wash out all the eggs and get into the vertical cladding joints (not totally waterproof when vertical but you can treat them for mite better). There were THOUSANDS coming out of the gaps and they kept coming. The Smite didn't kill them at all, just annoyed them. So having used a whole kitchen roll mopping up browny- yellow liquid and soggy mite I applied Net Tex. Even that wasn't as instant as it was last week. But after an hour and frequent respraying they stopped coming out of the cracks and appeared dead. See how they are next week. Poor chickens look ever so pale -very short of blood obviously.
 
MY GOODNESS,

what an absolute nightmare- despite being so thorough I cannot believe how persitent they are.

I have just rushed out to re-check out three coops and found my "nettex mite kill spray"- is this what you have been using? A red and yellow can, with total poultry solutions written along the top.

We have recently cresoted one coop, which as you say, has taken almost 4 weeks for the truly awful smell to subside. We used BARTOLINE- we are in staffs, and you are very welcome to have whats left. A 20L drum, used about an inch of it. This was used as a preventative measure, along with diatom, as I am totally paranoid about having red mite.

The above has re-affirmed that we need to seriously think about a plastic coop.

Good luck. Pls let me know, you can have the Bartoline with pleasure.

Regards, Sharron
 
Smite won't kill instantly, and in the case of a serious infestation you may need to have a look at an insecticide based alternative until you can get to the bottom of your problem.

If you are using a sprayer or back pack sprayer and a product like Smite or Poultry Shield, be careful about spraying houses near other coops as these products do not kill instantly you can potentially run the risk of blasting the mites on your outside area where they can travel to find another host or in this case henhouse.

Good luck getting them sorted....it does take time, but you will get there!!!
 
Thanks for the offer Elmwood. We're in Staffs too but we've got a 20L drum of the same creosote but not the spare coop to put the hens in for over a month. I've got to build another one but am spending all my time spraying for red mite and not building a coop as I should be. Nettex as described is the stuff you have for the final spray (beware of the fumes) but it doesn't flush out the goo like Smite.
Just treated another coop as a precaution as one hen looks rather pale. The few mite died quite quickly with the Smite and instantly with the Nettex this time. Its like a different tolerance to the sprays exists between mite in different coops.
Thanks for the advice Foxy. I'm using small hand held sprayers and am careful to contain the things as best I can. Trouble is they jump onto you before you can spray them and then could get blown away in the wind outside.
 
re cresote. thought like you that you needed to leave the coop empty for several weeks before reintroducing hens after getting advise from several hen keepers was told that 24 hours would do if the house had good veintialtion. I was very dubious but with my heart in my mouth, as I had pekins but tried it and had no problems with the hens introduced them after 24 hours. After nightmares with red mite where nothing worked the cresote worked like a dream must be the traditional stuff though
 
People do say the replacement creocote works too. But personally I have had good results with creosote once applied it keeps them away for years without any further treatment of any kind.
 
Hi I feel so sorry that you having a hard time with theese bugs.I have only 1 cop to look after and I had treetet that with bertolli creosote so have no problems at all with them.My friend who lives in Poland told me that all chicken people using this to fight them http://www.fiprex.pl/fiprex-spray.html This product is for cats and dogs generally but using on chickens 1 spay under each wing and the problem is solved.My friend had a such a hard time with them last year.His hens live in an very old barn where you can expect loads of places where they can hide.To treat the barn was imposible.He had used this product directly on bird only and the buugers die out eventually.Now he using this and has no returns of the red mite.I do not know if you can get this in England but with many Polish people around I'm sure you could ask somone to make an order for you.I hope you will win you battle soon,good kuck:)
 
Hi Valburnham. The one coop treated with creosote was still wet to the touch after 3 days because I had to move the panels and then wished I had left them alone. The wood is at least 10 years old and rough sawn so perhaps it absorbed a lot more creosote so took much longer to dry. It still stinks now even after 6 weeks or so and the hens go inside reluctanly -they prefer to lay outside now!
 
tygrysek75 said:
Hi I feel so sorry that you having a hard time with theese bugs.I have only 1 cop to look after and I had treetet that with bertolli creosote so have no problems at all with them.My friend who lives in Poland told me that all chicken people using this to fight them http://www.fiprex.pl/fiprex-spray

Frontline is our equivalent, contains the same active ingredient Fipronil :-)17 Very effective however not licensed for poultry.
 
my pen was dry within the day and although the coop smelt quite strong for about a week the hens really did not mind they certainly perferred it to the red mite. Within two days my hens were laying every day again. As you say maybe it was something to do with the old wood. The person who told me that it was OK to put them in after 24 hours had kept chickens for over thirty years and had never had a problem. I must admit I was very sceptical but had to bow to her superior knowledge once I had tried it.
 
Thanks Foxy. Frontline spray we have used for head lice which wouldn't shift with dust or pyrethum spray. Friends vet visited an acute lice outbreak in her flock and applied Frontline spot on and two of her 20 hens died. So we used the spray and applied half of the minimum dose specified per Kg weight, which worked and the hens were fine. 7 day withdrawral on the eggs though.
Hi Valburnham. I couldn't go near the panels when treated. It burns my skin on contact so I wouldn't risk my hens in this treated coop. I'll see what happens with the coops I built from new timber last year.
 

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