Good conditions for red mite

[dinosaw]

The recent damp warm weather is obviously providing a good breeding ground for red mite, I know Rick reported having them the other day and plenty of people on the BHWT Facebook page are reporting them too, we found some today in the coop, not a huge surprise as one of the 7 ex batts had started roosting outside, luckily for us today was the day for a 6 monthly painting of the whole house with DE slurry anyway, where the coating was still in place it had done its job, unfortunately some of it had by now worn off and sure enough that was where they were lurking, will have to increase how often we coat it, funny thing is that when Lacey first started roosting outside I wiped the underneath of the perches and there was nothing and none of the others had stopped using the house so she is obviously very sensitive to them as it was by the looks of it quite a recent outbreak.

 

[chrismahon]

We check the perches daily, having creosoted the ends so when they get off the birds the Red Mite can't escape Dinosaw. Seems with all this warm weather (over 33C) they are dying out naturally. Nothing on any of the perches for a week- 15 or so perches to check). Neighbours coop got so infested one hen died. That's a stone coop so much cooler. Ours get so hot even without sunlight all day we leave the access doors open at night and put flashing Christmas tree lights up to discourage intruders- wouldn't work with urban foxes I think.