How many red mite make an infestation??

M

mum of 4

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Hello,
more questions - this forum has been so useful for me!
I have had a few red mite at the end of the perches in my coop most of the summer. I take the perches out and squash the whatsits and sprinkle in loads of Diatom but there always seems to be a few. There has never been enough to be crawling up the walls - just in the space at the end of the perches - and the chickens are fine and laying well. Do I need to do any more to get rid of them or will there always be few in the coop? DO they die in a cold winter? I have 4 hybrids and we get a soft shelled egg every other day or so but I don't think it is always the same hen laying but I can't be sure. Sometimes we have a run of a week where they are all perfect (and one day we had 5 eggs!! Still not sure how!!)
Also my hybrids are about 9 months old, will they moult this year?
Thanks
 
They mainly come out at night and can go months without feedin. Try and address the issue iimmediatelybefore they breed. I found a ccouple and gutted my house, relimed the walls and painted on a slurry of diatom intoccracks and crevices. No sign since.
 
How many? It takes two to tango!
If there are any present, it's not very comfortable for the hens at night, is it, and they will breed if left unchecked.
As Bickerton says, sit on the infestation hard whilst it's small and controllable. Diatom may be useful as a preventative and the slurry method is better than loose powder which is dangerous for both the chickens and you if breathed in. However there are more effective sprays with a bit more punch to them. As a precautionary measure I use Redmite Powder rather than diatom, which contains some kind of insecticide. One application won't be enough- you'll need to thoroughly clean the coop, especially the perch ends, treat it, and then do it all again a few days later to try to catch the eggs that you could get to which have since hatched. Many people report that Red Stop is good - this is a liquid you add to their drinking water which makes them unpalatable to the mites so eventually they pack their bags and leave.
What kind of coop have you got? If wooden, and especially with a felted roof, there will be more of the little critters than you imagine, as they will be hiding in various nooks and crannies in the daytime, out of sight,
Probably your hybrids won't moult this year, but at 9 months old none of them should be laying soft shelled eggs. Have you wormed them with Flubenvet since you got them? They need doing every 4-6 months as a worm burden will make them less able to resist other environmental challenges or infections.
For more information on redmite see Poultrykeeper website http://poultrykeeper.com/red-mite/red-mites
And on worming see http://poultrykeeper.com/general-chickens/worming-chickens
 
Oooo, may try that red stop just incase, ironically Chicken won't taste like chicken.....?
 
I'll give it a go, need a restock. Is it the stuff in the old style scourer powder container?
 
We have an on-going problem in one coop Mumof4. Moved the two cockerels into another coop which had just been creosoted but the mite came back. Appears that my first treatment with Nettex sent them into the ground under the coop and they have since returned. But I have found them inside poo on the run perch as well, so they are jumping onto the birds and being carried into and out of the coop and are also coming off the ground and climbing into the coop. They avoid creosoted surfaces, but the floors are painted and the underside isn't treated. Like you the only signs are a few large ones on the perch, but when I took the perch out of the coop and put it in the sun hundreds of eggs hatched that were laid in the cracks on the surface.

So I would say that you have an infestation but can't see it yet. We are watching in all the other coops very carefully and treating the perches as soon as there is any sign (with Nettex not Creosote, as I worry about burning their feet). But once you have mites that's it. All you can do is control the numbers as they are then in the ground waiting to jump onto a passing bird and then to jump off and into or under a warm coop. We did dust the cockerels before we changed coops but it didn't help because the mites were in the ground.

We have now moved, but the mites came with us in the wood of the run and the outside perch.
 
An old gardener once told me, if you can't see the red mite but you think they might be there, you've got an infested coop. Practically, that means we pretty much all have mite, pretty much every year. You just have to keep on top of it.

So IMHO the question is not does anyone have an infestation, its how do we combat it next :-)

And yes, diatom, mite powder, sprays, etc. But good old fashioned cleaning into all the cracks is your starting point. You can apply whatever you like but if the nooks and crannies are protected with impacted bedding you won't get on top of the mite. So I find good cleaning and diatom together seems to mostly do it.
 
Got to admit,never heard of Red Stop before today.And yes we did buy it.Three yes three
days later, we had grey-yellow mite in their thousands running about looking for something to
eat.Red Stop was doing it's job well,and so got flame thrower out to put them out of their misery.
This was a few weeks ago now,but still doing its job.

:-)08 :-)17
 
That's really good to know, Brahmist. It seems like an excellent solution, both for helping to deal with a big outbreak and mopping up the inevitable stragglers who hatch and crawl out of the woodwork after a good cleanup.
 
Thanks for the advice again everyone. I think I'll be getting some red stop too! Not had any red mite on the ends of the perches recently so maybe I am getting on top of it.
Still getting the odd soft eggs. They seem to come in clusters so I wonder if one girl gets in too much of a rush and lets 2 eggs out too close together?? I have no idea which one it is and some days I get 4 'proper' ones! Oh well, they seem happy and healthy enough. Should I worry too much or just enjoy the ones we can eat?!!
 
I thought I'd look up Red Stop, as I've never used it. Found this on eBay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/50ml-Red-Stop-Solution-Red-Mite-Control-for-Chickens-Poultry-Birds-Hatching-eggs/141071248393?_trksid=p2047675.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222002%26algo%3DSIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D11%26meid%3D1839581863621535422%26pid%3D100011%26prg%3D1005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D261251602899%26
- a tenner for a years supply for 6 hens, with free P&P, seems a good deal, if only compared with the cost of all the other non-organic chemicals one might otherwise use to fail to treat the mites. Organic substance, too, no effect on eggs. Details at the bottom of the listing.
 
i used red stop and it didnt work for me so now i use ficam -w but i still get the odd few ,as with practical poultry mag this month the experts in there say its near on impossible to get rid of the whole lot so they best thing we can do is keep on top of them, i kill maybe 3-4 once or twice a week climbing mup the walls in the mornings as i let my girls out when its still dark so they are still around then and dont last long once i mopen those coops doors lols.,i also now spray all perches and ends 3 times a week and the houses once a week even the plastic houses havent escaped .
 
Whilst in Carrefour I passed the 'bug bashing' shelves. Insects are a big problem here as Winters are mild and short so they have a huge array of chemicals and devices to combat them. On special introductory offer was 2 x 1Litre bottles of a spray called STOP for €7.95. It is meant as a barrier, but is a contact killer as well. It has a red label, which reminded me of the Red Stop being mentioned. Might be the same thing.

It contains the biocide permethrine at 2.5g/L it says on the label. Must keep 'les animaux domestiques' (pets) well away from the stuff after application, so I was rather concerned about using it near the chickens. Our mites are coming in from outside so I sprayed around the doorway and in small gaps around the floor, wiping away the excess on the surfaces. Well it killed them all, they haven't come back and the chickens seem fine apart from moulting. Also done the underside of some perches. What bothers me is will they evolve immunity to it like they do with the biocide Elector?
 
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