lice

[Anonymous]

hi hope you can help me, i just discovered to my horror that my chickens have lice. i went in the coop as i do every day to clean and gather eggs, when i noticed i was getting bitten by something. checked my hands and arms to discover little bugs crawling on me,gives me the willies just thinking about it. is there a home remedy to kill them. also can the lice infest me? God forbid HELP!

 

[Davidd]

Hi, they will be red mite if in the coop- lice live on the hens all the time- redmite live in the coop and suck their blood at night- you need to clean the coop out and spray it with a redmite killer- there are loads of different kinds- yopur local feed merchant should have plenty to choose from or on -line also. You need to also dust the birds with louse powder- make sure its safe to go on the birds and not just for the coop- i would do it asap as they can kill your chickens if the infestation is bad- make sure you get into all the cracks and crevices. They can't live on you- a shower and you will feel fine- good luck and you need to check every few weeks - they come back!
regards, David

 

[Tim]

Hi Hilda,

Yes, as Davidd suggests, most likely Red Mite.

Here's some useful pages you might want to look at:

Red Mite information on the poultrykeeper site.

How to get rid of a serious Red Mite infestation - a blog post I did last year.

I hope some of this is useful to you.