Louse/red mite prevention

[Anonymous]

I have only been keeping hens for a few weeks & I am a bit confused about creepy crawly prevention 07

I am currently using general purpose liquid disinfectant to wipe clean the metal hen house floor weekly & a multipurpose cleanser/sanitiser for red mite control. This spray solution is used weekly to penetrate the wood.

Do I need to use lice powder for prevention/repellant as well or only if I actually see any lice & need to control the problem? Can anyone recommend a particular brand? Many thanks

 

[Aileen]

Hey! I am by no means a guru having only recently joined myself but I have Poultry shield which I spray on after each scrub ( I only use fairly liquid as I read somewhere about this can do bad things to red mite which is what we want) and dust EVERYTHING with diatom.
I also put vaseline on ends and bottoms of perches. as this (I think) is how Red mite get onto chickens by climbing up their legs and the vaseline suffocates them, also stick garlic into their water as again I have read that people are getting good results from this as the red mite don't like the taste!
LASTLY, phew! I steam cleaned my coop early Nov and will do again early March as I think this is when Red Mite start waking up after their winter sleep - someone will probably tell me I am wrong here but I am sure they are a lot less prevalent during the cold winter months.
Good luck!

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Aileen

Many thanks for your reply, I will definately get some diatom & try the garlic...