Mites

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Hectorshome

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About a month ago we were given two Welsummer Hens and a Bantam cockerel. We noticed that one of the hens has a bald neck which we assumed had been caused by the cockerel as this particular girl was his constant companion. However we have just returned from 10 days holiday and discovered our hen house overrun with small grey pinhead sized mites. These are visible during daylight hours as well as once the girls and the cockerel roost. I have this evening disposed of all the bedding in the hen house but of course the mites are still there. I have been advised to get food grade DE powder and start using this immediately on all the perches, nest boxes etc. I have also been told to bathe the hens as soon as possible in a cat or dog flea solution. As well as getting some Frontline to put a drop of on the back of their necks ... Are these Northern Mite and if they are what else should I be doing? I have another hen house and hens which are kept separately and who, so far seem fine.
 
Welcome to the forum. Northern Fowl mite are much smaller than that Hectorshome; they are best viewed under a magnifying glass. They eat the skin to get to the flesh underneath so you see scabs which appear to move -the mite feeding underneath.
Sounds like two problems to me. The bald neck could be the cockerel, it could be the start of the moult or it could be head and neck lice which are difficult to shift and can't be seen. Frontline spray at 3 spray per Kg bodyweight (from the vet). The spot -on will work but the dose can be too high for the bird as their tolerance to it is far lower than the cats and dogs it is designed for.
The mite in the coop sound like red mite. They are grey until they feed on the chickens then turn red. They multiply very rapidly and drain the chickens overnight until they die from blood loss. You need to spray the coop thoroughly in the morning and keep the birds out until it has dried. I have found Nettex Total Mite Kill the most effective. Smite is less powerful but does have added detergent which detatches eggs and washes them out. We use both -Smite first then Nettex. Need to repeat every week until they have gone.
 
Thanks so much for your reply. It is Red Mite. I think by trying to make a situation better I actually made it worse which is what prompted them to appear. We were given this hen house and the hens but I noticed that when we had very heavy rain it leaked. So we decided to put plastic sheeting over the roof. This stopped the rain but presumably also stopped the ventilation. We used Red Mite X on the house yesterday and this morning there are hundreds and hundreds of dead mite on the floor of the house. One or two live ones too and I am sure a whole host more which have gone back into hiding. We will do the house again as soon as weather conditions allow. We have also a general poultry spray which we are using on the house to get into the harder to get parts under the roof. We were also advised to get Frontline by a friend so I will get some of that as soon as I can.

I think because I was told that you generally only see the Red Mite at night I had written that off as the cause of the problem ...

Thanks again.
 
Hello again Hectorshome. Blocking the ventillation a bit will have no difference on the mite. I would say they were already in the coop when you got it. What happens is the mite lay their eggs, stuck inside crack and holes that the spray won't reach. It's only when they hatch they are vunerable which is why the treatment has to be repeated a week later to kill the newborns before they lay more eggs. Generally you only see them at night. During the day they hide -have to because the chickens will eat them!
 
So I shouldn't feel bad that this is a situation I have caused - that makes me feel a little better. Thank you. I found hundreds of these in the hen house when I got back from holiday - there literally was a sea of them on the floor of the hen house alive and it was broad daylight. That is why to begin with I was wondering if this was some other sort of mite. Today the floor is a sea of dead and dying red mite so at least I know now what the problem is. I will leave the plastic sheeting off the roof though for now so I can treat the wood work more thoroughly inside and out. There did still seem to be alot of them on the perches though that had not dropped off so I assume that some take a little longer to die?

I will treat the house again in a week as you advise.

Again thanks for your advice.
 
You 'mite' need some stronger stuff Hectorshome. They should be dead in an hour. I've never used Red Mite X, only Smite and Nettex Total Mite Kill which works in minutes. They do evolve immunity the the chemicals though and some coops were near impossible to kill, others died immediately with Smite, which is pretty mild. You may find ultimately that your only recourse is to creosote. But you could try a domestic steamer with a fine nozzle after a jet wash perhaps, or a hot air gun. Some people give up and burn the coops!

Worth mentioning here after going to a Country Show on Sunday that word in the trade is creosote (the old stuff, not creocote) is about to be banned. The price has gopne up fron £30 +VAT for 30 litres to £42 +VAT for 25 litres. The Company I bought a plastic drum from (the metal ones by Bartoline leak because the can manufacturer has changed) sold a whole pallet of it in the last month.
 
Tonight we dusted the hens with a mite powder and when the weather improves we have some stuff to dunk them in too. The poor hens did have quite a few mites on them ... I have had another idea regarding the coop and the mite - we have a spare stable which has not been used for many a year. I may move them into there for now and construct a run outside with stuff we have around the place. At least then they are out of the whole environment until I can be sure that the red mite is gone once and for all.

Incidentally we were also told that the new girls have Scaly leg - I was advised to use Vaseline - is this a good idea or is there something better I could try?
 
Poor hens! They really sound as though their previous owner neglected them. Hope you get all their problems sorted.

From what I have read you need to kill the mites - there is a lot of info on this forum if you type "scaly leg" into the search box in the banner at the top of the page.
 
If in the end you do decide to replace the house, you might research the many threads about plastic houses on here. I'm sorry your first experiences with redmite are so awful. It's a frequent problem with second hand wooden coops, especially if they come from someone who wasn't very clued up about keeping hens properly, and if the mites are well entrenched it will be near-impossible to eradicate them. With plastic you can take everything to bits and scrub and treat the mite at source, without recourse to creasote etc, wipe the coop dry and use immediately.
 
Thanks everyone for the advice! We have some Vaseline so I will start out with that. The birds are going to be bathed as soon as the weather improves for the mites so I guess we can sort them out with Vaseline after we have done that. Poor things ... Oddly I think the previous owners did love their birds but probably just didn't do the best they could for them. I had no idea we were being given such a minefield of problems though.

The hens are going to be moved into a stable in the short term and I am going to try and really have a good "go" at the hen house to get rid of this mite.

We did at least manage to give them a good dusting last night with a poultry anti mite powder and if the weather isn't good enough for bathing we'll do it again this weekend.
 
For scaley mite the vet used to prescribe Benzol Benzoate, diluted 50:50 with water and brushed on -incredibly cheap stuff. We have used this and it has never failed Hectorshome. Use it three times couple of weeks apart. I've been told BB is difficult to get now from the vets. Another suggestion was dipping the feet in Vegetable Oil for 5 minutes at a time several times. This suffocates the mite and conditions the scales as well apparently. I haven't tried it, but intend to with Olive Oil.

We have a problem with one hen who is carrying red mite. Tried dusting with anti-mite powder and tried Frontline and they still keep dropping off. Will try Pyrethum spray next (Johnsons cat or dog flea spray).
 
Re Plastic hen houses, the Solway hen house does not come apart as easily as the Green Frog. The bottom of the curved sheet is screwed to the floor and if repeatedly unscrewed the plastic will strip. The screws can be replaced with stainless steel nuts and bolts as you can access both sides but it makes total dismantling a bit of a fag. Red mite could well live in the gaps between the bas and the walls.
 
Update on the hen house - still a few red mite visible this morning and girls still constantly preening to get rid of the mites on them. This weekend we will bathe the hens in Red Mite liquid as the weather is going to be warmer. I will treat the Scaly Leg at the same time. Also girls new accommodation nearly ready for them.

Also bought something containing Ivermectin to put on the backs of their necks - I gather not licensed for poultry but for pigeons.

Going to use wood shavings as bedding in the new stable.

Liz
 
I know it's obvious but I'll mention it anyway. Really important the girls are completely free of Red Mite before you move them Hectorshome.
 
You will have problems with bio security now you have such a lot of redmite on the premises, Hector. Although you are keeping the new girls separate, any living ones you clean out of the coop will fall to the ground and be picked up again and transported on your shoes, your clothing and hair when you reach inside the coop to clean it out, and could easily reach the original setup. I can't help thinking the best solution to getting this coop sorted is a good bonfire!
 
Thanks again - I am making sure that I clean out the old girls house first and then go on to the newer one to minimise any possible contamination. However you raise a good point about making sure they are free of mite before moving them from this coop to the new accommodation. On this subject I have been told to use Iva-mite which I know is not licenced for hens and to put one drop on the back of their necks ... I am also going to repowder them with red mite powder tonight. It is a Catch 22 situation really - if I leave in the old coop and miss red mite there then they will get contaminated again and if I move them then I risk contaminating the new premises! I guess I just have to bite the bullet, make a decision and keep a close eye on the new perches and the birds.

One final thing I may use this Iva-mite on old our hens too - is there an egg withdrawal period using this? Has anyone used it before?
 
This is Ivermectin, I expect. Have a look at this page from the Poultrykeeper website http://poultrykeeper.com/poultry-medication/ivermectin-for-worms-lice-mites which suggests one weeks withdrawal after the end of treatment. Isn't there instructions on it about egg withdrawal?
 
No it is for use with pigeons so there is no mention about eggs. It is a small bottle and just says it contains natural oils ... I was hoping it contained Ivermectin but it doesn't say that it does.
 
Not the first time a wooden infected coop has had to be torched Marigold. We would never have known our Daffodil had red mite without her coming in at night and sleeping on a wooden block sitting on white kitchen roll. Not the first time that's happened either. When we bought Isabella in for the first time she was crawling with red mite as well. They can't live in the coops because they are creosoted. So they all need a good dusting before they leave.
 
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