New Red Mite product, eco friendly, long lasting

Hi Minorcafan,

The post by Mitemagic has been removed.They posted advertising and links without permission. Our forum rules don't allow this - if we allow one, we would need to allow all, but also we have affiliate agreements with other companies selling anti-mite products from some of the pages on the main pk site. Sales of those products through the links on the site generate a small stream of income which ultimately pays the (almost $3K now) hosting charges we have each year to keep things running.

Sorry to leave you stranded on this one...I didn't get to the post quickly enough.

Cheers.

Tim.
 
I've just got rid of a severe infestation of red mite. Sprinkled with petrol and burned the shed to the ground,
 
I was amazed at what happened with our red mite after coming back from holiday. Before the crew went to boarding while we were away I had got the red mite down to a tiny amount that would breed until i spotted them and then be knocked down again on about a 3 week cycle. I have a rubber mat under the roost bar without any diatom under and if they are around they show up under there. I had presumed that they all hid under there in the day but...
Before going away, and with the chooks elsewhere, I took everything out of the run and jet washed it. The mats were washed too and left out in the sun. When we got back I put everything back in place - needless to say there were no obvious mite anywhere - and then fetched the chooks home. After 2 days of being back in I looked under the mat, not expecting to see any mite - maybe a few as before. There were millions of them in 4 colonies between the mat and the shelf. They all got squished and there have been none since (?)
I wonder - not surprisingly they don't like to gather where there are traces of squished mite and that may mean that they had been trekking quite a long way up to the perch at night from somewhere that isn't treated with diatom (there are places but it seems like a long way!). After the best part of 3 weeks after washing maybe the traces had gone so they decided that under the mat was safe again. But for them to reappear in such numbers in only a couple of days was surprising.

The only thing that makes sense is, maybe, the active population was very small but there was a backlog of eggs around that all, hungrily, hatched at the same time when they sensed that chickens had returned?

Sorry to go on but another thing has occurred to me while writing this - the colonies were in stripes across the bottom of the mat and these may have been the cleanest bits left by the jet. I may wash the mat again and write 'red mite' with the lance. It would be pretty cool if they took up residence in that pattern! :)
 
They may not have been in the hen house, they could have been somewhere outside. Apparently they will hide away and trek quite long distances when the hens are around again. Hope you don't get a recurrence at that level!
 
Sorry to say, I'm not surprised that you had such an outbreak after boarding your birds. I expect they brought it back with them. The mite would be unlikely to breed so fast in the absence of a host, when you had done so much to clean up after the hens left.
Next time, could you possibly find a reliable teenager to come in and look after them? The 14-year-old who looks after mine is just brilliant, her mum says she spends hours just sitting in the run and watching the hens when the tasks are done. On our return from holiday last week, she presented me with some beautiful blackberry and apple crumble cake, made from our hens' eggs. Well worth £20 in wages for a week's peace of mind!
 
Unfortunately, the nearby family households and connections, like when our boys were going through school, have gone from around here now and so there is no promising pool for the recruitment of sitters - not ones who you would feel you knew well enough to give the keys of your house to anyway.
There is always that chance that they could bring something back with them (the chickens not the teenagers :) ) although, to be fair, Jacqueline runs a pretty tight ship - most likely to pick up some lice (although that didn't happen.) Red mite don't live on the birds during the day so there shouldn't (in theory) have been any on them when I brought them home.
 
I'm not sure about that, Rick - its pretty well established that redmite can and does arrive in a run when shaken off the feathers of wild birds, perhaps when they perch on trees over the run, or on the coop itself, so if wild birds can carry it, I suppose chickens can as well. I can only say that so far, I've never had any redmite in my coop or run, which is roofed and made of 1/2" mesh to exclude wild birds. Another friend, an experienced keeper, was similarly clean of redmite for years but got a really bad infestation when she accidentally left the door of an unused run open for an hour or two, and returned to find a pigeon preening itself on an upturned bucket. The bucket was crawling with redmite and she had great difficulty in containing the outbreak which ensued. I expect it will arrive in my run some day, but so far, so good, for quite a few years now.
 
Could be Marigold - if they arrived on a pigeon in the daytime then they must have been on the bird. I just haven't seen them on my hens in the day even when I know mite have been around in clusters the run (waiting for their nocturnal lunch!)
They first arrived here in a batch of bagged, damp bark chippings a couple of years ago before I had learnt to be careful about such things.
 
I have read this post with interest, and would like to make a few comments and suggestions if I may. I respect Tim's position and the forum rules, so will make no mention of my new red mite product.

There are a few issues that are being overlooked here. Firstly, there is no reason whatsoever to burn any hut due to red mite anymore and incur the costs of a new hut - this didn't work for me in any event - I burned the hut, nestboxes, perches, bedding - all contents of the hen hut went up in flames!, I and more importantly my birds received around two weeks relief from the dreaded red mite before they followed the birds to their new hut. Futile, expensive waste of time!

Relating to the holiday re-infestation. Jet-washing or hose-piping a hut is the single biggest mistake any hen keeper can make. The water pressure may kill a few, but the vast majority will survive in the surrounding area. All they simply do is dry themselves off and move back in. It is also highly likely that mite eggs are not removed in this process, so they hatch.

Red mite that are not feeding on blood cannot breed, therefore they do not lay eggs, so this issue can be eliminated mostly.

Red Mite are migrating crawling ecto-parasites, they cannot fly or jump. It is highly likely that some mites were returned to the hut from the boarding facility. It is completely true that red mite do not live on the bird, they only feed from the bird at night as they try to sleep. However, to migrate they must hitch-hike a ride on something, or someone. This does not necessarily mean the hens were responsible - the possibility exists for mites to hitch a ride on humans (clothing or footwear), birds, animal crates etc. You only need to carry one mite back to any hut to begin a new re-infestation. With a breeding lifecycle of 7 days, its not a long process. Red mite will also hitch a ride and attack mice, rats, wild birds etc who will carry them to their new home as they visit various gardens in search of food.

I would suggest that before using any such boarding facility, a conversation should be had regarding their red mite eradication procedures, and be very wary if creosote or lime has been used - not only are these illegal to use in egg laying hen facilities, they are dangerous to bird health and egg contamination. Creosote is carcinogenic (cancer causing), amongst many other life threatening possibilities) and lime is caustic (burns). You should inspect the premises thoroughly prior to agreeing any boarding, to satisfy yourself an infestation of red mite does not exist. I also suggest that you check your clothing before getting back into your car, and certainly change clothing and launder on a very hot wash, then take a long shower once you return home, before going anywhere near your hen huts. Check your car also for stray mites.

When visiting breeder facilities and poultry auctions, undertake the same checks. ALL new birds should be quarantined on every occasion, not only to guard against red mite but to prevent other diseases from being introduced to your flock. Once you are happy, after a week at least, then and only then should introduction occur.

Until red mite are eradicated from every hen hut, smallholding and farm their numbers will continue to proliferate, and inadvertently human behaviour assists their travel between premises to carry out their deadly habits.
 
Hi MM,
Yes, the jet wash wasn't going to remove them - it was more that the place needed a good clean up.
My own opinion is that the mites didn't return from the boarding and that's because they showed up in large numbers 2 days after the hens were back. No time to breed to a large population from a couple of chancing interlopers - they were already there but very pale and not noticeable until they rushed out that night with great relief and tucked into my chickens - then they were red again!
Poor chooks, that must have been an unpleasant night but I presume the hatched hungry hoard were all drawn out by the event and thats why there were suddenly so many to squish. Haven't seen any since other than a tiny 5p sized group under the mat. Obviously they are still around.
 
Hi Rick, I don't suppose we will ever know fully what happened at your place, my comments relating to animal boarding, breeder sites and auctions I hope will assist others as part of good biosecurity practice to prevent the dreaded and deadly red mite moving in. It is likely they will show their evil face at some point, and once they are in and feeding, the flock will suffer horrendously. Some of my birds died, despite using every product I could find, before I finally toppled them once and for all and every year thereafter.
I take your point and agree, I think the majority of the mites were there already - red mite can survive without feeding for around 9 months and they don't even hibernate to preserve energy! So the barely visible grey ones were either adult but unfed mites or hatched nymphs waiting for a meal. This indicates then that the area under the mat may not be the only area they have colonised if they were in such numbers - it may be worthwhile doing another check in the hut.
The poor hens must have had a horrendous night - I cannot imagine trying to sleep with bugs crawling all over me, biting me and draining my blood.
 
A friend of mine runs a farm and has a big industrial steam cleaner as standard kit. Easy sterilisation of anything in its path but, of course, the hens have to be well out of the way for a while! A bit more laborious with a domestic steamer but that would also work - apparently they die, eggs and all, at 45 degrees C.
Diatom also works very well - they hate the stuff. As do lice although I'm not putting it in the dust bath ever again as I have come to the conclusion that fine dust, in one form or another, has been responsible for the loss of at least two of my hens so far.
Still, carefully hand applying diatom locally with a brush over a couple of weeks, and a normal earth dust bath, gets rid of lice.
Strikes me we are in a careful balancing act with domestic pet hens - big industry avoids most of these problems but culling the lot before a problem develops and in the wild hens just don't live very long either (big predators or not.)
(Not to mention worms!)
 
We use a steam cleaner and it is the most effective red mite killer of all Rick. Two years ago we had 5 coops infected and since treatment, no sign of them. Sparrows I think was the initial problem. Red mite and eggs die above 55C- we know this from treating sections of infected coops in the greenhouse, which over here can get to 60C. We have also wrapped a coop in clear plastic, but if it doesn't get to 55C inside the treatment is ineffective.
 
Diatomaceous earth is associated with lung irritation and silicosis, which as a fine particle dust is logical. However I still consider it a good product and I still use it around the vent area in the event I discover lice, a topical treatment as has been suggested. I think its use in coops, where hens would breathe it in over a long period of time every night, perhaps needs to be discouraged. It made me cough a lot years ago when I used to dust it around, so its use in the hen hut was promptly discontinued as it was clear to me the hens would inhale also, and I also suspect this is a factor in breathing/respiratory problems in hens. I do put a little in their dust bath, along with dry soil and sand but I think the best thing I use in the dustbath is ash. Wood ash to be precise, so if you have a log burner you can recycle this waste. It makes the hens a bit dirty, but mine are purely pets so I don't mind their scruffy appearance if they don't.
 
You can of course paint DE on as a thick slurry if you want to avoid it being scratched up and becoming airborne, doesn't entirely stop it, but 95%.
 
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