Red Mite or Red Spider Mite?

[Anonymous]

I am fairly new to poultry keeping, and have just discovered some little critters in the nesting area, and some on the hinged roof. Not sure if they are red mite or spider mite. Saw them during the day time, and also what appeared to be a lot of little eggs under the wood shavings in the nesting box. I bought some Duramitex liquid (not Duramitex plus) yesterday, mixed it up and sprayed all round the nesting box and coop. I then discovered this product had been discontinued last year - have i put my girls at risk? Is it safe to use this product? I also applied Red Mite Powder to the girls at dusk last night, and did see one or two tiny black dots moving around on the newly cleaned and sprayed woodwork. What should I do?

 

[snifter]

Red spider mites are red. Brightly so. As pic shows http://k41.pbase.com/o4/33/20333/1/60806916.mite01.jpg You'll also see them out running around during the day. They are more round and bigger.

Red mite are smaller, brown in colour and only come out at night to feed. Can be found on the underside of perches and in the cracks of hen houses. When you find them in the hen house at night around the chooks and squish them, some will have lots of fresh blood having just fed. Go out with a torch at night to check housing. Look underneath perches etc.

 

[Tim]

Yes, Red Spider Mite also tend to be found on brick / stonework in bright sunshine I think. They are bigger and crawl around faster.

Have you seen the article on Red Mite? Maybe worth a read, there's also a picture of an infestation under a perch. You will often see like a grey dust around the edge. Mites that are young / haven't had a feed are darker and don't look red.

If the product is out of date, my guess is that the active ingredients are probably less effective once the best before date passes and it won't hurt your chooks if applied as recommended, if it is discontinued, I guess it could be for a number of reasons and you'd have to ask the manufacturer. It could be as simple as them finding a cheaper way to produce it using different chemicals, or even a marketing thing where they have re-branded the product under a different name.

As Snifter says, go out at night (when they are active) and have a look. The easiest way is to wipe the underside of the perch with a white piece of tissue and look for blood stains on it.

There are so many people having problems with Red Mite this year - I heard from one supplier this has been the bulk of their business this year, selling red mite products! Must be the weather we've had I guess.

Tim