RED MITE

Hi Pony Girl. Both Durham Hen Man and Duramhens -presumably the same person- have mentioned this 'device' but have so far been unable to explain how it works or what it actually is. I'd save your money and wipe a piece of kitchen roll in the corners nearest to the hen perch first thing in the morning. If you have any red streaks on the roll after wiping you have red mite. Nothing can be easier than that surely.
 
i have killed 3 today but these 3 were tucked away in the crevices of the plastic nest boxes , going to have a good clean out the weekend but i say rollon the even slightly longer evenings wont have to rush around which means i can search for them more but its funny though as my perches and the ends are all clear of them { to much vaseline :lol: } and so is the seams of the house itself so mine have to be coming from somewhere ??
 
yep and i will be doing them again the weekend as well as worming and anything esle that comes to mind :lol:
 
It's a bit windy at the moment, but standing the hen on a fully opened paper feed bag and ruffling through all her feathers sometimes shows up lice or mites. We have picked hens up at night, shortly after they have roosted, and brought them into a cage with kitchen paper on the bottom. In the morning we have lifted the paper and there were hundreds of mite hiding under there. Seems as soon as the birds roost, all the mite come out and descend on them.
 
thats something i would like to try :D mite take me a while though with 24 birds to do :lol: bit like putting them into a white pillowcase head out the case of course though and give them a good but gentle rub down have read that some people powder thier birds like that as well :)
 
Just stripped down a rearing unit which I suspected had a few red mite in it. Couldn't believe how many there were in such a small space. All the gaps between the spars were jammed with them and you can't possibly get mite spray to them there. So scraped as much off as possible then out came the jet washer and I blasted the lot clean, although the nice new wood is now stained black. They didn't settle on the treated cladding so much though. Almost convinced me to go plastic -but you can't treat that with creosote can you? So when it's dry it will get the 50:50 mix brushed onto the panels and see how the mite go next year!!
 
i found 1 mite today and that was in the rabbit hutch with the new girls havent done as much today as i wanted what with doing the xmas decorations outside the house and the other animals i only had chance to gut the houses out and fresh bed them down and a quick check hopfully will get more time tomorrow .i'm going to try some of the spray my local bird centre told me about if it works for them then surely it wil work for me :lol:
 
Does anyone know how mite survive the Winter? Do they hibernate of sorts or do they all die off leaving eggs which hatch in Spring? Reason I ask is I have been treating an infested coop with 50:50 'creoffin' and can see loads of places where mite have been, but haven't seen a single one.
 
i think they and the eggs can survive and at the mo with it being so mild isnt helping today i found 7 within the plastic nest boxes in my little rabbit hutch where the new girls are living and they had been feeding as well so i know what i am doing all day saturday :( hunting and killing and treating for red mite again .
 
Have you tried this diatomatious earth Karminski? I'm thinking of putting some in the nest boxes on the floor and around the coop floor where it hasn't had creosote. Trouble is the cost! Don't want to spend the money if all it does is build the mite a nesting area.

Presumably your mite think it's Spring already. Our cockerels do. They are treading their girls like mad this morning and I've had to separate three of them so they calm down!
 
i have used diatom and run out it will have to wait before i can get anymore moneys tight now { aint everyone } i am so gutted had to lock the girls away in the dark tonight for the first time ever no clean beds no clean run for the morning no fresh water tell the morning what a bad mummy i am :lol: :lol: so i havent even checked for red mite tonight we have just had a major monsoon hit and it started when i was down the stables and the feed delievery guy turns up at 3.50 pm :x i hate it when my afternoon with the girls dont go right but at least tomorow the houses are being gutted anyway .its very mild here and will be for a few more days yet .
 
It doesn't sound as though the diatom works Karminski, because you are still finding mites? Or does it limit the numbers a bit?
 
i think its supposed to help limit the amount you get but not kill them completely , i cleaned all my houses out today and there was 2 in the small wooden coop none in my big house but several in the rabbit hutch the only thing i have to hand at the mo is poultry shield until the shops are open and everything had a good clean and sprayed as well as vaselined down the seams etc .thing is its gone pretty mild here during the day again which doesnt help matters .some say diatom works and reckon they have never had them and i have used tons of it and still get them :-)19 is it that some people are lucky ?
 
Here's one for you Karminski. Just learned that one good way to remove red mite from your coop is with a STEAM CLEANER. Kills all the mite and the eggs and very little moisture absorbs into the wood. The steam at 115 degrees gets into all the nooks and crannies and cooks them in there! Am trying to get model details and cost of the unit this chap used -only a small one, not a £2500 commercial unit. Does the coops twice a year apparently which keeps them at bay. The real bonus is that the steam rises into the grooves of the weatherboarding and can be seen coming out of the other side. I don't believe it kills all of them, but it will avoid using chemicals.
 
2 of my houses are clear but the rabbit still has them and i am treating it , i am finding around 5 - 10 per day which is a few to many the odd 1 or 2 fine but not more . we have a samllish steam cleaner but its electric i think i can get enough cables to reach down to the run as we got power down there before so if its dry tomorrow i very well may just give that a go the hutch is a large one so there should not be any probs with getting in there with the steamer head .thanks for reminding of this as i had forgot about using one of those :D
 
I fought a major battle with red mite in my 6'x4' T&G shed earlier this year. I eventually gave up, raided the piggy bank, and replaced my housing with Green Frog coops. I know they're not red mite 'proof' - nothing can be - but so far I've not seen any sign of them. And I do check really thoroughly. I've kept a wooden hutch I use as a broody house but I've taken the felt off and replaced it with heavy duty polythene. It will have another good coating of Creocote (which does seem to work on the red mite strain I get), liberally coat knot holes, joins, etc with vaseline, and plenty of both Diatom and ant powder.

Then it's stay vigilant.

:)
 
my bank balance will never go as far as getting a green frog or any other real good housing so i will stick to freebee sheds or make my own which is really the fun part of it .going to get the steamer out tomorrow but yesterday i put vaseline down all the seams including the base of the hutch and i went out at 8.30ish to check and the nest box was clear as thats were they really like to be went at 12 and there they were ??
this is annoying and its not even spring yet .
 
Because it has been such a mild Winter I fear next years Red Mite problem will be even worse than this years was. So I think it's really important to stay on top of it, as you are Karminski.

I get a lot of pleasure out of building coops and stuff like you do, but isn't it just soo annoying when they get muddy footprints and poo all over the place !!
 
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