Topic: red mites

[claybasket]

Hi my son has just bought some hens 5 and a very nice coop now a few weeks on he has red mite all over the hens and the coop he has spray the hen with a recommended spray and scrubbed the coop out ,but they are all infested again  he has now took the coop to bits and power hosed it and scrubbed with Jay's fluid ?could anyone out there help him to get rid of the pests ?

[goodlife]

Keeping mites off from chickens is on going thing...it is not enough to just do one off 'blast' as one cannot get rid of every single one of them and this time of the year they breed like 'wild fire'.
Once 'you' get infestation in coop...the coop needs treating with appropriate treatment few times at weekly intervals...then every other week and to once a month until one cannot find any at all.....and even then one NEED to use some sort of 'powder' treatment in the bedding and around perches and nest boxes..keep any hinding ones at bay + when chicken scratch and dust batch they get the powder into their feathers too.
I use diatomaceous powder..cheaply bought from many places...my preference is from Ebay...and keep girls shed dusted all year round...ALL THE TIME!..it will help keeping other creepy crawlies away too!
Mites are something that 'once you get it ..you will always have it'..you just have to keep top of it..and they are very difficult to keep away from birds as they are in wild birds too.

[Melbourne12]

I very much agree with Goodlife's advice.  Dip the end of the perches in diatomaceous earth, so that plenty clings on.

It's a bit late now that he's got his coop assembled and occupied, but if he gets a chance, I suggests that he treats the inside of the coop with creosote.  It may be worth buying a cheap or secondhand coop to house the hens while he does this, because you should leave at least two and preferably three weeks after application before allowing the hens back in.  But if you can arrange things to creosote every year, you'll not be much bothered with red mite.  Creosote is horrid stuff, of course, so all the proper precautions should be taken when applying it.

One thing that we do is to have a spare set of roosting bars made up, and give them a good soaking in creosote.  Then, when they're thoroughly dry, we swap them in to the coop and treat the other set of bars ready for action if red mite do appear.