Topic: Redmites !!!!!!! Aaaarrrrgggghhhh

[B7jac]

I can't believe it !  I have just seen the first few redmites in the coup !!

What do they do hibernate all winter?  I really thought I had eradicated them last summer as I didnt see any around Sept/Oct time.  So where have they come from?

I really don't think I can spend all summer fighting them again !

Had a good spray round, but now really want to have a good scrub clean out and disinfect and another spray.

Be aware everyone, I dont think anyone escapes, they are hard to spot if you havent seen them before, just put on rubber gloves and run your finger along crevices esp perch ends and if you see blood stains, its them !!

[PHILMT]

It's early for them to be out and about but if u get them early before they get breeding it might not be as bad. I havnt noticed any yet in my coup. I used the gold label "get rid" powder last year and it worked very well. I had tried most other things before and had no luck! I am going to powder my coup this weekend and kill the early ones when they come. I had them really bad last year and ended up burning most of my perches. 

[B7jac]

Yes I thought it was a little early but def redmite !  I too had them bad last year and cleaned, scrubbed, powdered and sprayed relentlessly finally I thought they had gone, so where have they come from?  I don't even use straw or hay anymore only newspaper and shredded paper ! 

The spray was quite good 'mitekill' quite strong but you have to shut hens out for a few hours first, done that today so hopefully I have got them early. 

I will say however that yesterday I thought I saw one maybe two and so powdered with diatoms, but this morning there were lots more but very tiny so they must have been breeding already !!   B******ds

[Mowhay]

Apologies if this has already been mentioned but you can get sprays for red mite, feather lice and quill lice for racing pigeons which you can spray with the birds inside. These are available from the larger pet food stores or the specialist pigeon stockist. I think if they kill off the mite it will work on any building? Again apologies if this is "old hat" and been tried.

[flowerofshona2007]

Try steam cleaning the coup :) i found it got rid of it all and it gets into al the cracks ect.

[PHILMT]

I took the felt off my shed last weekend and found zillions of the little gits. I put new felt on but put stacks of redmite powder down first. It felt really good to find them all. I think that's where most where hiding. I haven't seen any in the shed so far. Thankfully   

[kt.]

Try steam cleaning the coup :) i found it got rid of it all and it gets into al the cracks ect.

how do you use a steam cleaner at the plot with no power supply or generator.... 

[Old bird]

Hi Kt

I didn't exactly steam them but I got some boiling hot water in my sprayer with Jeyes fluid as well - pumped it up and raced up to the lottie and sprayed into all the cracks - it was very very hot water so seemed to work!

You could - if you can drive close to your lottie have a small steamer working off the car battery?!  Not sure tho as I haven't seen such a thing!

Old Bird

 :o

[blisters]

After trying virtually every spray going, we eventually creosoted last year and that seemed to work a treat. 

Not seen any yet this year, but will keep a sharp eye out when I clean them out tonight. ;)