Treating Lice and Mites

My Hubby performs a similar ritual on himself before we go out for the evening.

My method for preventative must work well because I haven't even seen lice or mites for about 11 years. I am almost forgetting what they look like.

I pm'ed you toybarons.

Uno I understand that you have had luck with them but from my experiences I have bought birds from people who use no pest strips as their only method of control and the birds have had a good population of critters on them. I also know of people in my area who have tried the no pest strips and have had to change their pest methods as it wasn't enough of a control.

In my experience these are my results.

No Pest Strip: Found to be only good for flies and mosquitos. No success with lice or mites.

Diatomaceous earth:Good as a preventative but not good if you already have a case of lice or mites.

Dusting Powder: Works good on lice. Haven't tried on mites. Only thing is if the bird is really loaded with lice I found that you have to give them a GOOD dusting by working into the feathers. Stuff does bother my allergies even with a mask. I used dusting powder more to work into the nooks and crannies of my coop.

Ivormec Pour on: Wonderful stuff. Great success at controlling feather lice. One application will keep my birds lice free for up to 3 to 4 months.
HOWEVER FOR NORTHERN FOWL MITES it is only good as a first defence. The problem I have found I can't use this SOLELY to treat mites. Ivormec kills only the mites and gnats. It does not kill the eggs. Mites can also build up a tolerence to pour on. Then there is the problem that if you overdose the bird on Ivormec your bird can become infertile.

Flea and Tick spray:MY HERO AGAINST MITES!!!!
I have been using a spray on bird bath made for cage birds that treats Lice and Mites. You part the feathers, spray directly on the mites. The spray foams up and covers the feathers and skin. You can see the mites bloat up and die immediately.
72 hours - repeat. Reapply to treated areas and check the bird for new areas that mites may have moved to.
Another 72 hours - repeat.
Then continue to keep checking the bird, every 72 hours until you can find no more mites. Then it's just a rechecking game. If you see no new mites after 2 weeks, you should be clear of mites.
I like this product because it can be safely reapplied to the bird with no ill effects. The bird will not get sick if they ingest the foam. Just need to be careful it spraying around the face.

Thanks for the reminder to tap those No pest Strips off from the dust. I had forgotten to this winter. I checked a few of my birds over last night before bed, and for the first time in a year and a half, seen a few lice on one of my birds.

Note to self: Do not do this before bed. You'll never guess what I dreamt of last night....

This morning I sent my Husband off to work with some money to pick up some dusting powder, so I can get rid of the wee crawlies.

I found last time that dusting the birds a couple times once to get rid of the mites/lice and then again to get rid of any babies that hatched, then hanging the No Pest Strip helped big time. Anyways, kept the birds bug free for a year and a half... until I slacked off on the no pest strip. Sigh.... Here I was thinking I was doing so good... I hate those bugs.

Oh, and just a little reminder to people who use or are useing the dust for the first time, wear a mask when using it. The last time I used it, I got a nose bleed afterwards. I am not fond of using the dust, but I've yet to find Ivormec here in Terrace... So dust and no pest strip it is.