More on mites?

Sorry to bring up mites again - I did a search and read all the posts, but I have a few more questions. The past few weeks, I noticed that I would have a few tiny little bugs on me when I came in from chores, but they go away with a shower - I didn't make the chicken connection, but tonight my husband was cleaning out the coops for me, and he got them too. I'm thinking mites? They are big enough to see, but not much bigger. They are easily squishable - dragging a finger over one on my arm kills them. Are these mites? Or something else?

What are the consequences of not treating them for awhile? I'm 40 weeks pregnant and cannot catch each bird for treatment (I'm slow and my birds are wild!), nor am I comfortable working with pesticide dusts right now. These are mature laying birds - "Red Sussex" hybrids for the most part, they are 1 year old, and my egg production hasn't suffered. Feathers are looking pretty tattered, but I thought is was a combo of feather picking, a few birds still finishing a molt, and a rough rooster...Any thoughts? So far I'm leaning towards kitty litter dust baths and No Pest strips in the coop? Is there something I could put in the water?

Yes those sound like mites. Get you husband to go in side the coop in the dark with a back pack sprayer , having locked the birds outside for the night or in another coop and spray a pesticide for chicken coops all over every square inch of walls floors and ceilings. I bought some 12 years ago at UFA and it was powerful and worked great but I can't remember the name off the top of my head. Your husband will need to wear some kind of breathing protection. Make sure he does it when it is dark outside and he will have to use a flashlight because the mites come out in the dark and go on the hosts looking for a hot meal but they hide in cracks and holes in the day time. Then dust each bird before letting them back in the coop. Dust them generously under the wings, around the vent area and basically all over their backs and breasts, also throw dust in each nest box, on all of the roosts and over the floor on top of the bedding and splash it up the cracks where one wall meets another and where the floor meets the walls. Then when you are all done I would hang one of those Ortho home max defense NO PEST STRIPS up high and out of the way. This worked for me and I have never had mites since. Also if you have Eprinex or the other one I would also put some on each bird. Good luck And although I didn't mention it you will need to have someone clean the coop before you have someone go in with the sprayer because you don't want any bedding in there. Also what I did many years ago was after I cleaned and sprayed and dusted I locked the birds out an extra day and I painted the whole inside with white linseed oil barn paint which I purchased at UFA and because it is an oil base it gives off fumes while it is drying which also helps to kill any mites that may have escaped your attack and also if some mites come out after your cleaning as soon as they touch the paint they will stick to it and die.

Too much information to give you again, as this information has already been discussed in depth, as you have read. But what I will say to you is. Yes.....you have mites and you have them pretty bad. If you come out of the coop and they are on you, there is a pretty bad infestation of them.....yes.....been there...done that....think I got it too under control now. When you see them on yourselves, you know they are in great numbers. Very sorry to say this, but you got the northern mite. And yes. You can see them for surely. They look like the dot at the end of this sentence . . . . . . . . some black, brown, reddish, pale coloured. Northern fowl mite. It is everywhere and with warm weather, they really multiply. Read more the post that Shipperkesue made about products, one called Frontline is really sticking out in my mind. Sorry to tell you, but the truth must be known. With that, have a great day, CynthiaM.

Thanks! - hubby will be so impressed...

The problem with just spraying or dusting your birds is that if you do it in the day time most of the boogers will not be on the bird but will be hiding from day light in cracks and nooks. Even if you spray the birds only and at night there will be tons of the boogers waiting to grab a hold of one of your birds. 12 or 13 years ago when I brought them home I didn't know anything about them so I just ignored them for most of the season and then when I went in at night and flipped on the light there were billions no exaggeration. In one square inch there were too many to count even with a magnifying glass. There was not a square inch that was not darkened with hundreds of them. I think that you will be lucky to control the mites by only spraying the birds unless you spray them very regularly if not daily. Good luck.

Usually I can resist these threads...

Those don't sound like mites, they sound like tiny critters. Big enough to see and squishable is not a diagnosis for mites, and neither is tattered feathers. Could just as easily be fleas or something else. Are they actually on your chickens? Just because whatever they are exist in your coop doesn't mean they're even a pest if you don't know what you have. Look closely at the birds at night when they're dormant. Are there any critters on their bodies, especially around the vent and under the wings?

Mites have four sets of legs (sometimes two but both important bird mites that I have knowledge of have four), big round-oblong abdomen, tiny head and no wings. All insects, including fleas, have three sets of legs, most have wings and are usually harder bodied than mites. A magnifying lens should be good enough to get a look.

And if you don't know which mite you have, half of Dan Smith's recommendations could be useless to you. Only chicken mites leave the birds during the day, Northern Fowl Mites live permanently on the bird, so spraying the coop at night without the birds in it is only useful if you have the one species.

Many miticides and insecticides don't have any effect on the other, and you might be doing more harm than good spraying the wrong thing. No matter what you spray and where, you're going to be killing non-target species and increasing the risk of resistance developing in the pest, so it's important to get a positive diagnosis before you react. Is there a vet you can talk to?

I also don't think they're mites. They sound like grass fleas? I find, especially when I put in fresh hay (which I've been finding for free in the fields around me since the farmers have baled and moved them leaving behind lots of goodies!!!!!), there are either teeny tiny redish-black almost ear-wig looking things, itty-bitty black bugs or even itsy bitsy (I'm running out of tiny descriptions here) light green bugs that I can feel/see on my arms when I leave the coop after flipping bedding.

One thing I've learned about treating mites (my first flock had them) is it's super easy to dust with DE on EEEVERY surface (you're preggo, get hubby to do it as it's dusty) and drop a box in the yard filled with DE for the birds to dust themselves. Believe me, they are VERY thorough. The only thing I've been really hands on with when it comes to mites is I have an outbreak in 4 birds (so I'm treating them all, even though I've quarantined these other birds) of Scaley leg. That's hands on because I've been dipping their legs in oil. Easy for the girls, but the roo tries to dance in the oil and makes a mess.

I think you're in the clear. If you want to know if you have mites and what they look like, have hubby go in at nigh, pluck a girl off the roost and look at her vent with a flashlight. This is how I've started spot checking for mites. Shine that light on her vent for about 30 seconds and if there's any mites, you'll see them, barely, against her skin moving around.

Hope this helps.

Mites, regardless if they are Northern Fowl Mites or Red Mites have a similiar look on a bird. Both will either look like small grains of black pepper until they feed on your bird and then they will look like red.

The difference between the two species is Northern Fowl Mites live their lives on the bird. They are also the easier of the two to detect. Red Mites live off the birds during the day. Instead prefering to live in the nooks & cracks of the wood in your coop. Red Mites come out at night to feed on your birds when they are roosting. You can detect Red Mites if you go into your coop when it's dark and shine a flashlight onto both the tops & bottoms of the wood and you will see them.

The other parasite common on poultry is lice. These will look like grains of white rice.

One thing I have found is lice will stay on you and will usually crawl to your head and your hair. Mites will just crawl on you and then hop off when they realize you are not a meal. Neither can hurt you or will live on you but they sure can bugg you out if you hate creepy crawlies.

toybarons wrote:Mites, regardless if they are Northern Fowl Mites or Red Mites have a similiar look on a bird. Both will either look like small grains of black pepper until they feed on your bird and then they will look like red.

The difference between the two species is Northern Fowl Mites live their lives on the bird. They are also the easier of the two to detect. Red Mites live off the birds during the day. Instead prefering to live in the nooks & cracks of the wood in your coop. Red Mites come out at night to feed on your birds when they are roosting. You can detect Red Mites if you go into your coop when it's dark and shine a flashlight onto both the tops & bottoms of the wood and you will see them.

The other parasite common on poultry is lice. These will look like grains of white rice.

One thing I have found is lice will stay on you and will usually crawl to your head and your hair. Mites will just crawl on you and then hop off when they realize you are not a meal. Neither can hurt you or will live on you but they sure can bugg you out if you hate creepy crawlies.

Well said toybarons.

[quote="toybarons" Mites will just crawl on you and then hop off when they realize you are not a meal. Neither can hurt you or will live on you but they sure can bugg you out if you hate creepy crawlies.
[/quote]

Oh mites, my favourite, smiling. Wow, are you sure? I don't think they have the capability of hopping, such as a flea does, be it animal flea or vegetable flea (flea beetle), but then maybe they do, that makes it even worse! Eeeeeks. Ya, they don't even bite, but boy can ya feel them crawl...and see them too, been there, done that. All to have a good, good day, CynthiaM.

CynthiaM wrote:[quote="toybarons" Mites will just crawl on you and then hop off when they realize you are not a meal. Neither can hurt you or will live on you but they sure can bugg you out if you hate creepy crawlies.

Oh mites, my favourite, smiling. Wow, are you sure? I don't think they have the capability of hopping, such as a flea does, be it animal flea or vegetable flea (flea beetle), but then maybe they do, that makes it even worse! Eeeeeks. Ya, they don't even bite, but boy can ya feel them crawl...and see them too, been there, done that. All to have a good, good day, CynthiaM.[/quote]

*LOL* Didn't mean hop as like a flea does. They just crawl off you.

Sorry I disappeared on this thread! Shortly after I posted, I had a beautiful baby girl...and as any of you who are parents know, I suddenly had less time for obsessing about chickens online! Luckily, the problem was not mites, but some other type of insect explosion in the hot humid months. They were too squishable to be mites, and my egg production stayed strong despite alot of bugs. Also, the bugs were never actually ON the chickens when we checked at night. We did a few very thorough coup cleanings, dusted the birds, and increased coop air-flow to cut down on the humidity, and then all was well. Now my little girl gets to come with her momma everyday to the coup to take care of the birds - a chicken fancier in the making!

Well congratulations on your baby, it wont take her long to fall in love with the animals. I used to take my oldest with me everywhere I did chores and to this day she adores all animals. My youngest I found it easier to go do chores when she was sleeping, and she likes the animals but not nearly as much as my oldest does. So keep taking her out with you!

Glad the mites are not an issue for you, those can be terrible things. Glad the chickens are doing well and bug free.

Double congrats! New babe and no mites!