uno wrote:and instead go by feel. I stand there, in the dark, with my hand on the bottom of a nest box and wait for it...wait for it...if there are mites you will FEEL them crawling up your arm! To heck with the vagaries of eyesight!
OK, girl, you got too much time on your hands
Kidding of course. I can well imagine that that would work if you have a massive and I mean massive, massive, massive overload of mites. Now that being said, also, this depends on the mite. I would think, Uno, that if the mites were in the box and not on the bird that it is the red fowl mite. A whole different story. The northern mite for the most part remains on the bird. Frick. Mites. I can't stand them.
Ya, had some horrible issues with these suckers and feel that I am pretty much under control now with the northern mite, or I would like to think I have it under control.
OK, took this to a word format, so I can save down every few minutes, I think I am going to be saying alot and I need to not lose anything, that would make me lose heart, smiling. Ya, so where was I?
I had horrible, and I mean horrible northern mite issues last year. Worked oh so hard to get these under control. As you had mentioned, Uno, I had been using eprinex, thought it had been doing magic and because I was just too confident in the product, and the dosage, and everything about it, got a little lazy when it came to actually looking to see if the mite problem was under control. Phew long sentence, but that is OK, not here for grammar crap. Ya. So. I actually think that eprinex would have worked, but I think the dosage I was giving my birds might not have been strong enough, my birds are large and I think that I just did not give enough, or did, I don’t know. But it made me feel like the particular product was not working. Period. So I changed to a different product. And I must say, it has rid my birds of the mite issue. Be they red or northern fowl mite, I think they were northern, but who really knows, I did not take a mite and examine it below a microscope to ascertain variety of mite. Doesn’t matter. It is moot. I seriously think that I was underdosing and that may have been why the eprinex did not work for me. Now for others that it worked for, yes, they probably were using correct dosage and perhaps reapplying to kill the mite eggs as they hatched. Or are the eggs poisoned from the mite destruction product? Anyone know. What do the eggs of the mites eat to grow? They are on the feathers of the chickens, so do they consume the blood that is in the feather? How do the mites get nourishment. Now here’s one for ya to ponder and find out about. I for one, would like to know, but just don’t feel like doing any research any time right now. So....what do the eggs of the mites do for sustinance? Maybe they don’t eat, and wait until they are born to suck the life out of the bird....anyone?????? please????
I do know for a very fact, that now I check frequently chicken butts. By frequent, I mean every couple of weeks. Yes, I pick up random chickens (or roosters) and have a look. I have a pair of glasses that are slightly magnified and I put them on (remembering to put them up on my head when I look up, cause they make me dizzy if I am looking to a distance). I can see if there are any freakin’ little mites walking on the chicken skin. I know they are the size of a dot, yep, been there, done that, and I can see clearly those friggers with those glasses. Also, strong light. This must be looked out outside. I sit in the chicken doorway, which faces to the south, so lots of bright light, so look at the backend of the chickens I pick up to have a gander at.
Oh man, Uno, am I addressing what you want me to address or am I going too far off topic? Need to know. Put me on the straight and narrow, if you will, if I digress too much.
I personally think I am going back to lice dusting powder. Honestly, I think that this is just as much of a bother as putting a drop or spray on a chicken butt or neck, wherever one choses to apply the drops. I like to apply the product near the back end and the belly, cause that is where the mites live. Period. Still keeping the liquid products, but absolutely returning to tried and true dust powder. Probably a good thing to alternate too.
I have done dusting before. But the method (this was way back on the coast in my old life) was clumbsy and horribly dusty. I would hang a bird upside down by the feet and shake the shaker all over the bird. Horrible, dusty and always wore a mask. Blah.
I learned from a friend how she works her birds with dust. And to me this is the most simple and logical method. I have changed her style somewhat to suit me. But I will tell of my style. I get down and dirty with the birds, so this may not be for everyone. But I like to hold my birds now and then anyways, just gives me a nice and comfy warm mamma feeling. This is now what I do and have recently done to some of my birds....I will be finishing this task in the near future, but have honed down this newly acquired dusting skill nicely. So can move even faster.
I take a bird. I pick a place to sit. Not on a chair. I like to sit on the floor on the entranceway to my chicken “stuff” area of the chicken coops. This allows me to have good light, a southern facing entranceway. My feet are on the group, terra firma, gives me grounding, I like earth. If any dust falls to the place below my feet, it is earth, just a good feeling. I turn that bird upside down, after reassuring them by stroking their ears area gently. Then comes the salt shaker that has the dusting powder in it. Dollar store salt shaker, has a handle and the holes are big. I gently shake dust on the belly and up to the vent area of the bird. Then I work that dust in gently, every so gently with my fingertips and hands. This does not create a cloud of dust, not at all, and I feel comfortable to not wear a mask, which makes me feel like I am suffocating and I get far too hot in the face. An alternate method would be to have the dusting powder in a bucket, and a powder puff to puff the dust on the birds, but I don’t think would work as good as the salt shaker with the big holes. This is an easy method and the birds are not freaking out. They are very quiet. I turn them over and return them to the coop, and they shake, of course, and of course, dusty powder will go over the coop below them a little. I find this method fast, and I really believe that all freakin’ sucking bugs are totally coated in dust and die, like really fast. Life without air cannot live.
So I don’t know Uno. Maybe eprinex would work if the dosage was correct. I still believe that I must have been underdosing the birds. That is why I did not find the product effective and others find it effective, different sized birds with different types of bodies would surely need different doses. Maybe eprinex does work, maybe it does not. I don’t care. I’m probably not going to use the product anymore anyways. So far, I haven’t seen more mites on the birds, this dusting is just now a prevention, just in case there are some hiding on birds that I don’t see. I believe in prevention, didn’t always practice it before, that was my lazy side, bad girl, and learned stuff about keeping on top of things. Important....ya, just speaking some thoughts from inside my head.
I checked a mamma hen that is brooding on some babies, just to ensure that she did not have mites. That was a few days ago. A brooding mamma, sitting in that warm and humid nest box for so long is a prime place for the mites to live. She did not have a single mite that I could see, so that gave me some encouragement that things are under control nicely with mites. Ya, mites, they suck don’t they (oh, ya, and actually, they do SUCK).
We all know that mites can come from many places. In particular wild birds that may visit the chicken yards, in hope that there are tidbits that are left behind. I know that they do at our place, because many times when I go out to shovel snow before I let the birds out. There are teeny tiny footprints, clearly from teeny tiny birds. They are welcome here, but I also know that they may be dropping off unwanted visitors, mites, to my chicken yards.
Ya, this topic has been hashed over and over and I think it is worthy to hash over and over and over and over some more. Keep on top of mites. Never once had chicken lice here, but do remember back on the coast that sometimes we would see lice, and we dealt with them. And in those days it was common to bring birds in from other sources. Like a pretty bird from the auction (or two). These days I don’t buy many birds from outside sources. If I do, I know fair well who I am getting the birds from, and am pretty sure that the birds are kept nicely, so do not anticipate problems. But in all honesty, I do not see any need now to bring adult birds here for a very long time. Have entertained the thought of getting some day old chicks that will lay DARK DARK brown eggs, so I can have extra eggs. With three families eating eggs, and I know for a fact that come spring I will be short eggs (and probably during the summer too, those darn broody mammas, smiling). I thought with some dark egg layers I could let them run with the pure breed stocks and could gather their eggs cause the colour would be so dark, there could be no mistake with telling who is who when it comes to egg gathering. Ya....again Uno, good topic that you have began and there will be many additions to it, this I would hope anyways. Wishes for a wonderful and awesome day to us all, CynthiaM.
ps, I have some but have never used it because I have been mite free for about 12 years due to using dusting powder in coop when I clean each time. Either that or maybe it is because I am just so inhospitable that mites choose not to come near my place. 
