Ack! Mites!!

I strongly suspect my chickens have mites. This afternoon I noticed one of my silkie Roos sitting off by himself up by the house. One of hi eyes would not open. I picked him up to get a closer look at the eye and saw tiny little bugs wandering around on his face! Yuck!

This evening I was collecting eggs and felt something crawling on my arm Mites! YUCK now I am panicking.

I looked at the eggs in my buckt and they are crawling with tiny dots!

How could I not have noticed this before today?

I have done some reading and suspect northern fowl mites, but just wanted to see what others thought too.

My plan is to clean out the coop first. I have DE, dusting powder and Seven powder. What would be best to use?

Should I powder the birds? With what?

Any input is appreciated.

I had this a while ago and this was the advice i was given. Check them also for lice...look around the vent area.. If just mites use seven dusting powder..wear a mask and protective clothing cause it is messy. I used an old nylon stocking as a duster. I took out all the old bedding and litter on the floor. Sprinkled DE all around the edges and inside the nesting boxes. Lastly a dusting area with wood ash, DE and dirt/sand.

If you have lice as well, treat with a few drops on each bird of Ivermectin drench... But there was just another post about Eprenex ....my knowledge other than that is limited...others should respond with other/better options

Do a search on this forum for mites, eprinex or frontline and you will get lots of info. I always search first, to see if it's a topic that has already been covered.

Yes, do a search.

Frankly, DC Chick, those powders are old school. There are products available that are so much better that I would not even waste my time with them.

Get thee to a hardware store, buy thee a NO PEST strip and hang that thing in your hen house!

But yes, do a search.

DE is what I use. I throw down a box filled with straight DE in the middle of the coop and shut the door. They'll get in there and dust themselves AND the coop while they are at it.

don't panic, it is a nasty thing to discover but most of us had had an outbreak at one time or another and I think it is just a matter of getting it under control.
I think DE is great for keeping mites down on a regular basis but if you have them on the eggs you should use something a bit more direct, like the dusting powder or Ivermectin products.

After over five hours of work today my coop is CLEAN. I shoveled it out then swept. After that I took the shop vac out and vacuumed all around the edges and even sucked up the cob webs up high.

Then I removed the roosts one by one finding under each one and behind all the supports thousands of little red mites. As I found these I sprinkled them with Seven and then sucked them up with the shop vac.

I powdered all the roost surface and put them back up. All the next ones were scraped scale an and dusted with Seven too. Then I sprinkled tons of DE EVERYWHERE and payed out nice new shavings.

Finally I hung No Pest strips and closed the windows and doors leaving only one pop up door open. My coop is two sides connected by a wire door. Each side is 100 square feet. Are two strips too many?

I am too tired to think right now, so do these sound like red mites or Northern Fowl mites. Or does it even matter?

Can I carry these things on me into the house and infest my house or are they species specific?

As soon as I was done I came in and showered, but I still feel crawly.

they wont live on you, only chickens I believe, although might crawl around a little bit trying to find another chicken,
Im sure a shower and your clothes in the wash should end it.

They're red roost mites. Do a google search, or search this site. Lots of info available. They live on chooks but will bite us. They thrive and multiply where birds live constantly.

Oh geeze, yes for sure the red mite. The northern mite lives on the birds, the red mite lives in the coop, behind and under boards, corners, crevices, just like what you saw. I had a friend that had a horrible infestation of that type, it was horrendous. But she got it under control. She dusted on a regular program and worked very hard. I think she is red mite free. I have only ever dealt with the northern mite. I now have that 100% under control, I know that and I can freely say that. Well, for now anyways. No issues this spring. last fall I worked ever so hard to erradicate the freakin' mites and it worked. I attribute it to the use of frontline and ectiban 20 for spraying in the coop on walls, roosts, etc.. Ectiban has a residual effect and helps to combat as well. i cannot use a no pest strip as my coops are too airy and large. But with the use of these two products, so far this year, no evidence, not even a single mite on the body of birds I check. I always say, so far, they can come in from birds wild, far and near and over there and over here. Glad you worked so hard. You must have been exhausted. When I read he had mites on his face, knew you had it really bad. You did right to your birds to work so hard to control this horrid bug. Keep it up, good thing and have an awesome day, CynthiaM.