Oh my girl, this is a very terrible thing to be hearing and I can totally understand where you are coming from. Do not despair. Those mites can come from anywhere, and yes, they can come from birds dropping a few off as they fly around and worse, if the scratch in the henyard, anywhere, anytime. I do not know anything of red mite, I thought I had always dealt with northern fowl mite, but who knows, maybe I had red mite too. The story I have is so long and convoluted that I really don’t want to retype information, but I made a post about my dealings with the northern mite last year. I am going to look for that post and I am going to copy the information and paste it in here for you. I had the most horrible outbreak and it sickened me to my very soul. I never knew I had it so badly, sigh.....hold on, going to search for the post now...couldn’t find that post here, but found it on another forum I belong to. This topic was made last fall and I know I had the mite. Now whether it was red or northern mite, I have no clue, and I really need to find out what on earth is the difference, how that can be ascertained and how to deal with either, effectively. I don’t think dealings will EVER be permanent, because they can come from other fowl “passing through” and there are lots of birds in this world, smiling.
I thank you Dawn, for you experience, smiling. You have taught us something extremely valuable by your awful situation. And that is to keep working on keeping our chickens predation free, be that from internal and external bugs, to predation that wants to end the life by eating or just killing our birds. Anyways. I spent a few good minutes find the post and here it is below, in quote, bold. PopsCoops was the one that turned me on to ectiban and it is a relatively safe product to use. I remember it said to spray every nook and cranny, leave chickens outside for an hour, that’s all, and then they can go back in. I believe also that the product can be used as a spray, it will kill all those little freakers. Personally I think a dump in a Rubbermaid and then then blowdried would be most effective, smiling that evil smile. Don’t give up girl. You have come a long ways, baby, and to give up now.....I don’t think so. If you want I can share. This bottle of ectiban was over $100 for it. Right. I am reading now on the container the bottle is in that I wrote down instructions in permanent ink. I always write the equations down on things after I figure them out if I need to for dilution. It says for mites, as a spray for the birds -- 20 ml to 10 litres, pretty standard, even in the garden pest (this is a fly killer product, by the way, used in milk houses, etc., pretty safe stuff I guess, if you call chemicals safe), as a mister 25 ml to 75 ml water, covers 100m squared).
I wish I could find the post that was active here, on this forum -- PopsCoops was involved with it and he was the one that suggested Ectiban 25 for use to eradicate this nasty, freakin’ bug. I never did put any of the ectiban 25 on my birds, but used eprinex. Honestly, I really don’t have a clue if they are invested again, or not, but surely must get on the task of finding out, most certainly, smiling.
I have typed out the instructions that are on the outside of the box where the glass bottle of ectiban 25 lives.....smiling. These are in quotes below:
Ectiban 25 fly killer
Directions for use: Residual premise spray: for milking parlours and holding rooms, poultry houses, stables, swine and livestock housing to control fleas and stable.
Dilute sprayer – dilute 20 ml of ecitban 25 with 2.5 lt of water and apply to 100 m squared of structural surface.
Electric mist sprayer, dilute 20 ml of ecitban 25 with 75 ml, diesel oil or water for each 100 m squared to be sprayed. Direct spray at surface from a distance of 2 to 2.4 meters while spraying. WHERE A CARTRIDGE OR DUST MASK TO AVOID BREATHING SPRAY MIST. Regular. Remove animals before spraying and leave an hour interval before re-entry.
The use of any residual fly spray should be supplemented with proper sanitation including eliminatation of fly breeding sites. Do not apply the above spray mixes directly to animals or poultry. Follow directions below for direct application for livestock and poultry. Do not spray where food or feed products are present. Do not apply as a space treatment. Do not contaminate milk or milk handling equipment. In dairies apply when not in operation. Thoroughly clean all milk utensils before resuming operations.
Poultry: Northern fowl mites, rate:200 ml with 100 litres (20 ml to 10 litres) of water in a sprayer. Apply 4 litres of spray mix to each 100 birds. Spray from below to ensure thorough treatment of vent area. Do not slaughter within 7 days of treatment.
post #23
This is the copied post from the other forum.
OK, here we go, it is coming to fall, getting cool outside, but the henhouses are still warm.
I was taking a rooster to get help to learn how to humanely put him down. He had gotten into some mouse poisoning about a week ago. Despite all my efforts, even vitamin k injections, he was on death's door this morning when I went to let the chickens out. When a bird is down on the ground, not getting up, you know that it is close. I packed him up in a box and off I went. I had intention of dispatching him in a humane manner (if there is ever any humane manner to off a bird). When I got to the instructor's home, the bird was dead. Darn, I wanted to learn how to disptach with no blood, quick and painless death. Well, there will be another time that I will have this demonstrated.
I had carried the box to beneath a tree and left the bird there until I was finished looking at my friend's birds. When it was time to go, I carried this box yet for another couple of minutes. This was dreadful, I didn't realize he was that close to death, but he was.
Anyways, on the way home I felt like I had little itchinesses going on. Would scratch the ichiness and knew I had felt that same feeling before. When I had an infestation of the northern mite that I didn't realize I had.
I should add to this. I used liquid lice/mite control on my birds a couple of times a year, putting it on their necks and I also hang no pest strips in my coops. I try to keep on top of the sucking insect scene, I never dreamed that I had the freaky little mites back again. It is no wonder though. All summer long there are free birds, like the ones that fly around from everywhere, stop in to eat a little around the areas where the chickens live and forage in the open areas, so very plausible that they bring these little freaky mites to our place. I thought that I had them under control, using the no pest strip and liquid mite/lice control stuff, along with nice dust bathing areas.
When I got home, I took the box out of the car and noticed what looked like hundreds of little greyish dots all over one corner of the top of the box. Upon closer examination it was those horrible and nasty teeny tiny northern mites (no bigger than a dot on a computer screen......maybe even a little smaller. The northern mite attack again!!!! Oh no.
I guess that these mites must have crawled onto the bird, as he was laying on the coop floor. His body cooled down in the box after death and they then were looking for a better place. Go figure, why the top of a box would be a nice place to go, but they did go there. These mites, the bird and the box have been correctly disposed of.
So....think about things. We are heading into winter and it is time to ensure that the birds are going into winter, mite and lice free. They are going to be spending a whole lotta time inside. Get your mite controls in place (and lice too), we need to be prepared for a long winter with the birds mostly inside, especially where the snow runs deep.
I purchased some ectiban today from our feed mill store. I am on a rampage to get rid of these little pukies before they get even worse. Armed with the liquid lice/mite control to put on the chickens' necks, the no pest strips, which still should be active, and ectiban to fog/spray the coops. Then and only then will I clean out the coops, once I feel the pest are under control. I cannot picture myself in the coops, removing mountains of shavings/poop/dirt unless these little critters are all gone. I know the length of time that I will spend in their cleaning, and I ain't about to be bombarded by hundreds of teeny, tiny northern mites crawling all over my teeny tiny body, just ain't goin' there.
So be aware, it is the time of year to get these things all under control. Work to do, but worth it in the end. Have a wonderful and great day, CynthiaM.
So, you honestly have been living with this for a long time on the birds. If you wait a couple of more days, it will make not a single hoot of difference, sorry to say this, but true. I would wait and get some ectiban from somewhere, I am sure it is available in your area, or wait, I could send you down some by Greyhound bus on Monday, it would be overnight delivery....I would do that for you, girl. Just some thoughts, before you throw in the towel and give up on poultry, smiling again. You are one tough cookie, you can do it, you will get through this, yet another ordeal. And now I am wondering if you had issues with your birds that were mite related, not sickness, as you had previously thought...thoughts here. Have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.
I'm sending hugs, for whatever their worth.
Kill them little buggers!!!
. Think of how your experience will help others that are new and unarmed with a whole lot of knowledge. You can do it, get out the big guns and blast them all to the universe and back!! Good luck, rooting for you, have a great day, you can do that, you know, CynthiaM.
