Red (Black) mites

[di]

I must have been asleep that day!

Or on the wine!!!

We're still battling with our main girls shed!
By the time we've finished I doubt there'll be any coop left...after burning a sulphur candle in there for hours,they were still alive!We ripped out the nestbox table & under the legs & all joins were mountains of the things.
The other coops seem fine,even the one Dandelion started her broodiness in is now clear,but it has far less nooks & crannies for them to hide.
Our plan is for Andi to build a new coop with plywood,keeping it as simple as possible,with all interior fixings removable.
We'll then creocote the present coop & keep it for when the need arises for temporary accomodation for either sets of girls.

[frias]

I'm only on my second glass. They are great though, these glasses that hold a whole bottle! I'm off to do my check of the coop by torchlight in a minute. Tis the beauty of having the girls in the garden although not as much room as a lottie. Also means I don't have to drive, which is just as well.

[di]

I'd had several the night we had to find the teens dotted about everywhere(friends wedding & Andi was the driver)...so much more fun after a few!

[BFG]

You could maybe try a wallpaper stripper for an improvised hand held steam cleaner? I've thought about using mine on weeds before, but it's easier just to pull them.

[Suechooks]

Has anyone tried using a sprayer for Creocote? I was thinking of one of those that you can spray fences with. It'd make it easier to get into the crooks and nannies like above the Onduline etc. I poured the stuff down any crevices and it definitely has worked but not being complacent so I'm still spraying them out weekly with Poultry Shield and doing the perches each morning, and using Diatom powder.

[MaureenHall]

I used one of the fence sprayers you can get from Asda - don't bother!! I splodged more on my floor and down my arms than went on the shed! It took me 2 full containers of Creocote to do 1 6x4 shed (that was inside and outside) and I finished off the last couple of walls using a brush

[Suechooks]

I used one of the fence sprayers you can get from Asda - don't bother!! I splodged more on my floor and down my arms than went on the shed! It took me 2 full containers of Creocote to do 1 6x4 shed (that was inside and outside) and I finished off the last couple of walls using a brush

Thanks Mo - that's saved me £20! I've done all my huts and not used 2 containers!

[SuzyB]

Im going to creocote the coop, but there's just so many nooks and crannys though, looking at it today I just thought surely its a losing battle.

It makes me cringe thinking of my girls in there, last night they all tried to huddle in the nesting boxes, probably because I'd not put wood shavings down in the house, just newspaper. This morning when I moved the perches etc, there were still groups of mites but not half as many. Some were wriggling around in the red mite powder, laughing and waving their damn mite legs at me saying 'ya hoo, this powder doesnt work!'.

[Suechooks]

Im going to creocote the coop, but there's just so many nooks and crannys though, looking at it today I just thought surely its a losing battle.

It makes me cringe thinking of my girls in there, last night they all tried to huddle in the nesting boxes, probably because I'd not put wood shavings down in the house, just newspaper. This morning when I moved the perches etc, there were still groups of mites but not half as many. Some were wriggling around in the red mite powder, laughing and waving their damn mite legs at me saying 'ya hoo, this powder doesnt work!'.

Don't worry it will get better specially if you're going to Creocote it. I poured it into any deep crooks and nannies and let it run behind anything I couldn't unscrew! Diatom certainly helps too in combo with the Poultry Shield. Burn the used newspapers and bedding if you can.

[chickadee]

Hi Di,
Of course the candle was burning all night, well from about 4,30pm, it didn't go out until about 7am, put my alarm on at 4.30am to check and take it out then had to go back to bed cos still burning!

Candle was out at 7am and I tried to keep chicks out but cos I left pop hole and front window/door open to ventilate all 3 layers crept in at around 11 to lay eggs! The smell was still really strong and after they had laid I made sure they didnt go in till their bed time at around 9pm but I did leave the pop hole open all night cos I was scared I might kill them but it only opens into their run!

There all fine and it only killed the mites Although, I'm still keeping on top of the situation with poultry shield and diatom powder weekly, i haven't seen any as yet!
Hope this helps,
Tina
x

[Bramble-Poultry]

i must admit that this year has been really bad for red mite. we normally keep on top of any problems here, as any new arrivals go into the "quarantine" run and get dosed up for lice, mites scaly leg etc.

But this year it has been rife on some runs. The only way we managed to get on top of it was to perform a "deep clean" as Maureen does, then every week we go around each run with a knapsack sprayer and wash them all down with Smite.

Even then, i changed over a pop hole and when i took off the runners the little swines were behind there. I think that its a combination of warmer weather, coupled with our move into the countryside that has brought the wild birds out to us and as soon as we can clear it up the dear little sparrows drop some more!

We will always have lice and mites here as we take in unwanted birds and if they are unwanted you can guarantee that delousing and mite treatment was not high in the previous owners list of things to do, however, we do keep all our main runs clear of infections as best we can with regular husbandry, just every now and then someone throws a curve ball!

We learnt a lesson buying some birds at the Penkridge specialist auction from a "reputable" breeder with a very good name in the circles - when we got the Pekins home they were constantly itiching. PIcked them up and pulled back the feathers to reveal hundreds of lice and mites crawling everywhere, so like any normal person we were out on the front driveway washing the birds and delousing them. So even the "best" in the business seem to have lice! Having said that - there was no excuse for the state of these birds. i will not be buying birds from her again.

[RichmondHens]

Bramble - I'm constantly amazed at the conditions I see birds kept in. A lot of people it is true have no idea their birds have a problem. I've pointed out scaley leg to people and they've looked surprised and said they didn't know the birds had it (!!!!). There are also those who say "oh my chickens never get parasites ........ " with a shocked look like I was accusing them of having the plague.

But there is really no excuse for breeders with extensive knowledge to let their birds suffer unnecessarily. It's just passing the problem on to the newbie chicken keeper who doesn't know any better. They should be selling clean birds and making sure the buyers know what to do to prevent parasites. The trouble is, a lot of folk are just out to make a quick buck these days and just don't care.

There, I've had my rant, will go away now. Sorry folks!

[Bramble-Poultry]

Richmond its not a rant and i'm sure its a feeling echoed by all of us here who love and care for our birds properly, It just ends up a really steep learning curve for newbies who buy from places with mite.

[tlck9]

how long do you have to keep the chucks out if you treat with fence preserver, or this creosote?

Also, what do you do about them needing to go in and lay their eggs if you've locked them out - mine wont go near home made nest boxes

[RichmondHens]

Well, to be perfectly honest, if they are desperate they will lay in the run. It's not ideal, and you have to be on hand to get the eggs so they don't get tempted to peck them, but for one day it's not the end of the world.

if you treat the house early on a warm day, it should be dry by dusk. Our houses are built like boxes so we just treat the corners and perches/slats - the bare planes of the walls and floor are fine left untreated. But if you have a house/ark that is a bit more "designer" with more hidey holes for mite then all the cracks need to be done too.

It won't hurt the hens not to go in their house for one day - it's worth it to get rid of the mite.