Red mite erradication plan!

[chickadee]

Well infested in my wooden couple which is tiny to say the least but never the less not mite free! So been out today and bought:
A sulphur candle, Diatom, Poultry shield & Mite kill powder for on the bird plus poultry spice.

My plan of action today is:
Thoroughly empty out bedding and discard, scrub coupe with dettol, remembering to spray in all nooks and crannys etc!

I have prepared a box for my 4 birds to stop in my house overnight whilst I let the sulphur candle do its stuff over night. I will dust the birds with mite kill powder.

In the morning, I will open coupe, nest box pophole to allow ventilation back in, spray thoroughly with Poultry shield into everywhere, when thats dry, I will dust the diatom into nooks/crannys and bedding etc!

Is there anything else? Anything I have missed? Do I need to change bedding and spray with poultry sheid every 7 days until I see no more red mites?

Thanks for any help, I can't stand the thought of my birds being bitten each night with these horrid critters
Tina
x

[Suechooks]

Read the thread "Black mites and bubbly breathing". There's masses of advice there from all the experienced Grapes.

[chickadee]

Ahh Just read that thread, thanks Sue
I've just checked and there are millions all crawling out of the nooks and cranny's cos i've sprayed, yuck
Hopefully by tomorrow afternoon, there will be a lot less! Hope my girls will be okay tonight also in the down stairs loo same as lizzy's!
Tina
x

[RichmondHens]

At our old place we didn't have as many outbuildings as we have here and on one occasion had to keep an injured cock in our downstairs loo (middle of winter, all sheds full of junk or just not waterproof). All fine, he didn't seem to mind at all and as he had injured leg spent most of his time sitting still ............until 5 am when he decided to start crowing! I put up with it for about 5 days until decided he was well "enough" to go back to the hen house!

[MaureenHall]

May be a belt and braces approach, but I played a blowtorch (the kitchen sort ) over all the surfaces of the coops and paid particular attention to the corners, screw heads, bolt threads etc just in case. That was 2 days ago. Each morning I've checked the perches and sprayed again with concentrated red mite stuff but haven't seen any sign since I did the big treatment

[Bramble-Poultry]

Dont forget under the roofing felt if there is any - seems to be a favorite hiding place for them!

[di]

Also,if your nestboxes are on a table type affair,check between the tops of the legs & the ledge...they thought they'd found their ideal hiding place there in ours...in their millions!...that was until I zapped them!
Touch wood,all our efforts seem to be working so far,but even so,for the rest of the summer I'll be spraying the known/previous problem areas daily & giving the whole coop a thorough spray every week.
Good News is,all eggs were in the nestbox today & none in the tyre,so they obviously feel the benefits & are comfy again!