They've arrived..........

[Floyd]

My first encounter with the bloody red mite.....wondered why the hens had stopped laying Looks like I'm in for a battle!

[kathyd]

Eww, hard luck . I had my first encounter this year too, not fun. Do you have a plan on how to get rid of them?

[Nicos]

Oh dear.

I have that dreaded feeling when I'm cleaning out my chooks....we've had them now for 4 years and so far not had red mite....my day will surely come

Let us know how you get on. What are you planning to do??

[Floyd]

I've removed the roof from the coop and am in the process of scrubbing the hell out of it at the moment. I'm sure this has been posted a thousand times on here, but it's really quite a shock to discover how many of the little beggars there actually are.....big lesson learned!

I'm looking into the slightly leftfield approach of buying some 'predator mites' and seeing how that works....I'm not a huge fan of chemical treatments and if I'm honest, I actually like the idea of giving the red mites a taste of their own medicine

Has anyone tried using these predators and with any success? The internet articles which I've read seem quite encouraging as to their effectiveness.

[Floyd]

Well that was certainly an education! Spent all day scrubbing the coop with a mix of vinegar, washing up liquid and boiling water. Every time I scrubbed a panel more of the damn things came piling out of the joints to be met with a blowtorch and another scrubbing until after about 3 hours of this the numbers had diminished to a few stragglers. I'd already given up on the predator mites idea by this point, instead I reached for the creosote substitute and a brush which brought more of them dashing out to their sticky doom.
It's humbling to realise that no matter how much you read about red mite and other people's experiences with them, it's impossible to grasp the sheer numbers of the things which can lay hidden away in what you think is a clean coop until you actually experience it.....quite literally thousands of them, not counting the several 100 which were legging it up and down my arms and legs as I worked. Just hoping I've got them all but I'm not holding my breath!

One thing I have learned from this is that I would never recommend anyone to buy the same style of coop as mine. They seem to built with an aim at us newbie chicken keepers who see a nice aesthetically pleasing looking design for the garden and don't realise the potential problems down the line.
http://www.chickencoopsdirect.com/im...ssex-thumb.png

There's just too many panels involved in the construction and every single joint was just a hiding place for mites.

[Monstaink]

if you have removed the roof you could go down the gas torch scorch route that helps eliminate, on another note have a read of my thread entittled creosote.

good luck on getting rid

[Floyd]

I used a blowtorch as well Monstaink....it produced an extremely satisfying popping noise as the little sods fried and removed a good 70% of my forearm hairs into the bargain!

[Monstaink]

sorry floyd but you have made me giggle lol, i just read up that u used a torch, it makes a good comeback when u hear them pop, as my article on creosote says i have never had them and never want them, but i have treated coops that have had them, my small holding backs onto a covering of over 50 allotments, and they are rip in them, so i must be doing something right. or i hope i am.

i just looked at the pic of your coop, and every time i see these style coops i think the same thing nice to the eye, but far too many joint/nooks and crannys to hide, good exterior ply, one piece reduces a load of hide holes.

[Floyd]

Seriously, they're a shocking design from any practical point of view (hindsight is a gift I'm blessed with!). They look nice in a garden but there are just too many joints and panels, plus without unscrewing the roof every time you have to hire a circus contortionist dwarf to clean them out properly.
I'm building another coop at the moment which is going to be purely inch thick plywood panels I rescued from under a botched parquet flooring job at work.....and a gallon of creosote/substitute!

[Monstaink]

2 things floyd, excellent rescue of the ply, i am fortunate i have a firm near me bins 3/4 ply from packing cases on a daily bases, i am now that bin lol, seconly love your choice of wording creoste/subsitute lol
have fun and let us know how you get on

[kathyd]

I fell for the back-garden type coop too. Hate it. When in the garden it leaked so much it was smothered with stapled-on sheets of polythene, the bottom fell out of the nest box, all the hinges broke and as you say you can't get in to clean properly. Definitely making one next time. I know we still have mites around, I'm just sincerely hoping that having protected the coop itself, the birds will now be safe....

[Glutton4...]

We repaired our Hen-house roof yesterday, as it had developed a leak. It's a 4' x 6' heavy-duty timber (tongue and groove) shed. (So heavy duty that we have to dismantle it to move it!) We found a few small colonies of mite, which I guessed we would. I used to use $m!t€ liquid but now have moved over to Diatom - excellent product. I fill a washing-up liquid bottle (not easy) and 'puff' it into the relevant gaps and other areas. I re-apply whenever I clean out the house, too - so far so good!

Good luck!

[Nicos]

Why not write to the manufacturers of the coop and run and ask what they advise on the removal of red mite from their coops?
It'd be interesting to see if they are even aware their design encourages the darned things to hide in and breed to their hearts content.

Might be a wake up call for them!

( you may even get some vouchers of something )

[Floyd]

I'll do that Nicos and keep you posted on their reply.....

[ancee]

WELL! How interesting is this post? - and just in time too! We were going to go and get that EXACT coop! It says on the blurb that it is the best for NOT getting spider mite - as felt roofs (rooves?) encourage spider mite and wooden slat ones don't! What a big liar! So guys, as a very new to this whole chicken/bantam malarkey what do you suggest or recommend? And also, more importantly what do you advise against? We wanted to get the whole thing set up, and have an area ready. We had the coop in mind and were going to put an extra extension run on it which we were going to build ourselves. So is wood not the way to go then? Hmm.... not impressed that I was very nearly duped! Thanks Grapes and Grapelets! xx