Red (Black) mites

[tlck9]

Another souffle egg, things are hopefully starting to turn around...no soft eggs for the last couple of days and no sign of red mite (but then its rained for a week!)

so fingers crossed

[Sug]

Red Mites

Nippon ant powder - did the job for us. The little blighters don't like it. Puff it everywhere, even mix it in the chickens dust bath. We also creosoted the ends of the perches so the mites would have to cross it to get to the chickens. Also puff it into the bedding.

[frias]

I'm glad Nippon kills something. The ants around here come armed with cutlery so they can eat the Nippon quicker.

[di]

Does it definately have no detrimental side effects if eaten by the chooks?

[womble]

I posted this on another thread and it was suggested I post it here.

I'm sure I'm not the first person to have thought of this, but atm I am struggling to deal with a massive invasion of red mite, one thing I came up with, was to put a little vaseline on each end of the perch, then wrap a loop of upside down duct tape over it, so the sticky side was pointing out from the perch.
This catches them both underneath and on top of the tape.



Glad it's not just me this year, I think I brought the mites in on new birds, I have been using a household steam cleaner as well, this has been going on now for 2 weeks since I first noticed the problem. My fault, I should have been more alert to it, but I've never had them in these numbers before.
Every day I take off the roof and steam clean all the cracks, the onduline roof was infested as well, not only where I overlapped the sheets (whoops) but also where the dips in the single sheet meet the roof, so onduline isn't infallible.

I've been trying to think of the perfect coop design and will be going with the sheet sided approach myself when the time comes to build another, why oh why does every house for sale come with tongue and grove sides?

Adding it up I can buy a coop for the same price as buying all the materials myself, it doesn't make alot of sense.

I'll have a read through the whole thread to get some ideas. I've just been outside for an hour squashing any mites I see, been doing that for a week now and it's definately way better tonight, still way too many tiny immature mites, I don't know where the hell they hide in the daytime.

Sorry about the long post

[Hilary B]

Sterling Board is cheaper than external-grade ply, and does the job just as well. I doubt the chook house you can buy for the price of the materials would be nearly as good as you can make.
I would be inclined to attempt to STICK felt down onto the roof, all over, with bituminous stuff, so that there is NO gap between felt and under-layer. The normal approach of nailing it on is an open invitation to all sorts of undersirables (in the case of a chook-house, mites).
If you can't find anything that will stick firmly enough (and I'm not sure what there is, not having had to make one in ages), a mono-pitch roof of Sterling Board (or marine ply) will probably be weather-proof if given a few coats of bituminous paint, and re-painted annually.
The last chook house we had was a corrugated iron shed, with a wooden floor, the nest box was a wooden box we just happened to have handy, and the perch was a bit of 2"x2", secured where the sides had supporting 'rails'.

[womble]

Well I bought some creosote light (whatever that is) last week and finally got around to painting the coop with it. A revelation! All mites running for it as soon as the first fumes hit the wood. I painted it then squashed as many as I could find.
Definitely the way to go.

[colliebird]

The subject of the dreaded mites is also on the thread "Hen house cleaning regime"

I've had my chooks since last September and never had mites until this past 10 days. I had been bitten many times and although I deflea my dogs regularly, I thought it was fleas. Mistake! I found literally clusters of thousands of mites on my hens perch. I've been scrubbing the perches every day since and spraying them with flea/insect spray, and the following morning I find them all dead.
Tomorrow morning I've got someone coming to help completely clear, spray, and dis-infest the coop. I've been using deep litter that is only changed every few months (poos taken out regularly though). I'm now wearing a plastic shower cap and an old
cotton coat when I go in the coop because the mites were getting in my hair, and it's
giving me the screaming pieackers!
The coop will be emptied, sprayed with Poultry Shield then sprayed everywhere with StrikeBack, only newspapers put on the floor and the place dusted with Diatom. I'm now so paranoiac about mites, I'm undressing in the utility room and putting the clothes in the washing machine immediately. I've been finding the mites on the shower cap so that goes in the machine as well.
I've just resprayed the perch with insecticide.
Does anyone with an Omelet chicken house also have red mites?

[SuzyB]

Ive been thinking about changing my hen house, which is felt roofed etc, and tricky to clean without squeezing in to it which gives me the heebie jeebies as Im sure things are dropping on to me from the ceiling so I want better access. In the meantime Ive cleared out my shed to allow half of it to become new home, then thought, why not leave them in there, tonnes more space. Would this be better for them, or would I still have the same problem do you think, only on a larger scale? Shed is 6' x 8' and at the moment I have just the four chickens. Is it daft to think the mite will have further to travel from to get to them so it hopefully wont be as bad for them? Ideally I want to find a house with a lift off lid so I have full access for cleaning.

[RichmondHens]

If the shed has not had chickens in it before then it won't currently have mite in it, so your hens will be fine in there. However, at some stage the mite will find them, although chances are not this year, as the mites will become less active as the weather gets colder. If your birds are happy in the shed, then leave them in there, and this will give you the opportunity to totally clean out and Creocote your existing house from top to bottom, and let it dry thoroughly before allowing the birds back in. I would also suggest removing the felt roof and replacing with something less mite-friendly. I agree that a lift-off lid, or one hinged from the top, so you have top access, is great for cleaning out, handling birds at night etc. All ours are top accessible (they are all home made) and makes cleaning a dream (in fact I'd rather clean out one of our houses than muck out my kids' bedrooms!).

[di]

Give me cleaning out the chooks over our house anyday,at least all the mess just goes straight on the fire or compost...no putting away millions of things that have no place!

On the subject of "is a shed better"...our main problem coop was/is an altered shed,I like the fact that it's walk~in,but certainly hasn't meant our mite problem was easier.We've now got two converted sheds...in use & a homemade smaller coop that our boys are currently in.The plan is to keep them all & when there's no chicks/cocks that need coop three it can be temporary housing for when we need to re creocote the sheds.(we also have a little ply cube that Andi made as a broody coop,as soon as the chicks are big enough to be mixed with the others this will be given a coat of creosote...ready for next year!

[Willonthewall]

This is a brilliant thread and has made me ask myself all sorts of questions SWMBO wants some "rescue hens", probably 8 or 10, and wants me to build a coop. The construction isn't a problem, but after reading this thread I've decided to make it modular so I can easily dismantle it for thorough cleaning. Anyway - enough waffle - my question for the experienced amongst you is---- is there a plastic liner or smooth finished product which I can use to line it to minimise hidey holes for those foul sounding critters?

[MaureenHall]

This is a brilliant thread and has made me ask myself all sorts of questions SWMBO wants some "rescue hens", probably 8 or 10, and wants me to build a coop. The construction isn't a problem, but after reading this thread I've decided to make it modular so I can easily dismantle it for thorough cleaning. Anyway - enough waffle - my question for the experienced amongst you is---- is there a plastic liner or smooth finished product which I can use to line it to minimise hidey holes for those foul sounding critters?

If money was no object for me, I'd line a completely creocoted shed with Formica, seal up the joints with silicone sealant, and make some ventilation holes near the top with those plastic insert thingies sealed in place. The floor would be covered with lino that could be moved out for cleaning. Then every cleaning day, it'd be washed down with Smite.

Is it my turn to win the lottery this week?

[Willonthewall]

OK Maureen
Is there a cheaper option?

[icornish]

Hi all,

OK, we discovered our little red mite problem last Saturday, despite the usual rigourous cleaning regime...
Puffed the birds, scrubbed the coop on Sunday, and the blighters were back on Monday.
Tuesday, in the rain when I was recovering from a cold, I got some creocote and a brush... WOW... I could see them running a mile from the stuff. It was wierd - they were coming out of the woodwork (pun intended!) like there was no tomorrow (and for them, there wasn't). I put the birds into a very large cat carrying box for the night - tight for them, but they didn't get nibbled in the night.
It's now Thursday, and the smell has disippated, so we've let the birds back in, and they are very happy...

I think CreoCote is a good preventative answer, though does not remove the need for regulate cleaning etc.

My next step is to remove the felt from the roof permanently, and replace it with some thing else, perhaps that wavey plastic stuff used for carport roofs, and add a little gutter /water butt solution.