Where growing, making & good living come together

I really hate red mites

Posted by on Thursday 12 May 2011 in chickens | 7 comments

Last night, our chickens gave us a bit of a scare.

The chickens are generally very good at taking themselves to bed in good time. I think with the exception of a hen or two on one or two occasions when there has been a disruption late in the day, they all tuck themselves away well before dusk. They’re so good that we generally don’t feel the need to check on them every night. (If they are left out, they’re relatively safe in the reasonably fox-resistant run anyway.)

So, anyway, last night. As I was going to bed, I heard a chicken clucking considerably louder than I should have done – she was clearly out of the coop and a more than a little perturbed. Remembering a story from my chicken keeping course, my first thought was “fox!” — had one got into the coop and scared them out? We ran down and looked around but couldn’t see any problems. We put the (mostly asleep) chickens back into the coop and then went to bed ourselves – but I was worried that I’d wake up to the aftermath of a fox attack – a night of anxious dreams. Now though, I suspect the culprit was equally red but a lot smaller.

In the same way the chickens are good at taking themselves to bed, I consider myself pretty good at keeping on top of red mites. I dust the chickens with powder regularly and keep a close eye on the coop – checking & cleaning all the regular spots just about every day. The problem is that I focused on “the regular spots”… When I got down there this morning, the chickens were all mingling in the run as happy as normal but when I started to poke around the coop, I realised there was quite a red mite infestation — in the regular spots, in the litter, in the nest boxes (which hadn’t been a problem before). Not a good situation at all.

Contrary to their behaviour and expressions sometimes, chickens aren’t stupid and if they’re being bitten silly by pests during the night, they’re not going to subject themselves to that night after night — I now think rather than a door malfunction or something spooking them before bedtime, they might have chosen to spend the night in the open rather than face the mites again. We’ve not really had a huge drop off in eggs or egg quality to suggest serious anaemia but it can’t have been comfortable. Poor girls.

So I’ve been busy cleaning this morning. I brought forward one of my May mini goals – to pressure clean the coop inside and out – and after removing all the litter & bedding, blasted the heck out of the coop. I don’t have any photos of doing it because I didn’t want a camera anywhere near all that water and flying filth but let me tell you, it was a very messy job. I ended up soaked from head to foot but the mess wasn’t the worst of it – I ended up covered in red mites too. They weren’t biting me but the crawling was so itchy, the crawling in my hair unbelievably frustrating. (Even after a twice-as-long-as-normal shower, I still feel itchy – although I think it’s just the memory!)

As I said above, I’m good on keeping on top of the usual red mite spots – the perches & supports, and around the door & removable side etc – but I also jetsprayed the corners at every join (eg the wall & floor) as I’d seen some mites there in the litter. The big surprise to me though was the amount of mites hiding behind, for example, the horizontal support beams on the door — a whole cloud of grey mites flew out when I sprayed against a gap I didn’t even know existed. That made me realise that my “usual spots” were just a fraction of the problem and I ended up taking apart coop as much as I could (including the nest boxes) and spraying **absolutely everywhere**. All the advice I’ve read over the years said “red mites get everywhere” but I didn’t quite believe it until I saw it. I pressure cleaned every millimetre of that coop.

I jetsprayed everywhere inside, then swept out all the excess water and dirt, cleaned the outside, then sprayed the inside. After that all dried, I applied powders & potions to the coop as well as adding clean bedding & straw. Tomorrow, I’ll powder the chickens again and I’ve already added a poultry supplement in their food for the next few days and some dry dirt to the run so they can dust bathe. I’ll do it all again on Sunday to hopefully remove any colonies that survived today’s dosing and will keep a much closer eye on things from now on.

I feel awful that the many many mites may have ousted the chickens from their home, especially as it could have been prevented with more vigilance and a better understanding that everywhere really does mean EVERYWHERE. Still, lesson very much learnt (and, on the plus side, mini goal ticked off). I’ve also added more things to my list of features for our next chicken coop.

Have you had any major problems with red mites? What did you use to get rid of them? Any advice for ongoing suppression?

One idea I did have when I was scrubbing-scrubbing-scrubbing in the shower: would it be possible/practical/safe to silicone seal around all the timber joints etc in the coop to prevent red mite colonies forming? Has anyone tried that? Any other hideyhole minimising advice?

Other posts you might like:

Chicken coop to-dos Automatic chicken coop door Chickens! Optical Illusion

7 Comments

Join the conversation and post a comment.

  1. damnthebroccoli
    13 May, 2011 at 12:42 pm

    Use silicon carefully. Avoid anything anti mould as it has some particularly nasty chemical that can off gas, use aquarium if you have to.

    I have not yet had any probs with red mite that I am aware of but it is only a bit of time. I am not even too sure what I am looking for but check the girls regularly. One excellent tip I did hear is at the ends of the roost bar, wrap double sided carpet tape around the bar. Mites only crawl onto the birds and can’t get over the tape. This also acts as an indicator as the mites stick to the tape.
    The tape needs replacing periodically as it will get dusty and dirty and lose tack but it is a useful little tip.
    Also mix mite powder in a dust bath so they keep themselves dusted is another little tip I have gleaned from reading.

    I have not tried dusting mine yet as I am a bit against premedicating if unnecessary and so far I haven’t seen any signs of mites, but when it happens I will start, if you wanted to post any advice on doing this it would be nice!

    Reply
    • louisa
      13 May, 2011 at 7:38 pm

      Thanks for the silicone advice – I might try it if I can find that aquarium stuff. I’m also going to tighten up all the screws etc to minimise the cracks.

      I like the double sided tape idea too – simple but it should minimise it.

      Lucky you for not having any red mite problems yet – I have plenty to spare if you’d like to share the experience ;)

      I was really disappointed to see how many were still in the coop this morning after all my hard work & powdering yesterday so got serious and *sigh* sprayed insecticide in there this afternoon. I didn’t want to get chemical but in another way, I’m glad I did because the amount of corpses that fell out of the cracks afterwards was absolutely staggering. I’m going to try to keep on top of it with the diatom earth (see below) and Poultry Shield spray – but I doubt those alone would have been enough to firefight now. *sigh* though.

      Reply
  2. Hazel
    13 May, 2011 at 6:31 pm

    I had this problem once, and it isn’t pleasant. I also ended up scrubbing in the shower (with clothes- I didn’t want to get the mites on the floor!). It still makes me itch to think about it!

    They do hide in all sorts of places where you won’t find them, so don’t feel bad. I ended up blow torching mine- like the pressure washing but more crackly!

    I would say don’t bother painting the house with gloss paint. Sounds like a good suggestion, but actually it bubbles, flakes and just gives them more places to hide…

    Good luck!

    Reply
    • louisa
      13 May, 2011 at 7:43 pm

      I’d thought about a blow torch actually – but they were in so many places I hadn’t expected that I probably wouldn’t have done a very good job with it anyway. They make such a pop sound when you squish them, I bet the crackling was frightening!

      Thanks for the gloss paint anti-recommendation — the coop will need treating/painting soon but I’ll strike that from the list of possibilities!

      Reply
  3. louisa
    13 May, 2011 at 7:31 pm

    Kate from Living the Frugal Life is having problems commenting on the site but emailed me to say:

    I wanted to chime in and recommend diatomaceous earth. So long as you get the food grade stuff, and not the kind that’s sold for swimming pool filters, it’s extremely safe and good to have on hand for a variety of uses. I scatter it around the coop and the nesting boxes, and also put a lot of it in a cat litter tray, along with a large flat rock, and put that in the chickens’ pen. The rock is there so they don’t flip the whole thing over. They dust bathe in it from time to time, and keep themselves mite free in that way. It’s also good for slugs and snails in the garden, and I hear it can even be used against bedbugs, should you ever (god forbid!) get an infestation of those.

    Our local feed store doesn’t stock diatom earth but I’ve ordered some online so hope to start using it soon, thanks so much for the recommendation Kate :)

    Reply
  4. Mariaelena Quale
    12 April, 2012 at 3:47 pm

    Hi there. I think we’re having a problem with red mites in our home too. I can still feel them crawling on my hair. How long did it take until it was eradicated from your home/body? What did you do? We are washing all bedding everyday, our clothes, taking showers. It is getting ridiculous! Thanks.

    Reply
  5. Roger Walker
    25 September, 2012 at 8:22 pm

    The only way to keep Red Mites under control is to annually strip down your hen coop and paint it with a good coat of Creosote (preferably mixed with some old engine oil!). You will have to house your hens somewhere else for about a week until the smell dies down but this method is the only proven way to keep these pests at bay ! It also keeps your coop well waterproofed and in good order …

    Reply

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *