There are countless nesting opportunities for the bird mite in the chicken coop. They dwell in every little nook and cranny, in the litter and even in the insulation material. You rarely get a chance to see them during the day, but at night the party begins and your chickens are raided, falling prey to these bloodsuckers. There are countless breeding habitats in the henhouse. Especially popular are the warm, moist areas under the wings or around the cloaca, because these are the areas of the body with the richest blood supply.
5 tips to protect your chickens from red bird mites
23 July 2020 — by Jasmin Radel
One of the nastiest co-habitants in poultry farming is clearly the red bird mite. These nocturnal bloodsuckers are a mere millimeter in size, but they reproduce with gusto and wreak havoc in your chickens' coop life.
Here are 5 tips to help you handle this situation.
STOP - access for chickens and staff only
Mites and all kinds of other parasites like to make themselves at home in cracks, niches, crevices and gaps in walls and floors. Make it as difficult as possible for them by excluding these opportunities in the first place. This can be done quite easily, for example by sealing and caulking every nook and cranny with sanitary silicone from the hardware store.
White interior design is simply timeless
Lime paint was nearly forgotten. In former times, agricultural livestock premises were commonly whitewashed with special white lime paint (swamp lime). This "flushes" almost all pores and openings of the walls. The hygienic effect and the ability to embed and starve germs remains unsurpassed to this day. Lime paint made it almost impossible for parasites to survive in stables. Available in almost any hardware store, the powdery lime (not to be confused with the trendy chalk paint!) can be mixed with water and applied to cleaned and dry walls, floors and the ceiling of your chicken coop. Ideally, you should apply two coats of lime paint.
Let me quickly powder my mites
Now that the building is "secured", there are still roosts and nests that need to be "de-mited." For this you can use the special silica powder. The whitish or light gray powder consists mainly of the shells of fossil diatoms. These microscopically tiny but sharp edged shells damage the chitin armor of the smallest insects and arachnids. Afterwards, the powdery and efficient fat and liquid absorbing structure of the silica powder literally dries out the damaged pests.
No ducks allowed - bath reserved for chickens
Chickens love to bathe. Not in warm water with fragrant foam, but rather in sand and dust - and they still get clean. Fine sand and dusty soil trickle through the feathers during this chicken spa, cleaning and loosening clumped feathers. This also removes pests. Therefore, it is important to provide your chickens with a small wellness oasis. Loosen up a patch of soil in your enclosure with a spade and mix in some fine sand (from the hardware store) - voila, your chicks will love it!
Become a gunslinger
The big scramble has already begun and you've discovered pests on your chickens? Then it's time for a cowboy hat, well-fitting jeans with a leather belt and a bottle of the poultry biocide of your choice (that you casually hang in the holster). Just like in the Wild West, the motto here is: point and shoot, because now each of your chickens must be sprayed with an anti-parasite spray.
Synthetic or natural repellent - the choice is yours!
Sprays based on synthetically modified pyrethroids eliminate the infestation quickly and thoroughly. Their disadvantage, however, is the chemical impact on your animals. The long-lasting nature of the pyrethroids in these products enables them, albeit in small quantities, to be absorbed into the body. The uptake can occur through respiration, skin or food. There is a waiting period for the consumption of meat and eggs from treated animals.
If you use a natural anti-parasite spray on chickens, such as Inuzid to control your mite infestation, you will need to repeat the spraying for several days. In our ingredient combination, we rely on the natural pyrethrum. Since it degrades more rapidly, preparations containing pyrethrum, such as Inuzid, typically have to be applied more frequently and the protection renewed at shorter intervals. However, there is no waiting period for animal products. The risk of undesirable effects (side effects) is also significantly lower.
In our application video, Jasmin shows you how to apply Inuzid on chickens. However, our chicken volunteers were still quite small and manageable. When treating adult chickens, we recommend that you have help, as experience has shown that chickens initially find spraying silly and wriggle around a lot. However, if there are two operators, holding, spraying and lightly massaging is quick and easy.
You can find detailed information about Inuzid in the product description, and get your pet the spray directly from your vet.
