I went on holiday for a couple of weeks to come back and find one of my chicken houses was full of red mite! Not just on the ends of the perches but in every crack and crevice and in every corner. Red Mite are notoriously difficult to remove once they get a grip on a chicken house. When the weather is warm, red mite multiply very quickly and before you know it, you’ve got a serious infestation to deal with.
Dealing with a serious Red Mite outbreak.
So how do you deal with such a serious red mite infestation? Normally, for small numbers I would wash the house down with poultry shield and use a number of other red mite products here and there to kill off these unwanted visitors but with so many mites in the chicken house, more serious action was required. Here’s what to do:
Allow yourself a good couple of hours…
- Clean out the house, remove all loose bedding material. Strip the house down as much as you can. Remove as many parts as possible including pop holes, automatic pop hole openers and anything else that will unscrew easily.
- If you have a felt roof, remove this – yes, unfortunately you will need to re-felt the roof. If you don’t you will find millions of red mites will still live happily under the felt.
Cleaning the chicken house to remove red mites
- Using a high pressure hose / pressure washer, wash the house and parts down. Get the spray in every crack and crevice. This will take about 45 minutes if done properly. If you miss a crack, hundreds of mites could be hiding in there so it’s really important to ensure you get into everywhere possible. The spray will bounce back and soak you at times so wear old clothes and be prepared to get wet.
- Wait for the house to dry 10 to 15 minutes. Now look at it carefully – you should see red mites crawling around. These are the guys you missed that are coming out because they have been disturbed and are wet.
- Go over the house again from top to bottom, again concentrating on the cracks.
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Spread generous amounts of Diatom on the bedding material.
Repeat the above process as many times as necessary until there are very few mites coming out. The more you remove, the better. Even small populations can multiply quickly.
- Put your house back together. If you had a felt roof, leave re-felting until you are mite free for a couple of weeks. A temporary waterproof material should be used – plastic is ideal.
- Add fresh bedding material as you would after cleaning normal.
- Sprinkle a generous amount of diatom onto the bedding. The manufacturers recommend 500g per M2 which is quite a lot.
- Put a handful of diatom into your hand and rub it
Diatom should be rubbed into perches
into each perch, taking particular care around the ends and the underside. Whenyou have finished it should be white and smooth, like a gymnasts bar. Red mites have to crawl over this to get to the chickens at night.
Monitor the house for a few days, particularly on perch ends and re-apply diatom to the perches every couple of days or as soon as it starts to wear off.
If you have got into all of the cracks successfully, you should notice a drastic reduction in the number of red mite in the house – if you still find reasonable numbers, make up a spray mixture of poultry shield and spray onto these areas using a hand held plant mister.
Continue using diatom for a few weeks until there are no more signs of red mite.
You will find an article on Red Mite with lots more information on the main poultrykeeper site.
If you have any other tips on controlling red mite or would like to leave a comment then please feel free to do so below.
#1 by james cowell at August 28th, 2009
what happens if you have contaminated your home. I have read they cannot reproduce without an avian hos, in which case though they may be a nuisance for a while they will die out naturally over a period of time. I have read this could be 36 weeks. Is this information correct?
#2 by Tim Daniels at August 28th, 2009
I have never heard of a home being infested with Red Mite. I would consider using a household insecticide (flea treatment) spray on the infected areas. Indorex is one available from vets. Yes, Red Mite can live off their host for 6 months – I have tested this – they stay white but still live… The only nuisance I have found is if they crawl on you they can itch but they won’t feed from you.
#3 by Caroline Fabian at September 9th, 2009
We have a mega problem – we have some chickens in coops (rare breed flighty birds) and our lovely hens who are free range and give us lovely eggs. These 10 birds roost at night in one of my stables where they can get up high and I shut the stable doors at night to keep them safe.They lay their lovely eggs for us in the manger.
Having finally realised that we have these mites (even tho we have had them crawling all over us for 10 days or so) durrh!
We have found the birds somewhere else to sleep tonight and have dusted them with red mite powder.
The coops will be dismantled and sprayed with creosole (?) tomorrow – we will not put the birds back until they are safe from the mites.
What i wanted to ask was – what do we do about the stable -it is brick and is connected to 3 others, which have my goats , pigs and the end one is used as a feed store for my hay and feeds etc…
How do i clear them.. is it possible and …..
Will they be crawling all over my goats.. also I have geese… will they have them too. What should i treat them with.
Sorry its longwinded but i want rid of these horrible creatures asap and will do whatever it takes.
Thanks
#4 by Tim Daniels at September 9th, 2009
The new ‘Creosote substitute’ will not work… Red Mites are very hard to get rid of. See our Red Mite Article on the main site for some ideas – but basically I would try to pressure wash the cracks and crevices out first – or use a steamer like you use on wallpaper. Look for them – they are usually found near to where birds roost as the mites feed at night in cracks – look for grey / dust coming from cracks as well as the mites and concentrate your efforts around these areas. They will be localised to where the poultry are at night and maybe in the nest boxes too. They only bite poultry so your goats should be ok. Ducks and Geese don’t usually get them because they don’t sit in one place at night and don’t roost but I would check their sleeping quarters all the same. If you want any more help, feel free to pop into our poultry forum where there are lots of people who have had these nasties. Good Luck.
#5 by Caroline Fabian at September 13th, 2009
Update:
Ive washed houses with jet wash and soaked with Jeyes – then have soaked several times with strong Poultryshield.
Powdered as much as i could, powdered chickens, sprayed chickens with Frontline – new wood shavings, put them all to bed.. only to discover they are still there – not as many but enough to do some damage.. so have resprayed every day… I cant think of anything more to do – ill keep spraying until i dont see anymore and then.. ill keep spraying just to make sure
Thanks for your help
#6 by Tim at September 14th, 2009
Diatom takes a while to work – if you powder the perches, rubbing into the perches daily or as often as required, the mites have to crawl through it to get to the birds. After a while (a week or so) I found the odd mite sat in diatom along a perch, tapping off, it is dead and doesn’t crawl.
It does take a while for a heavy infestation – keep the diatom going. Spraying poultryshied is fine but remember it is a contact spray so must come into contact with the mites.
Another thing to remember is eggs will hatch after a week – so new (very small) red mites will be present for a while.
Mites can survive a long time without a feed – but while the chickens are there, they will still try to feed and should eventually meet their match with the diatom.
Good Luck.
#7 by Mandy at September 21st, 2009
My chickens keep getting mites, We have power washed down the house, nesting box etc sprayed everything with poultrysheild everyother day & every eve powder with diatom everything including chickens & they still keep coming back.. Can anyone tell me what else I can try & why do they keep getting them??
#8 by Tim Daniels at September 22nd, 2009
It does take time. I have checked this house several times over the last week and finally they seem to have gone.
You must ensure there is no infestation left that hasn’t been pressure washed – eg under felt roof. Washing down then waiting for the house to dry will bring more out – they will be crawling around – re-wash until there are very few left – this can take a couple of hours to do properly.
The diatom must be re-applied to the perches regularly. You must be generous with it – they say 500g per M squared on the tub. Some tubs are only this size. I buy in 5Kg tubs as in the long run it’s cheaper.
It will take a few weeks but you must keep checking at night and look where they are now going (you often find a small clump of them in a diatom free area) and look to see if they are still on the underside of the perches. Don’t give them a diatom free path to your hens – keep the perches well dusted and slowly the remaining few will die off.
There are other things you can try – take a look at the RED MITE article on the PK homepage for other ideas.
Good Luck!
#9 by Carol at September 27th, 2009
I have just treated a chicken house with Creotreat, an oil based wood preserver, in order to get rid of a heavy infestation of red mite. It worked a treat!! Having painted into all the cracks mite emerged and died within a couple of minutes – was surprised how many there were! Also painted the ceiling rather that remove the felt – found this has worked before. Thanks for the tip on Diatom Tim! Have used this product before and not found it to have the clout required. Also keeping goats and pigs I have found some goats and young pigs are susceptible to chicken mite, esp. when housed in winter quarters where chickens also roost. I use ivermectin inj. Crovect, and Battles mite powder. My main building is approx 100 feet long, not a small task when cleaning and getting rid of mite, also traditionally constructed with straw insulated roof LOL! Working on it and vigilant ;0)
Since finding the red mite in a small out building, and treating it, I have been itching like Billio!! Changed clothing and showered, will not go away, no sign of mite. Would add, this is the first time I have had red mite in my birds for over 50 years, change in weather is bringing about seldom seen infestations together with those not common to the UK. Kind regards – enjoy your birds folks!
#10 by Leigh at September 30th, 2009
Thanks so much for all this. Am just experiencing first red mite infestation, which I am ashamed to say has taken me over a week to recognise. The mites are crawling all over the place – have just been out to wipe everything down (it’s an egloo), change bedding, and smother the edges of the nesting box with vaseline. Am planning Armageddon for the little buggers in the morning.
#11 by Gill Davis at October 5th, 2009
Thanks for all the info. I have just read about Smite has anyone tried it? Also when the coop is power washed – don’t the red mites just live on the ground and then reinhabit the coop?
#12 by Leigh at October 5th, 2009
Update: have, so far, managed to eradicate the mites from the chicken house (an Eglu), using a combination of Barrier Red Mite Concentrate at 20:1 (a natural mix of essential oils – completely safe), followed by Vaseline everywhere, followed by a heavy dusting of diatom – particularly on the perch ends and in the nesting box, but everywhere else too. I also moved the house about fifteen feet from its previous site. Only six mites spotted on the first evening after cleaning, and only one seen on the five nights since. Am planning a second thorough clean-out tomorrow, and every five days for at least three weeks.
Two notes about red mites and Eglus:
1. There seems to be some defect in the moulding process, meaning that many of the surfaces, when closely inspected, can be seen to be pitted with mite-sized holes. I smeared Vaseline over these having spotted some little red blobs hiding in them.
2. The main parts of the Eglu are hollow, with nice big holes (~10mm) through into the cavities, including one that can only be accessed by unscrewing the whole thing and taking it apart – what the manufacturers were thinking, I just don’t know. There is no way of accessing these cavities, and no way of knowing what’s lurking inside. Dumb design, or what? I filled the holes with Vaseline, after squirting in a (un)healthy dose of Red Mite Concentrate.
My only major problem now is that the mites are in the house (my house), and are biting me at night. Have also treated the bedroom as though it were a chicken coup, but it’s not working yet (chicken coups don’t have mattresses, pillows and carpets…). Any further advice gratefully received.
(Sorry for such a long comment)
#13 by admin at October 6th, 2009
Gill – No, many of them get displaced a long way from the house in the spray – You can check there are none crawling up the legs of the house as it dries – I haven’t seen them doing this but if you find some are, you can put vassalene around the legs as a barrier.
Leigh – I have never heard of a house being infested. What I have found is they will crawl on you (and itch like crazy) but once you have a shower, they are washed off and do not bite you. They can live for 6 to 8 months without a feed but unless they feed cannot multiply so lie dormant – this should mean that any carried into your house may live for a while but have nothing to feed from and other than crawling on you and itching should can’t feed from you so do not bite. I would check they are actually red mites in your house.
Whatever it is that is biting you could be killed off by using a house flea spray from your vets – there are several available that are too strong to sell over the counter so have to be sold by vets – they are not cheap – £14 or so for a can – follow their instructions but usually if you spray this over the carpets, around the edges, cracks and so on and leave the room, door closed for a while it kills fleas, mites, ticks and so on.
#14 by Amanda at October 7th, 2009
Totally amazed. Once i knew what to look for there were millions. I did as you suggested and striped the coop down taking off as much as i could. There were millions, i steam cleaned the hut. After 4 hours they were still pouring out in black rivers. In all the cracks in the tongue and grove. Just wished I knew what i know now, I wouldn’t buy such a well made hut. We smoke bombed the hut, and still found that some had survived. I have put vasaline in all the screw heads, crackes, joins and any rough wood. I used the diaton over all
the bedding and purches. Each hen has also had a dust bath in the powder. Not sure if i’ve got rid of them all but, i’m on the way. The hens are now laying twice what they did before in just a few days. I would recommend washing all clothes straight away and showering, because the mites get everywhere.
I also sprayed the whole hut with poultry spray.
#15 by Tim Daniels at October 8th, 2009
Keep up the diatom Amanda! – you will really be amazed if you look in a few nights to find there are still some crawling on the perches…that’s what usually happens even though most of us clean very thouroughly. If you rub down the perches every few days for the next few weeks and keep diatom dusted around you should really get rid of them. Now the weather is cooling, they will go dormant so be wary next summer when it warms up again as even a small clump of mites will become thousands in a week!
Sounds like you had a big infestation! Hope you didn’t have a felt roof or it’s off with the felt!
#16 by Larry at February 9th, 2010
Hello from Canada, My wife and I help my parent to run a large organic free range egg farm with over 1000 hens. We have mites and have come to understand you can’t completely get rid of them not on our size too many barns (4). We have found that 1 cup of sugar, along with 1 cup food grade 35% Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) mixed and sprayed as a light wash on every surface of the barns and equipment will kill mites on contact, but not eggs so you have to spray every 3 days. The sugar makes everything sticky so you then take a hand duster and dust every surface with diatom. We also put peatmoss mixed with diatom in large tubs as dusting bowls. Again we do this every 3 days if there is a breakout and if the mites are under controll every week. Hope this helps.
#17 by Tim Daniels at February 9th, 2010
That’s a useful tip, thank you. Diatom really does seem to work, it’s just not a fast ‘knock down’ and takes a while I’ve found.