Red mites in the chiggin coop - should I worry about them?

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I had no illusions that they wouldn't come back and indeed they did.

I wonder if there's anything that can realistically be done about those buggers and if it's even worth doing so. Want to avoid chemicals as much as possible.

Any helpful hints from other chiggin wranglers?

Two months ago we discovered them and I proceeded to take apart the coop and pressure wash all the components. Then made a solution of 60/40 Isopropyl and water (It's what I had handy) and sprayed every crack and gasket. Aside: They're called "Blood Mites" (Blutmilben) in German. Kinda Metal. I had no illusions that they wouldn't come back and indeed they did. I wonder if there's anything that can realistically be done about those buggers and if it's even worth doing so. Want to avoid chemicals as much as possible. Any helpful hints from other chiggin wranglers?

[–] • 19 pts

Diatomaceous earth, I use that stuff everywhere. It'll help kill any kind of bug by stabbing and dessicating them. You can spread it safely on your chickens, ruffle it into their feathers.

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[–] • 4 pts

Also good for fleas.

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[–] • 3 pts

Sounds like just what I'm looking for. Ordered some. Thanks, fren.

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[–] • 3 pts

Godspeed.

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[–] • 2 pts

Just don't breath it in.

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[–] • 0 pt

And wear latex/rubber gloves, it can give a human a nasty rash on the thin skin areas, if you catch my drift.

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[–] • 3 pts

I dust my dogs with it too, and sometimes sweep it around the hardwood floors to get it in to the seams. I've watched fleas crawl out from the seams and jump up on to my socks before.

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[–] • 4 pts

Use the food safe kind if you are using it on animals that clean themselves.

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[–] • 2 pts

I need to get some of that stuff. I read that it will kill blood borne parasites and their eggs too.

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[–] • 2 pts

Diatomacaceous Earth works on so many bugs and is the only good way to get rid of bed bugs.

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[–] • 2 pts

Be sure to get food grade diatomaceous earth. Inexpensive but works.

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[–] • 5 pts

Neem oil and other bullshit doesn't work. I tried Neem oil for aphids and I think it was an aphrodisiac.

You want Ivermectin.

https://www.chickenfans.com/ivermectin-for-chickens/

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[–] • 2 pts

Horse dewormer?

JK, thank you, I'll look into that.

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[–] • 2 pts

Yeah, it kills mites in chickens. Other parasites too. Unlike the homeopathic bullshit like "neem oil" it actually kills the little fuckers as well.

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[–] • 1 pt

Interesting article, I forwarded it to my wife who tends to ~50 birds. Thanks for posting!

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[–] [deleted] • 2 pts

lots of good suggestions here. IDK if this would work but Dawn Dishwashing soap disintigrates the exoskeleton of bugs and if you can use it to help treat a dog for fleas, maybe it will help with mites, idk

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[–] • 3 pts

Have used dawn for spidermites in plants successfully

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[–] • 1 pt

A weak soap solution sprayed on plants will kill most of those little fuckers. I found scale on one of my plants and got rid of them that way.

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[–] [deleted] • 1 pt

nice! lucky guess :D

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[–] • 1 pt

Red mites? Think they are chiggers? If you got any chigger weed get rid of it, spray to kill it don't get near or you'll have to treat yourself too if you have other animals they might have caught them too. You can try diatomaceous earth but get food grade and wear a respirator, and expect your chickens to live only about 80% as long as you expected.

Two ways to treat chiggers in humans is spend a day in a bath tub to deprive the skin burrowing buggers of air or paint over the skin they inhabit with nail polish, I suggest the water unfortunately.

If it's chiggers they came back from eggs laid in the chickens' skin or more came off the chigger weed, do web searches as needed, chigger weed is common.

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[–] • 2 pts

Think we have some wild carrot here, if that's the same thing. Going to check it out, thanks!

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[–] • 1 pt

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It is, we have so much in my neck of the woods that chigger weed is the common name here so I often forget the more known names are Queen Anne's Lace or wild carrot.

I hear guinea fowl will eat the chiggers if they infest your coops, but chickens typically wont.

When you get near them wear some OFF and I recommend killing the weeds with the meanest pesticides to hand and even then the weed will probably come back, chiggers like to live in the flowers but could be anywhere on the plant and will often jump at any tall things in the vicinity, they will get everywhere if you bump the flower so aim for the root of the weed. with a pesticide spray, even a small gust will make them scatter and jump from the flowers.

Good luck, my great grandpa always told me chiggers were a nightmare if they got to livestock. I hope there's better options these days cause he just quarantined and slaughtered the infected ones, he told me he caught chiggers on himself about every other week that summer and gave up live stock when they found some natural gas on his land mostly because of his experience with chiggers, the man was no dummy either, he was an engineer during WW2 and actually worked at oak ridge from it's founding until the 60s.