Question Mites - in chicken area & on me! Please help

[Ola]

Hi Everyone

I recently got myself four wonderful hens and we have been enjoying their eggs for the past month.
I'm in Noosa, and after all the rain, the chicken area became a sloppy muddy mess. After a bit of research, I decided put down some cypress wood chip. I have raised garden beds and the chickens wander all around them. As I'm in there often, I needed something on the ground to stop slipping around! The chickens have loved scratching it up and are finding little bugs to munch on constantly.
However, since doing this, only a few days ago, both my partner and I have felt like something was crawling on our skin. My partner now has bites all over his body and last night I spotted three tiny mites (I'm assuming) on my body. They are so small I can't make out what they look like, but they are a dark colour - brown or black and a gentle squish doesn't kill them - they need quite a hard push to kill them.
I'm now completely freaking out and don't know what to do. Can someone please tell me the best way to get rid of them? I'm assuming they came with the wood chip because that's when the problem started.
When I bought the chickens (only a month ago), they were treated with ivermectin before I brought them home. Will that be sufficient to stop mites attacking my chickens?
I need to know how to get rid of them from my house, from my body (they're probably in my hair!) and from the bark chips.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks
Ola

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Heya, I know this website that might help identify what kind of mite you might be dealing with;

Itchy and Scratchy - It Mite Be Time To Check Your Chooks For Biting Pests!

Chickens looking a little ruffled? They might have a lice or mite problem. Here are the different kinds of poultry parasites and how to treat them.

www.backyardchickencoops.com.au

And this video might help inform you. She gives a lot of tips, opinions and on what you can do;

 

[desman]

I had the same prob about 6 months ago. It’s actually easy (but annoying and time consuming) to fix. I used pestrol, which is powder insecticide: it’s not a toxic chemical it’s just a sulphur based powder that dries out the environment (acts like a desiccant). Mites and insects can’t deal with it as it dehydrated them. I also use dimataceous earth, which does the same thing. Both you should be able to buy from a livestock produce store. Just take out all the bedding, hose down inside, let it dry. Cover sleeping area and nest boxes with pestrol (sprinkle). Also give the chooks a good powder of it in their feathers, especially around their bum. And don’t use straw, as the mites hide in the hollow stems. Use saw dust in coop floor and nest boxes. I sprinkle a little pestrol and diamataceous earth in sleeping area and nest boxes each time I clean it out.
Good luck. It takes a while to do the initial cleaning and the mites are gross, but it does work.

 

[desman]

Sorry Ola, it’s Pestene (the powder product) not pestrol.

 

[Ola]

Thank you both for the responses.
I think I have finally got it under control...and it's taken days and days of cleaning and using a bunch of different methods, but I think the buggers are gone!

Below is some information of what I did to get rid of them in case anyone else has this problem in the future and need some tips.

I had a pest guy come out and he sprayed the chicken area. We got the chickens out first and it was the same chemical that the powder is that you put on chickens (we did that too of course).

The chicken coop was cleaned out and fresh saw dust put in with some of the powder in first.

He did in our bedroom as well as they were in there too just gross!

Everything went on a super hot wash and the pest guy also recommended that all out clothes should go in black plastic bags and into the sun which we haven't been able to do because of the rain.

I was going a bit crazy with it all, but am so pleased it worked. I ended up using a lint roller to get them off my clothes after being in the chicken area, duct tape on my skin to catch them and was blow drying my hair and using a hair straightener to kill them in my hair...just in case! Mt partner has no hair...he was the lucky one!

I also managed to get some close up videos and photos of them (can't believe my phone zoomed so well!), and I sprayed them with vinegar to see if that killed them, in case I needed to treat my hair. Vinegar appears to kill them, just slowly.

Of course they ended up in the laundry as well from the clothing, but bleach helped with that.

Horrible experience but am so happy I have it under control. The pest guy will be back in a week to redo the chicken yard as a precaution.

After a lot of google research and the information from the pest guy, I now know that the mites were not in the bark chip as they wouldn't have been able to survive without a bird blood feed. So, the explanation was the weather event, l live close to ponds (one a duck pond) which flooded so the wild birds were out looking for food and found my chickens and spread their mites to our place.

Hope this info helps others if you have to deal with it, I just hope never to have to go through that again!

Thanks
Ola

 

[desman]

Nice work Ola. They are so gross!!! We didn’t need up with them in our house but I know others that have had them in the house as well.
Do you get pigeons come and visit your chickens. I blame the pigeons at my place.

 

[desman]

Didn’t *end up with them in my house I meant

 

[Ola]

I think I was so freaked out because they did end up inside. The worst part was reading other people's accounts and so many people said the only way was to move!
I get all sorts of birds that I can't identify, but I do see a lot of miners, pigeons, crows and butcherbirds.

 

[Ola]

Sorry Ola, it’s Pestene (the powder product) not pestrol.

Ah yes, that's what I used

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Moving is definitely not the only way to handle this - at all. Luckily there are pest guys and/or people with more experience and willingness to handle this

 

[nayday]

Hi Everyone

I recently got myself four wonderful hens and we have been enjoying their eggs for the past month.
I'm in Noosa, and after all the rain, the chicken area became a sloppy muddy mess. After a bit of research, I decided put down some cypress wood chip. I have raised garden beds and the chickens wander all around them. As I'm in there often, I needed something on the ground to stop slipping around! The chickens have loved scratching it up and are finding little bugs to munch on constantly.
However, since doing this, only a few days ago, both my partner and I have felt like something was crawling on our skin. My partner now has bites all over his body and last night I spotted three tiny mites (I'm assuming) on my body. They are so small I can't make out what they look like, but they are a dark colour - brown or black and a gentle squish doesn't kill them - they need quite a hard push to kill them.
I'm now completely freaking out and don't know what to do. Can someone please tell me the best way to get rid of them? I'm assuming they came with the wood chip because that's when the problem started.
When I bought the chickens (only a month ago), they were treated with ivermectin before I brought them home. Will that be sufficient to stop mites attacking my chickens?
I need to know how to get rid of them from my house, from my body (they're probably in my hair!) and from the bark chips.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks
Ola

The best info i got was from mark ... ivermectin on the back of the chikas neck cleared ours up QUICK! You have to treat the coop...we cleaned ours out completly and sprayed the heck out of it with permitherin. Let it dry and gave them all new bedding. saw youtube video and IT WORKED! MY GIRLS ARE HEALTHY