My coop was infested with mites once. A mean infestation. I purchased a concentrated insecticide from a farming magazine. Placed it in a three gallon spray bottle, kicked the chickens out for the day and sprayed the coop inside and out. Also sprayed the purches. That night, my birds sleep outside in the pen area. I had to get rid of the mites. The DE is a great preventative, but when your coop is infested, they gotta go.
So now my maintenance program is I spray the coop once in the late summer / early fall. Than I also spray late winter before the spring laying sets in. I do that because the birds have spent the winter inside more than outside.
I haven't seen mites in the coup since. I use DE for perventative measures. But when they were infested I didn't mess around. On the
birds I used a poultry dust that had Permethrin in it. This was to give my girls some relief. But I haven't had a need to use the poultry dust since I've been routinely spraying the building and using DE for the girls to dust in.
I know some people wont agree, and I can understand why. But I figure spraying the walls and purches will keep the mites from multiplying in the coop, and I won't have to treat my birds aggressivly.
Anna
CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com
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