Save Your Chooks From Red Mites

Red mites are tiny 1mm bird parasites, that proliferate in the heat. They live in cracks in the walls of the chookhouse by day, and come out at night to feed on your chooks. Poor girls – no rest for them when mites are in the house. Because they are tiny and nocturnal, its easy to have an infestation without noticing. For your chooks sake, you gotta check.

After living with mites for a while, your girls can, understandably get pretty crook. They may even leave the house and lay elsewhere , and who can blame them! Today I want to teach all the chook mums and dads what to look out for and how to put your best prevention foot forward.

A seasonal clean out + keeping chooks in top health + a few key products = sorted. Prevention is waaaaay simpler than management. Here’s my ways:

The hunt for red mites

Do 2 checks – one in the morning while egg laying is going on and one at night.

Don your head torch for the night check, and look for them scurrying over your chooks, the walls, perch and/ or ceiling. They turn red when full of blood which is super helpful because it makes them easier to see under torch light.

Next, run your fingers along the underside of perches. This is top red mite real estate… bed + breakfast! Tiny bloody smears on your fingers is the giveaway.

In the morning, lift up one side of your laying chook and you may see mites (little red spider looking critters), scuttle away. There after they disappear into the nooks and crannys in the wood. Where they make homes, you’ll see a grey-ish fuzz on the walls and ceilings. It’s their calling card, right outside the crack they’ve chosen to live in. Make this your final day time check – to look for these ash like deposits.

If the chook house is infested they’ll drop all over you. Itchiest feeling in the world, but not to worry they’re not into you. A shower will see you right 🙂

Keeping ahead of + on top of mites

Red mites are close to invincible because they have such a tenacious grip on life. Even when deprived of a food source for a few months they will burst back to life the minute a live chicken/ bird comes along. The one and only time I had an infestation (you’ll only go there once) I ended up getting a second chook house and moving the chooks to clean quarters so I could sort the infestation out. What a mission! I have friends who had to burn their house and begin again, because they just couldnt get on top of the mites.

You don’t need 2 houses if you clean your chook house out each season and follow along all my prevention ways. The only way to keep on top of them is to keep ahead of them.

A mite-y house clean

• Empty the house

Once the eggs are laid for the day, shut the chooks away from the house and empty all the shavings – hurrah mulch! Sweep the house clean. Wear a face mask is a good idea.

• Spray

Spray the house thoroughly with Poultry Shield until its dripping wet. Be sure to get into every nook and cranny. The spray must come into contact with the mites. They’re deep in all the cracks so you need to drive the spray in. The backpack sprayer is the perfect tool.

Poultry Shield is the best spray I’ve tried so far. Other options are garlic, neem and/ or teatree. Try the one that floats your boat and see how it goes. Use something with no egg withholding period and is safe around living beings – do read the fine print.

After an hour or so, spray the house with water to rinse of the suds.

• Paint

When the house is dry, make a slurry with food grade Diatomaceous Earth (DE) + water and paint it all over the inside of the house. Pay special attention to the perches – especially the ends, the nesting boxes and areas where the ash markings are.

• Dust

Fill the house and nesting boxes with fresh sawdust and puff dry diatomaceous earth over top. If mites are in existence, I also dust my chooks with DE before letting them back in. Skip this step if no mites are in the house.

For a more detailed read, check out my red mite prevention plan + chook health check up.