I have put them up every night and they keep jumping down:/Follow BDutch’s advice. A multi-pronged consistent attack without excessive use of chemicals. Have you managed to get your silkies to roost?
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I have put them up every night and they keep jumping down:/Follow BDutch’s advice. A multi-pronged consistent attack without excessive use of chemicals. Have you managed to get your silkies to roost?
I have put them up every night and they keep jumping down:/
Strange. In the Netherlands I have been reading something else. I found this information on the site of finecto+:All the literature I have read suggests that the actual adult mite can survive without a blood meal for as long as 5 months and potentially longer. They are like bedbugs.
This first book in this online directory “Parasiticide Screening” from 2019 says the adult mites can survive starvation for up to 34 weeks:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/immunology-and-microbiology/dermanyssus-gallinae
Even Finecto’s website claims the adult red mite can survive years in a “latent condition” in unfavourable conditions like lack of host or cold temps.
https://finecto.com/en-gb/bird/red-mites-in-birds/
The coop is completely dark with black out curtains on the windows that I wash every few days. I like the moat idea! Thank you, that sounds perfect!Do you do it once it’s completely dark? Is there light that gets in the coop at night? If they can’t see they are less likely to jump down.
An alternative could be to build them a “floor nest” maybe like an open topped box made out of treated/sealed wood that’s large enough for them all to pile in. The sides don’t have to be very high but high enough to form a container and you can place their bedding materials inside. Then remove all the bedding from the rest of the coop floor to discourage them from nesting anywhere else. Then you can make some sort of moat to put around it and fill with cheap vegetable oil to trap the mites as they approach your birds at night. If the moat idea is too hard you could just put a comprehensive layer of double sided tape around the walls of the floor nest and at least you’d catch a portion of the mites every night and you would be able to monitor their population numbers.
Strange. In the Netherlands I have been reading something else. I found this information on the site of finecto+:
Adult red mite
Once a red mite has crawled out of its egg, it lives for about 6 to 8 weeks under normal conditions. Here you can read more about the life cycle and behavior of red mite . Without food (chickens or other poultry), a red mite survived for a maximum of 2 weeks. A red mite lice lays up to 8 eggs per day in the ideal conditions. And it is precisely these eggs that are the 'strongest link' when it comes to survival.
Red mite eggs can get at least two years old (!!) without chickens or birds nearby.
Translated from https://askfinecto.com/hoe-lang-overleven-bloedluizen-zonder-kip/
The 6-8 weeks is for the larvae, nymph (2x) and mite stage together.
Beautiful there though!The temps in my country are horrid for red mite too. The coldest it ever gets is about -15 C and 38 C is the hottest it ever got. Add a humid climate and you understand the Netherlands is perfect for the eggs to survive all year round and the adult red mites thrive from spring till autumn.in a chicken coop .
I blocked my community nest box off until I got rid of the mites (they used milk crates for over a year)Do you do it once it’s completely dark? Is there light that gets in the coop at night? If they can’t see they are less likely to jump down.
An alternative could be to build them a “floor nest” maybe like an open topped box made out of treated/sealed wood that’s large enough for them all to pile in. The sides don’t have to be very high but high enough to form a container and you can place their bedding materials inside. Then remove all the bedding from the rest of the coop floor to discourage them from nesting anywhere else. Then you can make some sort of moat to put around it and fill with cheap vegetable oil to trap the mites as they approach your birds at night. If the moat idea is too hard you could just put a comprehensive layer of double sided tape around the walls of the floor nest and at least you’d catch a portion of the mites every night and you would be able to monitor their population numbers.
They have done several studies in my country on the red mite because of/for factory farmers. Factory farming is a huge business in the Netherlands and if the stables get infected its a loss of income. Because the resistance of poisons and Eu laws against the use of poisons the farmers use different methods nowadays.I realised that the study of mites (acarology) is quite niche and constantly evolving, let alone the specific study of parasitic mites.
Off topic:Beautiful there though!