Tiny white bugs on my chicken?

[ZaneyMama]

They are tiny - barely visible. What could these be? I found 2 of them crawling near the ear of one of my chickens yesterday. They were just crawling and I took them off her and squashed them.

 

[dawg53]

Sevin dust will kill them. Retreat in 10 days.

 

[cerridwenn]

bird lice/mites. don't freak out, most chickens (as well as most wild animals) have them. usually you can get rid of them by having a diatomaceous earth dust bath for them, all the recommendations i've seen have said to get food grade because they also will eat it. depending on where you live it is impossible to buy locally, but i did find a website to order from. however a friend of mine posted on a different site that her chickens have lice despite the diatoms, so if you already have given them that for a dust bath you'll have to get a bird lice spray from a vet or pet store and you'll have to spray all your chickies. if one has it they all do.

http://www.earthworkshealth.com/detail.php?id=3 is the most affordable online source i've been able to find, if your feed store people have no idea what diatomaceous earth is. mine are pretty ignorant so when you ask for things they don't have they work really hard at trying to convince you that it must be YOU that is wrong.

 

[Imp]

Here's some info about lice and mites:

http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html

Good luck
Imp

ETA- Sorry there appears to be a problem with the osu site. Link won't take you there right now. Hopefully it will again in the future, had good info.

Little white bugs are likely feather lice, you should see clusters of eggs stuck to the shaft of the feathers if you have an infestation. There is varying degrees of effectiveness reported with using DE, a little controversy too. A lot of people use sevin or poultry dust for external parasites. Also mentioned are Adams Shampoo and spray on Frontline. Whatever you do, you will probably need to retreat in 10-14 days. You will also need to thoroughly treat and retreat the coop/run.

Imp

 

[ZaneyMama]

I would prefer not to use Sevin dust - my eggs and my garden is organic and I have a 3 year old who loves petting the chickens.

I don't have a DE bath for the chickens, but I can get DE locally and have about a pound on hand right now. Do I just fill a bin with DE, or do I mix it with something for them to bathe in?

Thanks!

 

[Imp]

Quote:
You can add it to the place where they dustbathe, or
put some in a garbage bag, insert chicken up to its neck. Then holding the bag securely around its neck shake the DE all around trhe bird. (I know I know I don't think my birds would stand for that

) The idea is to get the DE down to the skin, especially under the wings and around the vent. The other method is to put the DE in a shaker (Like a parmesan cheese shaker) then lightly season your birds.

Organically- I read that wood ash is supposed to be good as a natural delouser. I just put last years wood ash from the woodstove in their favorite dustbathing areas, last week. Don't know if it works, but can't hurt and it's free.

Imp-itching now

BTW- The OSU site was up again last night. Link was working.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

DE will not treat an active infestation; it may prevent one.

Depending on the number of birds you have, you could give each bird a bath in dog flea/tick shampoo.

 

[mellissa]

bird lice/mites. don't freak out, most chickens (as well as most wild animals) have them. usually you can get rid of them by having a diatomaceous earth dust bath for them, all the recommendations i've seen have said to get food grade because they also will eat it. depending on where you live it is impossible to buy locally, but i did find a website to order from. however a friend of mine posted on a different site that her chickens have lice despite the diatoms, so if you already have given them that for a dust bath you'll have to get a bird lice spray from a vet or pet store and you'll have to spray all your chickies. if one has it they all do.

http://www.earthworkshealth.com/detail.php?id=3 is the most affordable online source i've been able to find, if your feed store people have no idea what diatomaceous earth is. mine are pretty ignorant so when you ask for things they don't have they work really hard at trying to convince you that it must be YOU that is wrong.

Dust causes respiratory failure. For example DE, pestene, Sevin, ag lime.Might be natural but not safe. If your chickens inhale this dust it will shorten lifespan.

 

[cmom]

This is an old thread. I use Permethrin and it works.

 

[Folly's place]

And for organic, pyrethrin is okay. Here we use permethrin, which lasts longer than the organically approved pyrethrin. DE isn't a good idea at all.
Mary