Bird mites in my house 😩

[Cristyloks]

Thanks to a nest of baby birds above the window, my son's bedroom is having a bit of a mite infestation that might be moving to other rooms. Tricky part is that I currently have chicks in my basement in an open (hardware cloth sided) brooder (as well as one very patient hen outdoors waiting for them to come outside soon.) I'm very scared of these mites spreading to my chickens, so I figured I'd pick brains about what else I could be doing.

Here's what I've done so far:
--Soapy water spray to outside of house around nest as well as inside his room on walls and around window etc.
-- DE earth around windows, floor trim, etc etc as well as on the outside of the house in areas.
-- removed bird nest (babies were gone yesterday morning) covered it in sevin and sprinkled some sevin dust around the ground under where the nest was (cannot use a lot of this, we have indoor cats and two neighbor cats that frequent our yard.)
-- sprinkled some DE inside chick brooder into bedding and added some to my outdoor chicken's dust bath area.
--used DE in outside coop.
-- laundered linens, blankets etc and continue to do so as well as frequent vacuuming (2-3 times a day)

I did check chicks and chicken best I could and didn't see mites but I also checked them during the day - does that matter??

Thanks for any advice! I just want them to be gone

 

[I burped]

You have to get heaters like big ones the only and best way to get rid of a bug infestation is to heat the room it’s best to hire somebody for this so it can be done right the first time

 

[Cristyloks]

You have to get heaters like big ones the only and best way to get rid of a bug infestation is to heat the room it’s best to hire somebody for this so it can be done right the first time

I hadn't seen this mentioned in my research! Not sure that's going to be feasible. It's already hot here and hearing a bedroom or elsewhere in the house would be pretty difficult for us to survive. right now the mites are still mostly around one window in one room. There's not a million, but close inspection reveals them here and there. That said, I have indoor cats and just know they will likely carry them elsewhere (if we ourselves aren't already.)

Everything I'm reading says that without a host, they tend to resolve within a few weeks. Problem is I have hosts living in the basement and I have to interact with them to take care of them, so I will likely be their biggest risk. There's only crawl space under my son's bedroom and the chicks are on the side of water heater etc so not a frequented area aside from my visits to feed/water/check on them.

Does anyone know if there is a spray that can be used indoors around children and animals that will help battle them? I feel limited to DE application right now and would rather hit them harder if I can.

 

[I burped]

I hadn't seen this mentioned in my research! Not sure that's going to be feasible. It's already hot here and hearing a bedroom or elsewhere in the house would be pretty difficult for us to survive. right now the mites are still mostly around one window in one room. There's not a million, but close inspection reveals them here and there. That said, I have indoor cats and just know they will likely carry them elsewhere (if we ourselves aren't already.)

Everything I'm reading says that without a host, they tend to resolve within a few weeks. Problem is I have hosts living in the basement and I have to interact with them to take care of them, so I will likely be their biggest risk. There's only crawl space under my son's bedroom and the chicks are on the side of water heater etc so not a frequented area aside from my visits to feed/water/check on them.

Does anyone know if there is a spray that can be used indoors around children and animals that will help battle them? I feel limited to DE application right now and would rather hit them harder if I can.

No sorry I don’t know any kind of spray for that

 

[ChickyCh00k]

I think you can use permetherin spray inside. Should be well-ventilated, wear a mask during application, and let it dry before inhabiting the area again....similar to when you do a flea bomb...the active ingredient in most flea bombs is permetherin. Permetherin also happens to be one of the most effective and popular lice/mite treatments for chickens.

I wonder if a flea bomb in your son's room would work....

 

[rosemarythyme]

- Spray rubbing alcohol on upholstered furniture and mattresses that may have been in contact with mites.

- Launder any clothing and sheets that may have been in contact with mites in hot water + hot dry. Even things like pillows... let them tumble in the dryer on high for at least 30 min. I even threw jackets in the dryer.

- Continue vacuuming daily and make sure to empty out the vacuum/remove bags when done.

 

[Cristyloks]

Thank you all!! It's been wild so I failed to check in, but things are thankfully looking better and better each day. I haven't resorted to spraying or bombing but it's good to know what to look for if we start to see bigger numbers again. So far it's just been a lot of vacuuming, spraying rubbing alcohol and dish soap and lots of laundry in hot water with multiple drying cycles plus a light dusting of DE around the window. Seeing almost none even when I go looking for them now, so fingers crossed they are going away! So far so good on my chicks and chickens as well. More finger crossing.

 

[McChooky]

Wild mites are where most domestic chickens get chicken mites from (northern mites) You might want to discourage any wild birds from nesting near your house or coop in the future.I found a beautiful wild finch trapped in my run a couple days ago but I released it immediately upon finding it. it didn't appear to have mites.

 

[Cristyloks]

Wild mites are where most domestic chickens get chicken mites from (northern mites) You might want to discourage any wild birds from nesting near your house or coop in the future.I found a beautiful wild finch trapped in my run a couple days ago but I released it immediately upon finding it. it didn't appear to have mites.

Absolutely agree with you and it took this situation to make me realize it! We've had nests at the front of our house off and on for many years, but I do not want to go through this again or worse - have to battle them with the chickens. We will look into ways to keep them from nesting. I think all conditions were just favorable this year for the mites to take hold. Up until the past week we've had so much rain and humidity, bugs and snakes were/are off the charts. Still, not a fan of nesting birds now

The part of the story that I didn't share - the baby birds weren't quite fledgling age when we discovered the mites. My soft heart was going to let them fly the nest vs trying to relocate it. 24 hours into our mite battle I had a large rat snake in my basement (also a first) trying to get into my brooder of chicks (thankfully we built it using hardware cloth.) I found it at almost 2am, my husband is out of the country, so I had quite the adventure catching it and released it across the street from our house. I knew I should have taken it further away but it was storming and I was rattled . The next morning the bird nest was empty. It's possible they were older than I thought and flew away, but I'm guessing the snake might have been to blame. I felt bad but also glad that I could knock down the nest and fully treat the area. It's been a wild couple of weeks!!

 

[McChooky]

I know a lot of people who've handled them and been bitten so unless they're small I won't try catching and relocating one in a sack lol No thanks!