Lice/mites and white washing the coop

[Sally8]

As one who has battled these pests all summer, has anyone ever white washed their coop as a means to help rid these pests? My ancestor's used to have their dairy barns "washed" yearly.
I've used Sevin twice on them, Frontline Plus, in the beginning. Last night when I checked on them, they were shaking their heads again.

Tonight we'll be firing up the wood stove for the first time this year, so I'll have wood ashes soon. I'm actually thinking of culling all 5 and burning the coop down, to start over. I have hens in another coop further away and so far, no little critters. But to start, I'd mix up a batch of the white wash and add Sevin in it, then paint and spray everywhere. My coop is 8 x 10 ft. Any thoughts?
I'm sure that I brought the lice in myself, when I used to store my bedding under the lean to.

There were bird nests overhead. I never gave it a thought. Now I'm just trying to get rid of them.

 

[earlybird10842]

Bumping this post.

 

[Miss Lydia]

As one who has battled these pests all summer, has anyone ever white washed their coop as a means to help rid these pests? My ancestor's used to have their dairy barns "washed" yearly.
I've used Sevin twice on them, Frontline Plus, in the beginning. Last night when I checked on them, they were shaking their heads again.

Tonight we'll be firing up the wood stove for the first time this year, so I'll have wood ashes soon. I'm actually thinking of culling all 5 and burning the coop down, to start over. I have hens in another coop further away and so far, no little critters. But to start, I'd mix up a batch of the white wash and add Sevin in it, then paint and spray everywhere. My coop is 8 x 10 ft. Any thoughts?
I'm sure that I brought the lice in myself, when I used to store my bedding under the lean to.

There were bird nests overhead. I never gave it a thought. Now I'm just trying to get rid of them.

I am battling them again for the 2nd time this year. Don't think I'll burn the coops down but I did go and buy 32 oz of Permethrin 10 Livestock and premise spray. for the second time. I sprayed all the coops top to bottom then put frontline on all the birds as they filed into roost. This morning 2 days after doing all that, Found an egg in a nest box with 1 mite crawling on it. So sprayed again and will be checking each bird individually as they come into roost this evening. I hate the mites and don't know what else to do besides burn down the coops which i don't think my dh would agree to. I've never whitewashed but I heard old timers used kerosene to spray down their coops, I'd be worried that may kill the chickens.

 

[pixiechicken]

I am new to chicken keeping and in these first 4 months as a mummy chicken I have had to deal with sour crop, general snuffles and wheezing and finally mites. I tried the powders to prevent the mites but it did not work. I felt increasingly unsure about using the powder especially because some of my ladies were snuffly. I looked into permaculture and found a lime wash re ipe. I felt I wanted to try this before burning down the coop and buying at great cost an eglu.
It took 1 week. I cleaned out the coop and then washed it with white spirit to prepare the surface. I then white washed it. The coop went from crawling to only a few mites in 24hrs. I cleaned out the coop again on day 2 and the repeated the white washing. I have continued to clean the coop daily and each day I am pleasantly surprised as I have not found any mites for days now and my ladies have returned to 4 eggs a day. Before the treatment I was getting only 1 a day. I have 4 layers and 3 younger birds.

The recipe I used was soured milk, lime and salt. It was mixed to a paste and then painted on.

I found that it filled the smaller gaps in the wood but it must be the alkaline solution that the mites dont like too as I still have gaps.

Good luck and thank you for this site, it has been of great help to me.

 

[dawg53]

I am new to chicken keeping and in these first 4 months as a mummy chicken I have had to deal with sour crop, general snuffles and wheezing and finally mites. I tried the powders to prevent the mites but it did not work. I felt increasingly unsure about using the powder especially because some of my ladies were snuffly. I looked into permaculture and found a lime wash re ipe. I felt I wanted to try this before burning down the coop and buying at great cost an eglu.
It took 1 week. I cleaned out the coop and then washed it with white spirit to prepare the surface. I then white washed it. The coop went from crawling to only a few mites in 24hrs. I cleaned out the coop again on day 2 and the repeated the white washing. I have continued to clean the coop daily and each day I am pleasantly surprised as I have not found any mites for days now and my ladies have returned to 4 eggs a day. Before the treatment I was getting only 1 a day. I have 4 layers and 3 younger birds.

The recipe I used was soured milk, lime and salt. It was mixed to a paste and then painted on.

I found that it filled the smaller gaps in the wood but it must be the alkaline solution that the mites dont like too as I still have gaps.

Good luck and thank you for this site, it has been of great help to me.

What about the mites on your chickens? If you didnt treat your chickens, white washing the coop will have been in vain.

 

[Michael Apple]

What about the mites on your chickens? If you didnt treat your chickens, white washing the coop will have been in vain.

X2. I think whitewashing is time consuming in addition to being less effective. The emulsified concentrates available today wipe out mites/lice and have a good residual. Some are labeled for use on poultry in addition to premise treatment.

 

[pixiechicken]

I have managed to get rid of the mites with the constant cleaning out. Maybe I've been lucky this time but I can assure you that they have gone. My coop is not massive so it only took 2 hours to paint, in the great scheme of things this doesnt seem to much time.