Beating red mite after a long standing battle

This summer at the beginning of July I discovered the dreaded red mite in the coop. After two and a half years without encountering them I had grown a bit complacent and hadn’t been checking for them so thoroughly.

I was horrified to find quite an infestation and we proceeded to take the coop to bits to treat it. Luckily my friend Jackie lent me her plastic dog kennel as a temporary coop for the girls. This enabled me to spray the coop every three days for three weeks to break the mite and egg cycle (or so I thought). I sprayed with mite kill, cleaned the coop, sprayed with mite protector, put the coop back together and dusted with D.E. then when I felt sure it was all clear I reinstalled the girls and returned Jackie’s dog kennel.

I had also dusted the girls in mite powder and sprinkled mite powder in all their dust bathing holes. I have continued to do this on a regular basis since and made sure that I checked the coop regularly too.

In September when checking by removing the nest box I discovered red mite again. This time I had caught it early and it was just an area around the nest box. We checked periodically by removing some roof slats that they hadn’t got that far. They seemed to be contained to this one area as I didn’t find them anywhere else.

This time I wanted to treat it without removing the girls as the weather was cooler and the infestation very small. I thought catching it early would make it easier to deal with. I sprayed with the mite kill every morning and dusted with D.E. at the end of the day. I continued to put mite powder in all the dust bath holes. It appeared that I had got rid of them fairly quickly but I decided that I must be much more vigilant.

I started a habit of taking off the nest box once it was dark every evening and inspecting with a torch. I was shocked to find that each time I checked there would be a few red mite which I squashed with my fingers. I started taking off the nest box twice a day, every single morning just before it got light and every single evening after dark. I felt sure that if I were to stop doing this the numbers would soon build up again.

I always found a few, varying in numbers from one or two to six, eight or ten and sometimes none then the next time a few again. I believe there were a small number remaining in the crevices around the nest box and coming out at night or eggs hatching and coming out at night.

I think that after the initial infestation there may have been some mites or eggs in crevices that were to emerge at a later date and that although on the surface I thought I had got rid of them there were still a few there which would build in numbers again.

I got to know red mite quite intimately as this continued for three months. My friend Jackie remarked on my patience, which was being tried. There were many times that I really felt I would never be free of them completely and I often researched plastic coops and nearly gave in a few times and got ready to buy one.

I wanted to avoid this if possible because of many reasons such as: the extra expense, I don’t like the look of them as much as wood, it would have to be big enough for eight girls but come apart into small enough parts to fit through the gate of the run, it would have to be compatible with my automatic door opener and lastly my main concern was that they can be prone to condensation which runs down plastic rather than being absorbed in wood.

I was determined to keep going for as long as I could and decided not to make a decision until spring.

I held off writing this post as I thought it would  be tedious and wanted to put off writing it until it had reached a conclusion.

I came to know that just hatched red mite are the size of a pinprick and are grey when they haven’t had a feed and red when they have. Fully grown mites are about the size of a flea and are black when they haven’t had a feed and of course red when they have. They pop when they are squashed. I was pleased when I squashed them before they were red meaning I had saved the girls from them that night.

I also discovered that spraying with mite kill only works when you spray it on them. Spraying the coop where they are not visible is a waste of time. Sometimes I cleaned the coop and sprayed it thouroughly then in the evening did the checks and there were still red mite. I also discovered that mite protector doesn’t work at all and is a waste of money. Another thing I saw, which was a real let down for me, was that they walked across D.E. I still can’t help myself sprinkling it every where but I have seen them cross it.

I did endless research on red mite and one long standing chicken owner and advisor said that when you get red mite in a wooden coop it is nearly impossible to get rid of them completely. She said once you had got rid of the initial infestation you needed to manage them to keep the numbers down. Her advice was to do what I was already doing.

The other  misconception is that they don’t thrive in winter when actually they do it’s just more likely that you will see an outbreak in summer when conditions are ideal for them. They can also live for six months without a feed. I had considered removing the nest box and replacing it with something temporary but this made that a useless exercise.

So I decided that all things considered I would just keep on going. It was tedious and time consuming but I developed a compulsive habit of checking twice a day and squashing any I found and reporting to my husband that there two tonight, six tonight, none tonight, one tonight and so on and so on for three long months.

Then a week ago there were none in the evening and again none the next morning. Too soon to get my hopes up. None the next evening and none the next morning. None the following evening, morning and evening. Could this be it! I was not holding my breath. For a week I continued to check with my torch twice a day. I also checked all the perches each time.

After a week of finding none I am quietly confident that my patience may have paid off and I may have cracked this. I will never be complacent again though. I am now just checking once a day but if I find so much as one it will be back to twice a day and I will always make regular checks from now on. I think though that I may have finally won this long standing battle.