severe red mite infestation

[KazzaL]

my hen house has a major red mite infestation and i've treated with powder but it's getting worse. I'm worried that my hens are getting ill as the number of eggs is going down and the eggs are getting smaller too.

Any tips or suggestions will be very appreciated!!

[KazzaL]

anyone?

[floaty]

I have just found that I have an infestation too although so far does not seem too bad.Have soaked the whole house in Poultry Sheild and used Diatom powder.I have it on good advice that a blowtorch is the answer but feel a bit nervous about burning house down!Several of the poultry forums have people recommending a product called RIP Flea so I am just about to order some,but you need to keep on top a bit like nits the eggs hatch every 4 days apparently.Have you tried looking at The Poultry keepers website and also Omlet,there seems to be some good advice on there.

[meltedmarsbars]

Friend has just creosoted her hen house for the same reason, but she had to house the hens somewhere else while it dried.

Floaty, try a paintsripper heat gun? It works for singeing the fluff off ducks at plucking time

[Cluckadoodledoo]

Creosote is now illegal in the uk, and have red the red mite infestation increase is due to this! If you have old stocks you can use still.

We had one in summer. Removed all the bedding and power washed the house run etc. Then we used sprayed thoroughly with Poultry shield and allowed to dry (it breas down the coating on the mites and eggs)

We dusted the birds with red mite powder and sprinkled diatom powder on the hemcore bedding and in their dustbath.

Seems to have worked.

Egg production was affected so we started giving a vitamin/mineral powder supplement daily too.

Are dusting weekly now and using Poultry shield with every bedding change.

Read somewhere that frontline for cats and dogs works on the birds though is not officially advised but some vets say to try it?!

[seaglass]

Sorry, I know this is really old, but I thought I'd add that you can still get proper creosote through fencing contractors.
Failing that, a strong solution of dettol sprayed into every nook and cranny - you need to spray every couple of days for a week or so to get on top of a bad infestation, then every week as part of the cleaning out routine.
Dettol breaks down the mites waxy coating, and kills them, and it's much, much cheaper than official mite killing stuff