Red mites continue to be one of the most irritating things a chicken farmer will face. The reason they are such a big problem is that they only have a seven-day life cycle. That means going from eggs, to growing up, to laying eggs, and dying – it just takes around a week. This means that if you have one red mite laying eggs in your shed, all those eggs will be adults in seven days, and they will in turn lay their own eggs.
Thus a single red mite may turn into hundreds or even thousands in just a matter of a few weeks. Thus, one day everything seems fine, but a week later you’ll see your chickens acting agitated and avoiding going inside the shed, and when you check your perch you will see hundreds of red mites scattering away. Once the infestation becomes too bad, you have no option but to thoroughly cleanup the whole shed, keep your chickens elsewhere, and to get professional grade anti red mite powders and materials. If you want to avoid reaching this point, here is what you need to do:
Keep Everything Clean
The number one way of keeping red mites away from your chickens and your shed is to regularly clean the shed, and clean it closely. Look at all the perches closely, and be on the lookout for any gray ash like material. This is what red mites leave behind and this is usually the first sign that you are going to go head on with a red mite infestation soon.
Keep Some Anti Red Mite Spray Handy
You don’t have to go straight to the professional grade powders and keeping your chickens out of the shed overnight. There are spray bottles of diluted anti red mite spray, and it works very well. It will not help you get rid of a full on infestation, but if you happen to see the signs of an infestation beginning it can be of huge help. Just spray it wherever the red mites seem to be coming out from, and you will have taken care of the problem without having to do a lot.
Just make sure you do a thorough checkup of the shed. Stay vigilant and you’ll never reach that stage.
What To Do If There Is A Major Infestation
Are red mites scurrying around every time you step into the shed? Well, the only solution now is to thoroughly get rid of the problem. Get some anti red mite powder, arrange for your chickens to sleep elsewhere for a night, and make sure you get the powder in every nook and cranny of the shed.
