Red mites are easily the biggest problem that most new chicken farmers will face. The problem with a red mite infestation is that often there are no obvious signs until it is too late. Red mite infestations start out very slow. You’ll start seeing some ash around, some of your eggs will have blood on them. Soon you will be losing chickens, and most of your chickens will start becoming sick. Here’s what you need to do if you want to avoid going through this process and learning the lesson the hard way.
Check For The Signs
If you keep chickens, you should be checking for signs of a budding red mite infestation every few days, especially during the summers. Red mites are very small, which makes them very hard to detect in small quantities. You may have a mites running around but you’ll never see them unless you get on the ground and look for them. The first sign usually is that there will be something that looks like grey ash near the cracks in your coop. Most people just dismiss it and think that the grey ashy material may be just some dirt, but if you see this sign get ready for a thorough check-up.
Lift up some of the boards in your coop and look closely. You will see very small red mites – the biggest of them slightly bigger than half a centimetre. They mostly come out at night, and go back inside to their hiding places during the day.
Another sign of there being a red mite infestation in your coop is that your chickens will seem distressed. Red mite bites are painful, and you will notice that chickens don’t want to go back to their resting place. The chickens are trying to avoid the red mites that will bite them at night. Another major sign is that your chickens will start to look pale and sickly. Once you reach this stage you can almost guarantee that you have a major red mite infestation. If you keep an eye out for the signs you’ll never reach this stage.
Getting Rid Of Red Mites
Once you detect a red mite infestation, getting rid of it is easy. That is why you should be focusing on catching the infestation as soon as it starts. Since red mites are such a common problem, products that can eradicate them are available easily. You can get it in a spray form, in a powder form, or as a concentrate. We would recommend keeping a spray as well as powder. The spray is for when you see a small group of red mites – it instantly deals with them. The powder is for when the infestation needs to be taken a bit more seriously. Just make sure that you put the powder in all the places where the red mites may be hiding, and that you cover the total area of the place where you keep your chickens.
