Poultry mite invasion in my garden and house

[Jaffa Cake]

Help!!!

I had a massive red / grey mite infestation last year ... I did all the above burnt the coop built a new one bought a plastic coop. My chicken coop is mite free .. I am not. They have taken over my garden and at night are all over my window ledges and house ...I fought with a bathroom window to keep them out last night. I am at my wits end. I called in pest control and they said that there is nothing that they can do ... I have managed to insecticide my own house but I am finding them creeping in. Last night I taped up my bathroom window are I had an invasion. I have moved out of my own home for now as I am so freaked out. I went out in the garden last night to check my coop at midnight with a torch and it seems mite free as have been smiting and diatomacsous earthing and poultry shielding but they were all over the walls of my house!! I have moved out today as I am so worried about my cats and dogs ... I have left my chickens to fend for themselves as I had a horrendous night trying to keep the mites at bay. I have an old house where the windows don't fit and there are holes into the house everywhere. It is a timber framed house and I am scared that they are living in the walls. I don't know what to do. I have been smiting the garden and the pest man said they have moved to the walls of my house because they can no longer be on the ground as i have smitted everywhere and have dia all around my house. I don't know what to do and don't want to go home. I have moved in with my dad ... can anyone help me!! My garden and house walls are overrun and I can't get up to the roof of the house to deal with them. I was so badly bitten last year and all my animals and myself fought to get rid of them. I wish that I had never had chickens as I can no longer go out in my garden or let my animals out. I just go out to check on girls and run back in ... my life has become unbearable... I don't know what to do!

 

[rick]

Hi Jaffa Cake and welcome to the forum.
Whatever it is you have there it isn't red mite. Red mite need birds (and only birds) to live - they don't do any of the things you are describing and they would only be in your house walls if your house was full of roosting chickens.
Red mite feed on chickens at night by leaving a hiding place near the perch (in the wild it would be under the bark of a tree branch), and crawling onto the perch and onto the hens. They leave the same way back to their hiding place before sunrise. They can travel several meters for a meal (if desperate and that would mean unsuccessful and very few)) but, typically, only a few tens of centimeters to the perch from within a crack or gap in the coop construction.
Whatever is gong on I don't think your chickens have anything to do with it.

 

[LadyA]

Haven't ever heard of such a thing. But I found this: https://poultrykeeper.com/blog/will-red-mite-infest-your-house/
Are you sure they are redmite/chicken mites and not these: https://www.independent.ie/regionals/newrossstandard/lifestyle/heatseeking-clover-mites-completely-harmless-to-us-all-34893629.html
I'm afraid I can't offer any suggestions about getting rid or stopping them. Unless you try making a sort of sludgy paint of diatom and paint it along the bottom of the wall of your house, and around all the window edges?

 

[Jaffa Cake]

Thanks everso much for your replies. I read the link that you posted before so I decided to try and find someone who could help. The pest control guy said that they seemed to be poultry mites. They are exactly the same thing that I caught in my chicken coop last year. I went away for 4 days and came back to a millions and millions of them. I walked into the chicken coop and they ran all over me and I was finding them on my cats and my dogs in my house. I made the mistake of dragging the coop out of the run and burning it in my front yard. I managed to spread them all over the place. I didn't know what I was doing. They look exactly the same as the mites that I discovered last year. After an extremely cold winter I expected anything to be dead. I found them a couple of weeks ago in the old place where the coop was and sprayed everything. The pest control guy said that as I have sprayed that place they moved elsewhere. I went up to my house at 1am last night to check that my chickens didn't have them in their coop and they were fine but they were all over the walls of my house and office. I spent all night spraying and then left. I am really at a lose as what to do. I did discover a wasp nest too and the pest control guy got rid of that. Am at a loss ... The pest control guy suggested that I pressure wash my house but won't that just spread them? With the smite last night they were just falling off with the spray ...

 

[Jaffa Cake]

I don't think that they are clover mites ... I had a look at those too. They don't look like what was described.

 

[rick]

...they were all over the walls of my house and office.

Poultry red mite just don't do that - its not possible! If your pest control guy says they are then they don't have a clue and are making it up as they go along.

If it looks the same as the 'mite' you had last year then I'm wondering if it was red mite you had then or something else.

It sounds a bit like you have a bin full of rotting fruit somewhere and the fruit flies are going crazy!

... If you can get a picture of the beasties? Where are you in the world Jaffa Cake?

 

[Jaffa Cake]

I know what fruit flies look like ... they come out at night and run all over my window sills. this is actually a serious situation for me and I came on here for help 08

 

[rick]

It wouldn't help you to suggest solutions for poultry red mite when what your describing doest sound like poultry red mite (Dermanyssus gallinae).

Is it a tropical climate where you are?

... it is possible -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamasoidosis

Jet washing the house would do nothing at all. If it is an infestation like this (in the garden though???) then you will need a pest control professional. The one you have at the moment doesn't fill me with confidence!

 

[Tweetypie]

Not sure if this is a UK site, but lots of advice about infestations in the home, too....

https://www.birdmites.org/infested.html

 

[Marigold]

hi Jaffacake and welcome to the forum. I'm sorry it's at such a stressful time for you.

I think the biggest clue to whether these are actually red mites lies in what you say about your coop and chickens seemingly being unaffected, which its the only good thing about the whole nightmare situation. If your infestation was redmite, the coop would be swarming with them and by now your chickens would be dead or dying from anaemia because the mites would be sucking their blood dry every night. For redmite to be present in such enormous numbers all over your house and garden, they would have to be feeding on some living creatures, a few apparently unaffected chickens wouldn't be enough to sustain them, so I agree with Rick that whatever you have, it's highly unlikely to be redmite. On this forum, we are very experienced in diagnosing and treating redmite, (I'm sorry to say!) but of course we can't say for certain unless you can post some good photos of the critters.

A sudden outbreak of redmite in large numbers has to come from somewhere they are already established. There was once a post on another forum from someone who had recently imported a large amount of wood chip into her garden, which turned out to be from trees where many birds had been roosting, and the wood chip came impregnated with enormous numbers of redmite which swarmed all over the place, everywhere, similar to yours. But as you don't mention buying any wood chip, or having trees cut down and shredded on or near your land, it seems unlikely that this could be the cause.

Please could you let us know whether you are in the UK? If you live anywhere else, especially if it's warmer, its possible there may be other kinds of mites which we've never experienced that can reach plague proportions. Wherever you live, I would advise you to get help from higher up in Pest Control and Public Health sources, and keep on badgering them until you get a definite diagnosis and practical help. A bit of publicity in the local news outlets may concentrate their minds, and also you may find others have the same problem. It's unlikely yours is the only outbreak in your local area. With luck, this outbreak may run its course and the mites, or fruit flies, or whatever they are, will have a short life cycle, unlike redmite, and will die off in a week or two, but you still need to know what they are in case eggs etc are being left behind in your house, to prevent a recurrence next season. There's god advice on the link Tweetipie has posted, even if the company isn't in your own area.

 

[Jaffa Cake]

Hello,

I am by the sea down in Essex in the UK. I have read all your post and I think that I will contact the council and see if they can help. I was thinking that they haven't got to my chickens as I have been smiting and poultry shielding and DEing them since last year when they were infected. I noticed the invasion in the old area where I had my chicken coop first and smitted it all and they are all dead. I hadn't noticed that they were everywhere else in the garden until I sat outside at night. I then realised that they were coming in through the windows at night. I have tried to get a photo of them with my iphone but they are so small and quick that I can't get a good shot. I will try again. I have trawled the net looking for photos of similar images of what I have found but they are so small that it is difficult to see. I am so worried about my chocs as I nearly lost them all last year. They were so ill, lost all there feathers and the chicken coop was infested with millions of them. I have never seen anything like it. It was something like the cockroaches on the mummy. When I pulled the coop apart they attacked me everywhere. I was covered in bites so obviously I am afraid that the same will happen. It took me months of smitting to get rid of them and I kept my girls in a greenhouse until I could afford to build a new coop. Are there any other types of mites that can affect chickens? If they are not red mites?

 

[Marigold]

Interesting that you’re on the SW coast, as there’ve been quite a few types of insects etc migrating from Europe in recent years because of the warming climate in the S of England. It would be really good to report this to DEFRA , I think, and somehow or other get a expert opinion and diagnosis about what it is. Only then could you plan properly to deal with them.

 

[Marigold]

P.S. is your property isolated, perhaps in woodland or with large trees, where many birds might be roosting, eg starling flocks?
Or is it suburban, close to other houses? If so,are your neighbours also affected?

 

[Jaffa Cake]

Hello Marigold, thanks for writing to me. Great just to talk about it. I am in the country I have a massive eucalyptus tree that looms over my house and pigeons which will not go away. I am in a village and have houses that surround me. Interestingly I had builders build a massive house behind mine all last summer and we were consumed with dust etc. I am wondering if that might have set something off as last year was a nightmare. I have emailed my immediate neighbour this morning to see if they are having any problems as they keep chickens. A good idea about DEFRA. I have also contacted a different pest control company to see if they can come up with anything this morning as I think that the others might be right and that the one that I contacted wasn't much help. It is just good to talk to people about it. I have read the other links that people have sent and indeed people have reported that their own houses have been infested with red mite. I am just about to go back up to my house and check up on my chickens as staying with my dad and have relocated my dog and cats. Couldn't face going back home yesterday. I had the mites swarming over a potted xmas tree outside my office and the pest control guy said that they were living off the spores on the tree? It that possible? I am beginning to think that the others are right and that the pest control guy didn't know what he was talking about. I do get the impression though that as soon as I smit an area that they are relocating as am working through the garden bit by bit. Where are the other reports that you were talking about? It is def warmer down here than anywhere else and both times this has happened due to a very hot few days. Thanks again

 

[Jaffa Cake]

Can I load photos up on here! I am back st my house and have been brave and unmasked my bathroom window. Even though have used smite and DE is on the outside of the window I have manage to photo a live one. I can’t work out if I can upload a photo here?

 

[rick]

Sorry if I overdid it on the incredulity front before Jaffa Cake. They do sound more like spider mite of some description - theres no way poultry red mite would be swarming over a potted plant, particularly in daylight.
You can post images by selecting the 'Attachments' tab just under the 'Save draft', 'Preview' and 'Submit' buttons under the post you are typing in the full editor.
Click 'Add files' - there will be a pop up to select the image on your computer.
The image name will then appear as uploaded in the list below and you can 'Place inline'
a square bracketed link will appear in the text editor and you can copy and past this to anywhere in your post.
Use 'Preview' to see how it will look before submitting.

Images under 1MB (about) will be automatically resized.

Here is a silly picture of a home made feeder I found the other day

 

[Marigold]

I think the eucalyptus tree and the pigeons may well have something to do with this. A friend of mine, an experienced poultrykeeper who had never had redmite, once left the door of an empty run open, and came back to find a pigeon sitting on a stool she'd left in there. She shooed it out and then found the stool was covered in red mite, from the feathers the pigeon had been preening. The mite did spread rapidly to her other runs, probably on her shoes or clothing, (which may be how yours got indoors from the garden) and she only got rid of them by spraying Ficam-W, a highly toxic insect killer for professional use or with careful precautions, but it did do the trick in one go. As her runs had roofs and she was careful to keep the doors shut, there was no further infestation. If the run has no roof, or has a mesh roof where wild birds can sit and preen, the mites will return by being shaken off their feathers. I don't think you could safely use Ficam- W indoors, though, but a commercial company should be able to advise you about tackling the task.
The mites you see, on your plant etc- are they red or grey? Red mite will only be red if they've just fed on some bird or other living creature, and they do this at night. Not so likely indoors, maybe. See the main Poultrykeeper site for pics and more about red mite.
https://poultrykeeper.com/red-mite/

 

[Tweetypie]

Dear Jaffa

To add photo's from your laptop/computer, underneath the bottom of this section where you type a reply, you will see Save draft Preview Submit

Underneath that you will see OPTIONS and ATTACHMENTS

Click on ATTACHMENTS

Click ADD FILESand a box will pop up for you to search your computer for the photo

Once you have double clicked to add the file, then click PREVIEW to see if the photo appears and then SUBMIT if you can see it.

I resize my photo's to 1000 pixels and they always work

 

[Marigold]

If you use a MacBook, select the photo by clicking on it, then go to File at the top of the Photos page, then Export. On the Export menu, choose Medium quality and size. Save it to Finder and then you can drag and drop it into the message box. Place the cursor where you want the pic to go, then finish by clicking on Place Inline in the forum attachments menu. Check it in Preview before posting it.

When I use my iPad mini, I have to pass the pic through an image reduction app to reduce the file size to about 600x800. Then save the reduced size file, go back to your post and select it, then place inline as before. If the image size is too big, it will tell you.

Here are the second brood from the blackbirds who are nesting in our perch this year, one day old, taken with a selfie stick. They can only improve in looks!

 

[chrismahon]

They sound like some kind of midge- on hot days here we can get huge clouds of them. I'm certain it has nothing to do with poultry. They must be eating something local and Eucalyptus sap is a possibility?