The Poultry Keeper

slider955i · Joined: 20 Aug 2008 Posts: 50 Location: westmidlands

are red mites a year round problem or is it seasonal Question

BLUELACED · Joined: 01 Mar 2008 Posts: 66 Location: Leicestershire

I think this has been a dreadful year for red mite for most poultry keepers. They can live without a host for quite a while too, they just go white due to the lack of blood Laughing

I think they are all year round but they are at their worst in summer. All my sheds are now painted with creosote, and when I clean them out I spray the cracks and crevices with dettol solution (much cheaper than redmite products and works!) I then sprinkle ant powder on the floor before putting shavings down and this is working. My sheds were crawling with red mite this year and I lost one hen and others were very anaemic. Creosote is the best stuff to keep these pests at bay and although I got my hands on the real hardcore stuff, a friend has tried the legal creosote substitute and she said it worked too!