Killing the Chicken Mites

"Everyone fights, and no one quits."

Welcome to the Rough Necks

When you see the dreamy, dewy farm life reels on Instagram with the happy, clucking chickens and silly baby goats, do not be fooled.

You are entering a war,

An eternal war,

A war against bugs.

You thought you were entering a slow life, an idyllic life; a sweet provincial life.

Wrong. Dead wrong - you are now living in Starship Trooper world.

You are going to encounter every sort of stinking, evil, nasty bug that crawls forth from the pit of hades, and you must fight or surely perish.

Now that you know the truth, you can cower, scream, and sprint back to the dulcet, comfy life without animals and bugs.

Or you can grab your fears by the horns and smash and kill every disgusting creepy crawler out there and thrust them back to hell.

Here’s what you need:

You need Elector PSP.

Get it at ValleyVet.com.

It’s a spinosad (naural bacteria)-based insectiside, which means it’s safe for your animals and deadly for all forms of bugs, adults, larvae, and eggs alike.

Yes, it’s expensive, but it’s a concentrate, and one bottle will last you many bug battles. For there will be many battles.

When you’re factoring in all your chicken coop supply costs, factor in the price of Elector PSP - trust me, and again I say, you need this.

(If you’re terribly desperate and simply cannot afford the Elector PSP, get the Captain Jack’s Dead Bug brew from Amazon. It’s the same essential spinosad ingredient, but you have to double the dose to get the same strength of the Elector PSP brand.)

You need a dedicated garden sprayer just for this purpose. Get one yesterday! Follow the directions in the spinosad bottle to make the bug death juice, and you’re ready to deal out Justice.

You must also arm yourself with food-grade diatomaceous earth and garden lime. These will help prevent the nasty bugs in most cases (but if you’re reading this, you’re probably already in trouble. That’s okay, you will fix it now and then you can think about doing the prevention work in the future).

Now get to work

If your chicken mite infection is particularly nasty, you should start by spraying the outside of your coop with your prepared spinosad spray.

Now work your way in. I say start spraying the bedding, because if it’s bad, they’re surely lurking there, and they will crawl up your feet and onto you. So gross.

Honestly, they’re in every crack and cranny of the coop, so go hog-wild and spray everything. Spray it all.

It is imperative that you spray every wall, every corner, and the ceiling, too. Don’t forget the nesting boxes.

Every conceivable inch of the coop needs the spinosade.

“Inconceivable!” You exclaim.

“Not remotely,” I reply.

Spray everything.

Let it sit, cook, and do it’s work.

Next, you will clean out the bedding and toss it out. If you can’t burn it, throw it in the trash. And spray the trash bag for good measure. There’s no such thing as stingy when it comes to spraying bugs.

If your weather is hot and dry, your chickens should be able dust bathe normally, and that has worked for my flock in eradicating the mites, sometimes.

But if it’s wet and muggy, you’re also going to have to spray your chickens’ bums and underneath their wings.

You can spray them at night while they’re roosting, and I think it’s good to spray the coop again to try and catch and any miserable stray mites who evaded the first spinosad strike. If you prefer to run around and catch each chicken and treat them by hand in the day time, you can call it Crossfit.

You can add in clean bedding after you’re done spraying the daylights out of the chickens and coop. Throw some more lime and distomaceous earth in there for good measure.

So there you have the basic bug murder plan. In the next weeks you need to keep checking your chickens and coop to make extra sure that the nasties are good and dead. When in doubt, spray, sprsy, and spray (and do dust the coop with diatomaceous earth and lime).

Don’t worry, they will surely come back some day. And the battles will rage on.

You can do this.

God Bless and Good Luck.

P.S. I really hope it’s obvious that I don’t have any special links or codes or whatever. I’m not paid for any of the products I talked about here. But since it’s a wretched internet world, I have to tell you this.