Methods and means to combat chicken mites
Insects and parasites disturb not only animals, but also parrots, chickens and other birds. Chicken mite is a parasite that leads an active lifestyle at night and causes great discomfort to domesticated birds. We need to find out how to deal with it. And if a tick appears in chickens, treat it.
Chicken mite
In young animals, immunity weakens, decreases laying hens productivity and the growth of chickens slows down. How to deal with the parasite which is chicken and feather mites at home?
How to recognize chicken mites
The chicken feather mite is a blood-sucking parasite that lives on the body of domestic chickens in chicken coops.
Dangerous insects are carriers of infectious diseases. From the active reproduction of the tick, the productivity of the layers suffers first of all. What does an ordinary chicken mite look like? Outwardly, chicken mites are no different from others avian parasites... Due to their small size (up to 1 cm in length), they easily fit in crevices and small rooms.
Pests quickly adapt to any environment and survive at extremely low or high temperatures, which complicates the positive results of controlling them. The chicken parasite lives in uncleaned, damp poultry houses with poor ventilation. It occupies litters and nests, and then moves to the bird's body. Tenacious parasites bite people, but only in rare cases, when a person spends a lot of time near the chicken coop. But the chicken red mite in humans is successfully cured. Its bites are very painful and very dangerous for animals and humans. Chicken mite venom is injected into the wound, creating a painful red lesion up to 5 cm in diameter and prevents blood from clotting. As a result, concomitant diseases against a background of weakened immunity can become a serious problem if you do not fight them.
If a tick bites chickens, small wounds and dried blood are left on the body of the birds.
It is difficult to notice bite marks, which means both red and other chicken mites need to be carefully looked for, especially under the thick chicken fluff. In birds, nervousness and a painful state appear, because the birds are unable to scratch the bite due to the structure of their body. Young animals suffer from tick infestations more often than adults. Regular chicken coop treatment with various means against harmful parasites - the guarantee of the health of all poultry and therefore any chicken mite in this environment will not be dangerous.
The consequences of a tick bite
If the egg production of layers has decreased, the bird is constantly itching (behaving aggressively or too active), and the young look bad, the birds should be examined and checked in the chicken coop and the infected birds should be treated. Parts of the body that are affected by insect bites:
- neck;
- wings;
- skin under the tail;
- nostrils;
- head.
In some cases, it is possible to trace the movement of the tick along the body of the chicken (the places where the thin skin is most vulnerable), but you should not wait for such clues. The danger of an infestation of ticks is that they attack the ears, larynx and trachea of broilers, which is why in birds the first symptoms do not appear immediately, but noticeable signs develop against the background of secondary diseases. In sick birds, a tremor of the head begins, coughing fits appear, wheezing in the lungs.
At the first manifestations of the disease, you need to start treatment and carry out a complete cleaning of the chicken coop. To check if there are parasites in the house or if emergency measures have helped, you should take a clean piece of paper and place it in hard-to-reach parts of the chicken coop. In crevices under the floor or along poorly ventilated walls. If dark spots appear on the paper, the mites have not disappeared anywhere.
Parasite control methods
In order to get rid of ticks from chickens, farmers lubricate the bites with oil on those parts of the bird's body, on which unhealed wounds and legs are visible. After a couple of days, the tick dies. The wounds are disinfected and coated with cream, which promotes rapid healing. The poultry house must be cleaned and disinfected, and the chickens, after the illness and treatment, must be moved to a dry, ventilated room. As a result, the dangerous red chicken mite will be completely destroyed.
There are many methods that make it easy and effective to deal with ticks. Effective ways to fight ticks are as follows:
- Treatment of a chicken flock begins with the treatment of the skin of birds with special medicinal products. The procedure is carried out 2 times per knock at weekly intervals. Powder "Sevin" is the best remedy for chicken feather mites. Feathers are sprinkled with a powder preparation, and birds and their habitat are sprayed with disinfecting sprays.
- Sand and ash are the best natural remedies to completely eliminate pests. 2 ingredients are mixed, and then the mixture is poured into a glass container. A container with a product is placed in the yard. Chickens in the immediate vicinity of the product will clean themselves of ticks on their own. Soon, you don't have to worry about the problem of ticks.
- Feather mites do not tolerate too high temperatures, so it is useful to treat the floor and walls of the chicken coop with boiling water, a flame (if the house is not wooden) or a blowtorch. Quartz lamps will do an excellent job of killing ticks; this method is used on large poultry farms. At home, it is also suitable for insect control.
- Plants will help to remove such aliens. Mint, parsley, onion, celery and garlic are laid out in the chicken coop (along the entire perimeter). The specific odors will quickly drive the pests out of the house.
Treatment with sprays and aerosols cannot be used without consulting specialists. The veterinarian will accurately prescribe medication and will tell you in detail how to deal with chicken ticks at home without harming the birds.
Bird mites are dangerous. Pests carry serious diseases: plague, borreliosis and cholera. If you do not take appropriate measures for treatment and prevention, birds will die and harm humans.
Treatment of a chicken coop from ticks
To find out whether the parasite has appeared, you need to know what a red chicken tick looks like. This parasite, after drinking blood, changes its color and turns purple. Upon learning that a red tick has started up in domestic chickens, the farmer urgently proceeds to complete disinfection of the premises. Once it gets rid of the pests, preventive measures will prevent further attacks.
The red tick is tenacious and multiplies quickly. The female insect lays 20 eggs at a time. Adults reproduce actively both in the warm season and on rainy days. Insects remain dangerous to humans for six months. In adverse conditions, they hibernate.
Features of the prevention of cleaning the poultry house:
- in late spring and early autumn, a routine examination of birds is carried out for the presence of wounds and dried blood;
- it is recommended to promptly clean the traces of droppings, change the bedding, sweep the cobwebs and disinfect with boiling water in the feeder;
- the courtyard is sprinkled with dry sand and its cleanliness is monitored;
- once a month, the premises where the birds live should be disinfected.
It is easier to carry out periodic prophylaxis than to treat young animals for a long period of time for wounds that cover their legs, neck and other vulnerable, sensitive skin areas. Chickens that live in cages are less likely to suffer from insects and it is easier to find a tick on the paws of some chickens there. Parasites grow in wooden chicken coops. The small area prevents pests from actively multiplying and leaving multiple bites on the paws of the bird.
Remedies for parasites that live in the feathers of small parrots and domestic birds are easy to find at the pharmacy. The necessary and appropriate drug is prescribed by the veterinarian. A specialist examines all poultry on the farm and makes an accurate diagnosis of wounds on the bird's body.
Bird mutilation
The legs and skin of poultry are attacked by two types of pests: acariform and feather insects. A tick in a chicken on its legs (acariform type) causes a serious disease - knemidocoptosis. Roosters suffer from a complex disease more often than chickens and layers. The symptoms of a dangerous disease are as follows: the upper layer of the skin on the legs becomes thicker, the phalanges of the fingers become covered with a gray coating, and the bird looks weak and lethargic. If you do not start urgent drug treatment, the deformity of the limbs in the rooster cannot be corrected.
Knemidocoptosis remedies will not be too expensive for the farmer. For the treatment of the disease, people use cheap and natural birch tar. A remedy with a characteristic odor is used to treat sore skin areas (so that the infection does not spread throughout the body). The course of treatment with a folk remedy is 6 days.
Acaricides are used as the most effective medications for poultry. The agent is rubbed into the lower limbs of the rooster. The desired result can be seen on the second day. A feather mite in chickens settles on the feather shaft and in the hole, directly sucking blood from the feathery. Loss of blood leads to the complete destruction of the feather and the chicken, if not treated in time, may remain without feathers. The consequences of such an attack on chicken coops can be found in many photos.
Tick in parrots: treatment and harm to humans
Bird mites often attack parrots. In pet stores, it is not uncommon to meet these birds, on the pads of the fingers of which a rash is noticeable. Redness is a sign that the subcutaneous parasite is feeding on the bird's blood. The red tick affects different parts of the bird's body, leaving it without feathers. Growths form on the affected areas, and how many of them will depend on the bird's immunity. The number of bites does not always indicate the degree of neglect of the disease.
Pets will be able to remove and relieve pain if you lubricate itchy wounds with petroleum jelly or oil. These ticks do not pose a threat to humans. Ticks do not take root in humans either on the face or on any other part of the body. A vivid photo, where the tick seems threatening, shows how many adaptations the parasite has for feeding from the host's body. Pimples on the face, itching in people can cause serious concern. A consultation with a specialist will dispel all fears.
During intensive treatment, the bird's body weakens, therefore, so that there are no consequences, a course of vitamins is prescribed to the bird. Special vitamin complexes are fed to feathered whole courses. Thanks to the prompt actions of the farmer, the parasites do not just disappear, their further attacks are completely excluded (prevention, which gives guarantees). Now, if ticks appear in chickens, we know how to deal with them and win. Being able to protect your own farm and preserve birds are two different concepts.