Northern Fowl Mites

Northern Fowl Mites

Northern Fowl Mites (NFM) are very dangerous for our feathered friends here in Maine.  We tend to have a long season of cold weather that provides ideal temperatures for these evil little creatures. 

Autumn and Winter are fast approaching so a refresher on prevention and treatment is timely.

The NFM lives it’s entire life cycle on its host - the chicken in this case - and can do plenty of damage in a short period of time.  If infestation is bad you will see them even during the day and if you handle infested birds they will crawl on you and on eggs as you gather them from nest boxes.

 

Prevention, again, is first and foremost – clean shavings.  DO NOT use hay in your coops – even to add warmth for your birds.  Hay is a flashing neon invitation for NFM.  Straw is a good alternative. 

When cooler weather is indicative of the coming Fall,  we use a light dusting of DE (food grade Diatomaceous Earth) and a pyrethrum powder, barn lime and cedar shavings mixed in with the pine shavings.  Cedar repels NFM and adding some cedar shavings mixed with pine in nesting boxes is a good deterrent as well.  Straight cedar shavings should be used with caution.  Do your own research on use of cedar shavings with poultry.

DE: When using DE do so with caution – it can be harmful if inhaled (to both humans and poultry).  Mixing it in with the shavings in moderation helps keep the dust part down.  Doing this in the morning while the flock is out of the coop gives everything time to settle.  When researching the use of DE in raising poultry you will find that there are very different opinions by leading experts.  So one must decide for oneself what works for them.

Monthly dustings of birds “backs and bums”   with a pyrethrum powder is also a good deterrent.   A tip shared from one of our mentors is to put the powder in a knee high nylon stocking and tie a knot.  Then pat between the wings and the vent area as you let them out in the morning one by one.   There are many who are against treating “for no reason” and using a chemical based substance.  However, there has been no proven “Natural” method for deterring and treating mites.  I know firsthand of a few who learned that the hard way and finally -  after watching birds suffer and die begged on public forums for advice and conventional methods.  We try to be as natural as possible here at Clover Run but we also are going to be proactive with something –like NFM – which are known to be a problem in our climate area.

If an infestation occurs there is no other way to eliminate NFM without using a pesticide.  Be sure to choose one safe for poultry.  We have had one infestation here at Clover Run – we had hay stored upstairs in the Silkie Cottage and we are certain that it was the invitation needed despite prevention efforts.  A couple phone calls to mentors older and wiser than we confirmed that yes indeed – it had to be the hay.  In order to eradicate we removed all birds from the cottage – removed all shavings, nest boxes, feeders, waterers,  etc.  Every inch was sprayed down with a poultry safe insecticide spray for mites.  Each bird was bathed with a shampoo for dogs that removes fleas, etc.  The shaving mixture mentioned before was then added with more cedar then we would normally use and a lot of pyrethrum powder mixed in as well.  A new dust bath with DE and pyrethrum powder was mixed.  (Be sure to follow the ratio guidelines for using DE in your dust bath.  Many do not realize you have to mix it and the ratio is important.  Do not use straight DE for a dust bathing.)

It took a couple weeks to completely rid the cottage of NFM.  No insecticide has yet been created that can kill the nits, so all treatment has to be repeated in 7 and then again in 14 days from initial treatments.  Having fought the hard fight – prevention is much easier than waging the war!!  We hope no ones has to and with some preventative measure to make sure they are not welcome we should all be in good shape.

Legal mumbo jumbo:

We are not Veterinarians - we are sharing information that we have learned from those we feel are qualified as experts and what works for us.  We strongly suggest that everyone do their own research and decide what will work best for them.