# Mites, Lice, Fleas, Ticks, Large Roundworms



## ChickenCrazy01 (May 8, 2016)

I have a project I am working on. I can't seem to find clear information on these few subjects through google. Could anyone explain one or more of these illnesses? Thanks in advance!


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

Well, they are not illnesses, they are parasites. Left untreated, parasites weaken the chickens immune system opening the door to illnesses/diseases. 
Here's a link to poultry external parasites with close up pics:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ig140
Large roundworms are nematodes and are common in poultry. There are other types of poultry nematodes that are common as well. Cestodes and trematodes can also infect poultry. Here's a link:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps012


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## ChickenCrazy01 (May 8, 2016)

Thank you! Lol sorry I meant parasites. Been a long day..


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Mites and lice are skin bugs and you can powder your chickens with sevin or poultry dust.


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

seminolewind said:


> Mites and lice are skin bugs and you can powder your chickens with sevin or poultry dust.


We had a neighbor that a few months ago had lice on her chickens, she had someone give her some type of chemical bath stuff to use on them. I 100% freaked out. Never in a million years would I use a chemical bath on any of my animals. I go 100% natural with anything. I had Little man get lice where he couldn't take a dirt bath. I went out and used ashes from the burn pile on him. It got rid of them after about 1 week. However we had to do it by hand. It also helps to get rid of mites as well.


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

hildar said:


> We had a neighbor that a few months ago had lice on her chickens, she had someone give her some type of chemical bath stuff to use on them. I 100% freaked out. Never in a million years would I use a chemical bath on any of my animals. I go 100% natural with anything. I had Little man get lice where he couldn't take a dirt bath. I went out and used ashes from the burn pile on him. It got rid of them after about 1 week. However we had to do it by hand. It also helps to get rid of mites as well.


Used properly, chemicals are the way to go. When wood is burned, the chemical make up is altered via ash. Chemicals in wood ash can be toxic. The toxins include potassium hydroxide that can cause chemical burns to skin and other tissues. Ash also contains traces of heavy metals such as chromium, iron, cobalt etc... not to mention air pollution. Did you or your animals breathe the smoke? If so, what were you breathing? Chemicals of course! This is why store bought chemicals are preferred, they've been properly tested and labeled with instructions and warnings.
If you have a dog or cat, I'm sure you use a monthly chemical parasite preventative on or in them.
With chickens, the inside of the hen house must be treated as well, including nests.


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

dawg53 said:


> Used properly, chemicals are the way to go. When wood is burned, the chemical make up is altered via ash. Chemicals in wood ash can be toxic. The toxins include potassium hydroxide that can cause chemical burns to skin and other tissues. Ash also contains traces of heavy metals such as chromium, iron, cobalt etc... not to mention air pollution. Did you or your animals breathe the smoke? If so, what were you breathing? Chemicals of course! This is why store bought chemicals are preferred, they've been properly tested and labeled with instructions and warnings.
> If you have a dog or cat, I'm sure you use a monthly chemical parasite preventative on or in them.
> With chickens, the inside of the hen house must be treated as well, including nests.


My dad would have been all up and down you for saying that. The chickens back then free roamed and they were always in the wood stove ashes, just like here you throw out ashes and boom they head for it and take dirt baths in it. Healthiest chickens you will ever see as well.

Did I breath it in heck yeah and nothing at all wrong with breathing in smoke from the wood that I burn out here. It is as natural as can be. Tree branches being burned has happened for thousands of years ask any fireman about wild fires you breathe that in daily and just don't know it.


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## Nm156 (May 16, 2015)

Sorry , but i love how people use the modern tools of the modern time then always refer to back then.


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

Nm156 said:


> Sorry , but i love how people use the modern tools of the modern time then always refer to back then.


LOL yeah but my dad has been gone from this world since 1980. However he raised healthy chickens for over 40 years, and my mom raised healthy chickens even after that for another 20+ years, so yeah It was a back then thing.

However I still do it. So yeah its a now and back then thing


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

my Grandpa dusted his tomatoes with Sevin all the time in the 60's to 80's and none of my family has died from Sevin.


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

I'm sure everyone here in this forum has breathed smoke from burning wood or other stuff.... probably stuff more toxic than wood; like plastics, old tires etc....
Back in the old days the knowledge wasnt there like it is today. 
Forewarned is Forearmed.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

When it comes to ticks, fleas, mites, lice, Florida cockroaches, mice , rats, and flies, I will use the newest most lethal chemicals there are found on store shelves. 

I love clorox, and nutrasweet.

I was 9 years old when Dad in the military was going to be stationed at Incirlik Turkey. That was in the 60's and my family got every vaccine available to keep us from dying a nasty death, like Cholera, Typhus, Typhoid, TB,- don't remember the rest.

I know everything in life is a trade off and nothing is without consequences.

And chickens were really really healthier way back then because they laid eggs for a few years then became chicken dinner. If lice, mites, and worms were going to make a chicken sick and die, they became a meal prior to that. 

Just IMO.


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## Nm156 (May 16, 2015)

Back Then.....

Why Did People Wear Powdered Wigs?

At the time, head lice were everywhere, and nitpicking was painful and time-consuming. Wigs, however, curbed the problem. Lice stopped infesting people's hair-which had to be shaved for the peruke to fit-and camped out on wigs instead. Delousing a wig was much easier than delousing a head of hair: you'd send the dirty headpiece to a wigmaker, who would boil the wig and remove the nits.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/31056/why-did-people-wear-powdered-wigs


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

seminolewind said:


> When it comes to ticks, fleas, mites, lice, Florida cockroaches, mice , rats, and flies, I will use the newest most lethal chemicals there are found on store shelves.
> 
> I love clorox, and nutrasweet.
> 
> ...


Really as a kid. I don't ever remember any of ours that we raised having anything. However my dad would go get chickens from the egg farm that would be used for culling, and he would pay 10 cents each for them. Some of them would have mites, and my dad would pen them into a separate area if any were still laying they had a spare coop where they would stay for the winter. But he always gave them the stove ashes to dirt bath in and they never had mites again. Michouds brought some out for my dad to cull one year and they were infested with creepy crawlys. However my dad saw them like that and just started culling, he said no way was he going to put them any place.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Nm156 said:


> Back Then.....
> 
> Why Did People Wear Powdered Wigs?
> 
> ...


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Oops! This is about bugs! Sorry!


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

seminolewind said:


> Oops! This is about bugs! Sorry!


Dont worry, there's bugs in Williamsburg, Va too lol.


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## Cockadoodledoo (Jan 28, 2016)

I spray mine with the same thing I spray my vegetable plants with. I've never had lice or mites... ( knock on wood)


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## Cockadoodledoo (Jan 28, 2016)

I cook and steep water, garlic, and marigold. I let is sit all night. Then I add epsom salt, milk, oil, and dish soap. I strain it with a paint strainer into a gallon pump sprayer. I spray my vegetable plants, my chickens, and my coop. No one has died. I did the same mixture for the entire lives of my last flock without issue.


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## Cockadoodledoo (Jan 28, 2016)

They smell awful for a day and then it wears off. I have to position myself between the food outside and the coop door. If they want food they can't avoid the garlic spray, hahahaha.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

heididmitchell said:


> I cook and steep water, garlic, and marigold. I let is sit all night. Then I add epsom salt, milk, oil, and dish soap. I strain it with a paint strainer into a gallon pump sprayer. I spray my vegetable plants, my chickens, and my coop. No one has died. I did the same mixture for the entire lives of my last flock without issue.


Sounds really stinky.


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## Cockadoodledoo (Jan 28, 2016)

It's super stinky when cooking. Last time I did it outside on my propane burner. Surprisingly, the smell only lasts in the garden and on the chickens S for about a day before dissipating.


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## ThomasKirby (Jul 20, 2016)

Pest when enter our house brings along with them germs and diseases which are harmful to our and chickens body. Pest control experts know how to identify species and determine the pesticides that would be most effective in treating those specific species of pests. They also know at what frequency treatments are required to eliminate chances of re-infestation. Pest companies like pest control Sacramento CA have the full information and can also help us with the preventive measures.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Thanks for the helpful hint, Thomas.
I normally buy stinky bags. When they really stink , I replace them.. I use premise spray but it doesn't last too long. If I sit outside I use horse fly spray. I can spray any walls with Home Defense, that lasts 6 months or more.


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## George Mikkelsen (Mar 1, 2018)

Fleas can easily infest pets that go outdoors, but they can also enter pet-free buildings. Since they can jump up about 7 inches and enter on peoples’ shoes and clothes, they can enter any building. Fleas generally prefer cats, dogs, rabbits, or rats, but they will feed on humans. They may transmit plague and have been linked to murine typhus. They are intermediate hosts of dog tapeworm, which can infest indoor cats, and rodent tapeworm, which can sometimes infect humans.


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## Steinwand (Sep 23, 2017)

All this talk about parasites makes my skin crawl


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

George Mikkelsen said:


> Fleas can easily infest pets that go outdoors, but they can also enter pet-free buildings. Since they can jump up about 7 inches and enter on peoples' shoes and clothes, they can enter any building. Fleas generally prefer cats, dogs, rabbits, or rats, but they will feed on humans. They may transmit plague and have been linked to murine typhus. They are intermediate hosts of dog tapeworm, which can infest indoor cats, and rodent tapeworm, which can sometimes infect humans.


George I was going thru flea he11 with my chickens. Now it looks like there's no new activity or fleas.


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