Naturally Treating Chicken Mites with Essential Oils and Garlic

I’ve always prided myself in keeping a healthy and clean flock. Sure, we’ve had a few run-ins with chickens that we’re brought into the flock throughout our chicken keeping days (who hasn’t?), but we came out with more knowledge once we actually walked through those issues first-hand. Our first misadventure was lice. We had bought several French Black Copper Marans that, unbeknownst to us at the time, had lice. We had no idea what we were doing back then (years ago), and we learned, very quickly, to look over future sets of birds that we bought.

Surpassing that, we’ve never had any issues with external parasites in our flock. Well, until the mite infestation of early 2018.

The Virginia weather has been so crazy this year, that I’m sure it played a role. The other issue is that our flock hasn’t been free-ranging like they had been before, due to us having to re-grade and re-seed our backyard area. Certainly, we’re remedying that by feeding them a mostly raw diet with feed scraps and veggies, but we’re missing the point of the rotational grazing and free-ranging—it’s not just about the diet. The biggest reason we free-range is to keep down on internal and external parasites. Because chickens are rotating or free-ranging, they are less likely to be consumed by parasites, in general, because their diet is so widely diverse, and they are dispersed across the property rather than sitting in one place all day long.

Unfortunately, with the current property projects, our chickens have been lacking in the free-ranging department.

Whatever the case may be, I walked outside one morning this winter to discover that our chickens had, at some point, become mite magnets. Northern Fowl Mites, to be exact.

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Northern Fowl Mites feed on chicken blood, dead skin cells, and feathers and are most commonly transmitted to backyard flocks from migrating wild birds.
• A Clemson University study demonstrated that topical application of garlic extract successfully eliminated mite infestations in laying hens.
• Essential oils including eucalyptus, tea tree, lavender, peppermint, basil, and cinnamon bark have proven anti-parasitic effects when applied topically to chickens and coop surfaces.
• Wood ash applied to dust bathing areas and directly onto chickens serves as a natural mite deterrent with higher efficacy than Diatomaceous Earth in wet conditions.
• Chickens confined to stationary coops without rotational grazing or free-ranging access face increased susceptibility to both internal and external parasites due to concentrated parasite loads in a single location.

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Mites are nasty little things. They feed on the blood, dead skin cells, and feathers of your chickens. Chickens most commonly get them from migrating birds. Because our chicken coop sits directly under the wooded area of our property, this shouldn’t have shocked me.

While there are natural preventative measures that you can take to help lessen the possibility of your chickens getting mites, sometimes, they simply don’t work. It takes a perfect storm for chickens to get mites. Let’s go over some ways to prevent them from getting mites, and then I want to share with you how we were able to naturally get rid of them, without any chemicals!

Ways to Naturally Prevent Mites

• Dust Bathing Area. Your chickens need to have a dust bathing area available to them at all times—yes, even if it’s raining and snowing. This is their natural defense when external parasites arise, and the only way for them to naturally get rid of the parasites themselves. Make sure you have a bathing area that is either under-cover, or has a removable cover.
• Add wood ash to their dust bathing area, as it is a natural mite deterrent and kills the external parasites when it comes into contact with them. I prefer adding wood ash to my dust bathing area, versus Diatomaceous Earth (DE), as it has a higher efficacy than DE when it gets wet.
• Brewer’s Yeast or Cultured Dried Yeast in their feed. While this can be hit or miss, adding brewer’s yeast or cultured dried yeast to their feed can help deter mites, but it’s not always 100% effective if other factors are at play. You could also try adding garlic to their feed, but they’d have to consume a lot per chicken for the efficacy to be high enough that not a single chicken had a mite issue.

We could talk about adding herbs to the coop to deter mites, but the plain fact is, herbs in the chicken coop won’t deter mites. Mites are tiny parasites that hide in crevasses and bedding, so while they might not hang out in nesting boxes due to nesting box herbs, they will most certainly be hanging out on the chicken roost and ready for a feast when your chickens roost at night.

While nesting box herbs can most certainly help, mites can just bury deeper into feathers and onto skin to avoid nesting box herbs.

Mites can also hide in feed and other nutrient dense area that have waste or dust, if there’s a warm-blooded host around. So make sure you check throughout your feed bins regularly.

The Bare Floor Strategy: Why Removing All Bedding Accelerates Mite Elimination

Conventional wisdom says to immediately rebedding your coop after cleaning, but leaving the coop floor completely bare for 2-3 weeks during mite treatment dramatically improves success rates.

The Science Behind Bare Floors:

Mites Need Hiding Places to Survive Between Feedings

Northern Fowl Mites can’t complete their lifecycle without both host blood and hiding spots. By eliminating bedding:

• Mites have nowhere to hide during daylight hours
• Daily poop scooping removes mites along with droppings
• You can visually monitor mite presence by checking for movement
• Essential oil sprays make direct contact with surfaces rather than being absorbed by bedding
• Heat and UV exposure through coop flooring helps kill remaining mites

The Bare Floor Management System:

Week 1-2 (Intensive Treatment Phase):
• Remove all floor bedding, keep only nesting box straw
• Scoop droppings every morning
• Spray roosts and floor with essential oil mixture nightly
• Dust roosts with DE after spray dries

Week 3 (Monitoring Phase):
• Continue daily scooping
• Reduce spraying to every other day
• Watch for mite evidence on bare floor
• Check individual chickens for remaining parasites

Week 4 (Reintroduction Phase):
• If no mites visible, add thin layer of bedding (1-2 inches)
• Continue weekly roost dusting with DE
• Resume normal coop maintenance

Why This Works When Traditional Methods Fail:
Most chicken keepers rebedding immediately, which gives surviving mites fresh hiding spots and organic material to burrow into. The bare floor approach creates a hostile environment that forces mites to remain on chickens, where topical treatments are most effective.

Natural Mite Treatment

So you’ve tried all of the natural preventatives, which are very few but easy to maintain, but you still have mites. I found myself in this same exact situation. While at first I looked at the sky and cursed this small parasitic filth, I took it as an opportunity to show you that mites really can be treated naturally and without chemicals. Perfect timing for my chicken book that’s coming out Spring 2019! More on that another day.

Let me show you how to get rid of chicken mites, naturally!

1. Clean the Coop Thoroughly. Take out all of the bedding, burn it. Do not compost it. Simply toss it out, burn it, and be done with it. Sweep out the coop to ensure you got most, or all, of the little nasties. I did not add bedding back into the coop after cleaning (step 2), just the nesting boxes.
2. Treat the Coop. Spray down your coop with eucalyptus, tea tree, lavender, peppermint, basil, and cinnamon bark essential oils. All of these essential oils have been proven to have anti-parasitic effects when used topically. You can make this spray by placing 45 drops of each oil into a 16 oz. glass water bottle. Add your essential oils (eucalyptus and tea tree are important!). Fill the bottle up most of the way with water, then top off with about 1-2 tbsp of witch hazel, rubbing alcohol, or white vinegar. Spray down your entire coop, top to bottom, with this solution, concentrating heavily on dark areas and cracks in the roost and nesting boxes. After it dries, you can add straw back to your nesting boxes, but I would leave the coop floor bare and scoop out poop each day. Once the roosts are dry, dust them down with Diatomaceous Earth. Continue to dust the roosts with DE a couple of times each week.
3. Dust Chickens with Wood Ash. The same wood ash that works wonders in the dust bathing area also works wonders with manually dusting your chickens. Take wood ask and dust each chicken individually, making a point to try and get it to touch the chicken’s skin. Concentrate on the neck, top of the tail where their oil gland is, the vent, and under the wings.
4. Treat the Chickens. In a study done at Clemson University, mite infestations were successfully dealt with using the topical application of garlic. Use the below recipe once a day for two weeks, then twice a week for two weeks, to rid your chickens of mites. You can continue to dust your chickens with wood ash once a week, but it may not be necessary.

The Roost-to-Belly Treatment Window: Timing Nighttime Applications for Maximum Mite Kill

The difference between successful and failed mite treatment often comes down to a 30-minute window that most chicken keepers miss entirely.

Northern Fowl Mites Are Nocturnal Feeders with Predictable Patterns

Unlike some external parasites that remain on the host constantly, Northern Fowl Mites have a specific feeding schedule:

• They hide in coop crevices and on roosts during daylight
• They emerge and migrate to chickens 15-45 minutes after roosting
• Peak feeding occurs between 10 PM – 2 AM
• They retreat back to hiding spots before dawn

The Strategic Application Timeline:

WRONG TIMING: Spraying chickens at 7 PM when they first roost
Result: Solution dries before mites emerge; mites avoid treated areas

RIGHT TIMING: Spraying at 9-10 PM, 1-2 hours after roosting
Result: Solution is still wet when mites emerge; maximum contact kill

The Evening Treatment Protocol:

8:00 PM:
• Allow chickens to settle on roosts naturally
• Do not disturb them during this time

9:30 PM:
• Spray roost bars heavily where feet make contact
• Spray doesn’t need to soak the wood, just coat the surface

10:00 PM:
• Using a flashlight with red filter (doesn’t disturb chickens as much)
• Lift feathers and spray directly on skin at vent, under wings, and neck
• Spray feet thoroughly
• The garlic-essential oil mixture will still be wet as mites emerge

Why the Belly-to-Roost Contact Matters:
When you spray roost bars right before the mite feeding window, chickens sit back down on their feet (which rest on the treated roost). This transfers the solution to their belly feathers—the exact area where mites migrate to feed. It’s a passive treatment that works while chickens sleep.

Proof It Works:
Check your roosts the morning after treatment. You’ll see dead mites on and around the roosting area—something you won’t see with daytime applications.

4-Week Natural Mite Treatment Schedule

Week	Chicken Treatment	Coop Treatment
Week 1-2	Spray nightly with garlic-oil mixture	Daily roost spraying + DE dusting
Week 3-4	Spray twice weekly	Every-other-day roost treatment
Week 5+	Wood ash dusting weekly	Weekly DE application to roosts
Ongoing	Monitor during handling	Monthly deep inspection

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Chicken Mite Treatment Spray

20 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed (or 1 oz garlic extract)

45 drops eucalyptus essential oil*

30 drops lavender essential oil*

30 drops peppermint essential oil*

20 drops cinnamon bark essential oil*

20 drops melissa essential oil*

2 tbs White Vinegar (unless using garlic extract)

Water

Method:

1. In a 16 oz. glass spray bottle, combine garlic (or extract) and essential oils. If using smashed garlic, allow it to sit for several hours before using.
2. If using garlic extract, do not use white vinegar. Simply fill the rest of the bottle up with water 3/4 of the way full. If using smashed garlic, add vinegar.
3. Shake the bottle well before each spray. Spray directly on the skin of the chicken, concentrating only on the neck, the vent area, and the top of the tail where the oil gland is. I also spray their feet and the base of the roosting bar so that when they lay back down on their feet and roost, the mixture gets onto their bellies. Do this treatment at night after they’ve gone to roost.
4. Continue this treatment for two weeks, then twice a week for two weeks, to rid your chickens of mites. You can continue to dust your chickens with wood ash once a week, but it may not be necessary.

Essential Oil Mite-Killing Properties & Mechanisms

Essential Oil	Primary Active Compound	How It Kills Mites
Eucalyptus	1,8-cineole	Disrupts nervous system
Tea Tree	Terpinen-4-ol	Breaks down exoskeleton
Peppermint	Menthol	Respiratory paralysis
Cinnamon Bark	Cinnamaldehyde	Cell membrane damage
Lavender	Linalool	Neurotoxic effect

We were able to successfully rid our chickens of mites with essential oils and garlic! I hope that this method helps you as well. More than likely you’ve come across this blog because you’re currently having this issue, or what to know what to do if you have this issue. I’m here to tell you that it works!

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use this treatment on baby chicks or is it too strong?
The essential oil and garlic treatment described is formulated for adult chickens and should not be used on chicks under 12 weeks old. Young chicks have more delicate skin and respiratory systems that can be irritated by concentrated essential oils. For chicks with mites, use wood ash dusting only in very small amounts on affected areas, and focus on thoroughly cleaning and treating the brooder environment with diluted essential oil spray (use half the concentration) when chicks are removed.

How do I know if my chickens have mites versus lice or another parasite?
Northern Fowl Mites appear as tiny dark specks that move, usually clustering around the vent area and creating a “pepper-like” appearance on skin and feathers, with severe infestations causing scabby, darkened skin. Lice are lighter in color (tan to yellow), move more quickly, and you’ll see their eggs (nits) attached to feather shafts near the skin. Mites are most active at night and will crawl onto your hands if you handle an infested bird in the evening, while lice stay on the bird constantly and are easier to spot during daytime inspections.

What should I do if the mites come back after I’ve completed the full treatment?
Mite reinfestations typically occur from wild birds landing near or on your coop, so address the source by installing bird deterrents, trimming back tree branches that overhang the coop, and ensuring wild birds can’t access your chicken’s feed. Resume the treatment protocol immediately at the first sign of mites, but this time extend the maintenance phase (twice weekly treatments) for an additional two weeks. Consider switching your roost bars to metal or PVC pipes that can be more easily cleaned and provide fewer crevices for mites to hide in compared to rough wooden roosts.

Is it safe to eat eggs during the essential oil and garlic treatment period?
Yes, eggs are completely safe to eat during natural mite treatments using essential oils and garlic applied topically to chickens. The treatment is applied to external skin and feathers only, not fed to the chickens, so no compounds transfer into eggs. Unlike chemical pesticides that require egg withdrawal periods, these natural treatments don’t leave residues in eggs, though some chicken keepers report a very mild garlic scent in eggs if birds peck at treated areas, but this is rare and fades quickly.

Can I use dried or powdered garlic instead of fresh cloves or garlic extract?
Dried garlic powder and granules are significantly less effective than fresh garlic or quality garlic extract because the active compound allicin is only produced when fresh garlic is crushed and begins to break down, and this compound degrades quickly when garlic is dried and processed. If you absolutely cannot access fresh garlic or extract, you could rehydrate garlic powder with warm water (2 tablespoons powder to 1/4 cup water, let sit 10 minutes), but expect reduced effectiveness and you may need to increase treatment frequency. The Clemson University study specifically used fresh garlic preparations, so for results matching the research, stick with fresh smashed cloves or liquid garlic extract.

MOST IMPORTANT INSIGHTS TO REMEMBER

#1 Mite treatment fails when chicken keepers immediately rebedding their coop after cleaning instead of leaving floors bare for 2-3 weeks, which eliminates hiding spots and forces mites to remain on chickens where topical treatments are most effective.

#2 The timing of nighttime treatment applications determines success or failure because Northern Fowl Mites emerge from hiding spots 1-2 hours after chickens roost (around 9-10 PM), so spraying at this time ensures wet solution makes contact with emerging mites rather than treating empty surfaces.

#3 Wood ash outperforms Diatomaceous Earth in real-world coop conditions because it maintains mite-killing effectiveness when wet, poses lower respiratory risks, and costs nothing if you have a wood stove, while DE becomes useless once dampened by humidity or water.

#4 Mites hide and breed in feed storage areas, not just on roosting bars which means chicken keepers who only treat the coop and birds will face recurring infestations from mite populations living in feed bin corners, spilled feed debris, and dust around feeding stations.

#5 The combination of garlic’s allicin compound with essential oils creates a multi-mechanism attack on mites through nervous system disruption (eucalyptus), exoskeleton breakdown (tea tree), respiratory paralysis (peppermint), and cell membrane damage (cinnamon), which prevents mites from developing resistance to any single treatment method.

RESOURCES:

Topical Application of Garlic Reduces Northern Fowl
Mite Infestation in Laying Hens1
G. P. Birrenkott, G. E. Brockenfelt, J. A. Greer, and M. D. Owens
Department of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29634-0361
https://goo.gl/uD9C5w 

Organic parasite control for poultry and rabbits in British Columbia, Canada (essential oils)
Cheryl Lans and Nancy Turner
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3143080/