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.
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.
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!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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!
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/
Thank you so much for this info. I have a terrible mute issue with 39 hens and a rooster. I actually see them in the roosters legs. They also get on me and bite with a resultant terrific itch. I have tried everything but will certainly try this.
When do you put bedding back in your coop?
After all the mites have been eradicated
Hi Amy, this is a great article on natural mite treatments, definitely bookmarking it! My flock does not have mites, I actually found your page looking for a lice treatment. Do you think the same treatment you used here for mites would also work for lice? I have heard the wood ash treatment and am planning to start that as soon as I can have a fire, but in the meantime I am looking for something natural to treat the lice/nits on my hen. Thanks for any help!!
Hi Sam! Yep, I would dust them down with DE (Diatomaceous Earth) once every 10 days for about 4 weeks. Spray down everything with the oils mentioned here as well.
Amy, thank you for this amazing recipe! My rooster became completely infested with lice, seemingly overnight! I used a spray from the feed store with zero results. I found your recipe and after one bath and one spray treatment, I see nothing crawling on him! Will continue to treat to make sure we get through any nit hatches. Thank you again! I will definitely be buying your book.
yay! So happy it worked!! It’s a winner for sure!
I can’t get your chicken mite treatment recipe directions to show on my screen. the words are cut off and I have a question about the garlic. I was planning to use minced garlic in jar not garlic fresh is that ok? The directions refer to the usage of garlic but I can’t read the words on far right. I bought the Herbal companion book and love it but need other new chicken book. Will order but hope for help with this recipe of mite treatment if you could please.
You can used minced garlic or garlic extract!
I’ve been doing the above a couple times a week, all summer long.
I kill off about 90 percent of them, but they keep coming back.
It’s already too much work trying to de- mite myself after normal daily maintenance.
I’m thinking that cutting the chickens loose, burning down their coop, and starting all over would be easier!…… Or just go without eating eggs.
All the time expense and effort, while living in discomfort, simply isn’t worth the return.
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Does it make anyone wonder; Why we are so infested with mites?
I grew up with hundreds of chickens at a time on my property in the 60s.
We NEVER had this problem!…And I only have 5 laying hens!
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I’m in Southern California where Agenda 21 advocates made a drought by controlling weather, burn homes that are in their way with Directed Energy Weapons, chemtrail our skies 24/7, and tax us out of our properties.
Most recently, they’ve poisoned citrus trees and banned importing them into OC, released non native tropical mosquitoes, that bite below the knees and come out in the daytime!
So, don’t blame me for thinking these mites may have been deliberately dropped on us in the daily chemtrails, in order to keep us from being self sufficient, by decimating our chickens.
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Thanks for the article…..This was my last hope for raising backyard chickens.
I may just be giving it up soon.
If I was to do it all over, my coop would be very sanitary, with no wood, or places for mites to hide.
Bare minimum, and easy to treat construction, and a regular prevention regime.
Gosh Russ, that’s awful! I feel your pain. We saw our mites decrease when our chickens started free ranging again on a regular basis. I’d say try that!
I feel for all those people affected by the Agenda 21 conditions and you are daily in my prayers of peace and joy toward this challenge humanity is having to learn and grow from somehow. After the Corona virus scare I am seeing world wide rebellion now (finally) and it gives hope that we care and share love for humanity. Farmers are selling their produce directly which is great to see! People are working together to make things better. Posts are being made about all the injustices from smart meters, GMO food, toxic insecticides, 5G to forced toxic injections with ID chips to satellites, chemtrails, HAARP controlled weather, laser and sound and light directed energies, slavery, petophilia, corrupt politicians, etc. I hear ringing in my ears 24/7. It’s lovely to see more folks going to natural living again! I want to purchase these books Amy has written and put so much love into. I’m growing more herbs in the garden to help my chickens be healthy. The chickens have taught me so much. I figure that they work hard to give their precious eggs that have complete protein in them so the least I can do is take good care of them. I’m new to the chicken life but am trying to learn more all the time. Blessings to you and may you discover the good side to it all from, not the lack or pain or mind thoughts or emotional turmoil, but from the heart and Soul that can transform the negatives to the positives in your choice of focus. Love, hugs, and Aloha, Pam Inman [email protected]
Here in Europe about 15 years ago they banned the sale and use of creosote. People used to paint all their wooden coops and roosts with creosote once a year to protect the wood. An extra beneficial effect was that creosote also killed and prevented mites and lice. Since the sale of creosote has been banned we are all fighting regular mite and lice infestations! I’m going to try out your garlic and essential oils recipe first thing tomorrow!
Sadly, this is all true. We have to constantly be vigilant in our own homesteads and try to eat as much homegrown food as we can! It’s great to know what is actually going into our bodies. Thank you for the recipe Amy! I am going to try it today.
Amy, this is a great article but under the section for treating your chickens, the photo you posted it in the recipe below it is not complete when viewed on the smart phone. It only shows the left half of the recipe. Can you repost that, perhaps in a new post or tell me how I can access that information. Thank you! Kaye
try this! 🙂
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:
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.
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.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.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.
Hi Amy,
Thank you so much for all this information, it’s brilliant that there is a way of helping our animals with natural remedies and not chemicals. And as I have a lot of essential oil at home, I think I’m going to try the recipe on my quails (Isabel types) as one of them got lice/mite (not sure, we’ve had 5 quails recently and don’t know too much about the topic….). Do you think I should add more water to the recipe as they’re smaller than chickens.
I think as well that in the video you’ve added 15 drops of tea tree EO in the recipe to be sprayed. Is it correct?
I have another question when you add wood ash to the dust bathing area, after a certain time/days/months do you change it entirely ? or there is not problem you just leave it and the lice/mite dead in it anyway will disappear?.
Thank you very very much in advance for your answer.
Cécile
PS: Writing to you from France
Hey there! I don’t think you need to add more water, just use less of the spray itself. It’s very gentle. I may have added more in the video, but I would just stick to the recipe. If I remember, I added more because I omitted another EO in the video. The wood ash can stay!
That’s a nice recipe I must say. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Amy,
Thanks for this amazing article. We re facing this problem for the first time and I’m definitely going to try your recipes!
Just a couple of questions:
1) Does it matter which type of eucalyptus oil you use? There are several..
2) I don’t have Melissa, can I just leave it out or replace it with something else?
Thanks a lot for your feedback!
Much love,
Mirian
You can leave out the Melissa. I would use Eucalyptus radiata
We had a bad infestation of mites so I cleaned the coop, even vacuumed. Then sprayed a strong mixture of water and chlorox and dunked every one of the birds in it too. Now I have an old roasting pan with wood ashes and a bit of lime in the henhouse for them to ‘fruffel’ in, plus a bud of garlic in their waterer. No mites……..
Thank you for another helpful post! I now have a use for the pile of ash that accumulated this winter. 😉 I’m also excited to make my own essential oil mite treatment! I’ve used the same oils you recommend for three years. I’m happy to find yet another everyday use for them!
If I put all those oils on my skin it would probably burn. I wonder how the chickens’ skin handles all those potent oils and garlic? Same with ash.
actually, I’ve never had an issue with it with chickens. But, when I’ve used chemical treatments, it burns their skin off. So, I’ll choose the natural 😉
Where do I get the wood ash?
from your wood stove (if you have one), or a small campfire
Have you ever tried thieves?
not for this issue
Well, have a 3 year old rooster, eyes mostly closed, can’t ‘target’ grain, but will eat and drink with help. 3 young hens, sprawled out, unable to walk, but make the effort. All eat well, but are clearly ‘groggy’. Amoxicillin, penicillin, Safeguard pellets, red cider, electrolytes, Mite spray, but not directly on skin and didn’t know about the ‘neck, tail, vent’ focus. Do now.
Rooster crows like clockwork, but falls asleep even while eating cracked corn, bread, green veggies, listless but still fighting. All these chickens free range, roost in clean pen. Don’t see an mites, but my vision is a little shaky. Also treated for worms with the Safeguard.
Like the concoction for the mite treatment, but would give anything to save these struggling birds, who have not given up in 7 days now.
Any ideas? And thanks in advance if you even have the time.
( stool is typical normal and formed, 90% of the time. Never saw anything like this before, chickens that eat with fierce hunger, drink, but are unable to move and have no injury. They are sick, but I read there’s around 180 diseases and after initial treatments, no improvement, but no worsening. Remaining flock of 15 birds are fine.
Thanks if you even have the time, will check back tomorrow.
I don’t know what it could be..but I’d give them some molasses, kelp, oregano and garlic in some fermented feed-if you’re able to ferment their feed. Probiotics also if you have them and ACV in their water. Just noticed your comment was from August, did you ever figure out what was wrong with them?
I want to make the deep cleaning coop spray and the spray to be used on my chickens. Can I use water infusion of oregano instead of the essential oil, and can I used dried minced garlic instead of fresh…. my idea would be to use the infusion in place of the water.
Thank you so much for your time, as I understand you are a very busy lady!
Thank you for the recipe: does it need to be refrigerated after mixing?
no, you can leave it sitting out but out of direct sunlight
Great article and information. I can grab all of these items from our town. No mites as far as I know but I want to be proactive and prevent them. I have a large dust bath in their coop mixed with wood ash and they also dug one of their own in a patch of dry soil outside. They use both. Which book did you reference in the article? And is it available as an ebook? Interested in purchasing it. I’m a Canadian in Colombia with 19 hens and one rooster and I’m very new to this. Most local pet supply stores here suggest harsh chemicals for everything orrr the locals rely on old wisdom that means well but can be a bit off. I already have a broody on day 14 of sitting and I have been reading everything when I can to help the chicks. So exciting! I’m rambling now. Thank you again.
Thank you for words of wisdom!
Have you ever had any success with neem oil? I have some on hand…
Also- we have a pile of wood ashes (that are hard, hydrated- have been rained on) Could these still be used somehow?
Thank you! I really hope this works. I have my essential oils on order. I feel like such a failure my girls are only a 3 months old and seem to have gotten mites shortly after putting them outside.
Thank you Amy! Very helpful and hopeful.. my first time raising chickens and just discovered mites on one of them. Can I substitute cinnamon bark oil with cinnamon powder? Also it’s super duper cold where I am, should I wait for spring to do a deep clean or get at it now? I don’t know how mites do in freezing weather.
I tried making this solution in a clear glass bottle. I honestly think the solution is much too potent. My family began complaining of the smell just from me adding the vinegar into the bottle. I sprayed the entry of our coop with it and some of the roost, but decided not to spray my chickens. I think it may burn their skin and get into their bloodstream. Now disposing of this seems like an issue too. I threw some out into the bushes, but am now reading how essential oils disposal should be handled like hazardous waste. How did you dispose of it?
Hi Amy! Thanks so much for the great information! Would you use this approach for scaly leg mites also?
On the ingredient list, you have asterisks (*) after each oil – what are the asterisks for?
What is Melissa oil? Please and thank you!