Good afternoon, experienced and novice poultry farmers! Today we will show you a video and photo of what lice look like on chickens. Methods of control at home and prevention of lice infestation in chickens in our material.
Parasites, including ticks, fleas and lice, are not as dangerous as pathogenic microflora (bacteria and viruses). However, if treatment is delayed due to parasitic diseases? At best, productivity decreases. At worst, the entire bird population dies.
Therefore, if you suspect that birds are infected with parasites, you should immediately begin treatment. In severe cases, you cannot do without the help of a veterinary specialist.
Important! Parasites (and lice in chickens are no exception) are potential culprits of infestations and infections. They spread a deadly infection. For example, the causative agent of bird plague.
Lice on chickens photo
Biology of lice. Lice are parasitic insects up to 6 mm long.
Features of the external structure:
- Body color and shape – brown in color and flattened body.
- The presence of claws on the paws, with the help of which insects cling to the skin of the owner.
- The presence of mandibles on the head, the proboscis is an organ that absorbs blood.
- Similarities to related parasites that infect humans.
The first stage of lice development occurs in the eggs. The offspring inside the eggs develop within a week.
By the way, lice on chickens are better visible under a flashlight!
Individuals emerging from eggs begin to reproduce after 3-4 days of development. The maximum lifespan of an adult louse is 30 days.
Lice, unlike ticks and bedbugs, do not leave their host. All stages of development take place on the host’s skin. Without a bird, the bloodsucker survives for seven days at best, after which it dies.
After a louse bite, a compound appears in the chicken’s bloodstream, which causes severe itching and impaired blood clotting.
How to spot lice on chickens?
Dense plumage makes visualization of parasites very difficult. Therefore, during preventive examinations, it is easier to identify lice under the wings. It’s good to look at the front of the head, neck and back of the head, and limbs.
Lice stick to areas with thin skin. It is clear that here it is easier for them to get to the bloodstream.
Advice! Get a headlamp. It will significantly simplify periodic inspections of the livestock.
Lice symptoms in chickens
External symptoms. Let's look at the signs characteristic of a bird affected by lice. The problematic chicken is constantly worried, trying to catch “free riders” with its beak in its plumage.
As a result, the picture is complemented by wounds and bald spots. The bird also has no appetite. Hence exhaustion and low productivity.
Other symptoms:
- Reddened and flaky skin in places.
- Baldness. This sign is the result of lice eating the plumage.
- Retarded growth and development. This sign is typical for young animals.
- Staying awake at night. Even one individual with no sleep serves as an alarm bell.
- Livestock waste.
This is what an unfortunate lousy chicken looks like...
Birds are most susceptible to parasite attacks after molting. Why? The fact is that lice love to feed even on fresh, soft fluff.
The photo shows a feather from a Chinese silken chicken eaten by chicken lice.
Sand and ash baths
Chickens, being quite smart birds, are able to get rid of pests on their own if you place a container with mixed river sand and wood ash in the chicken coop. To do this you need:
- find clean sand or sift it;
- choose a suitable container or trough for bird bathing;
- mix sand and stove ash in equal proportions;
- Wood ash can also be sprinkled throughout the interior of the poultry house.
A few words about the infection process
Factors contributing to lice infestation in poultry:
- The deplorable sanitary condition of the chicken coop.
- Very dense planting of chickens.
- Keeping affected and healthy birds together.
- Contact with wild birds and rodents.
- Microclimate parameters that do not correspond to standard values.
This list suggests that to prevent lice infestation of your poultry yard, you should plan ahead for a chicken coop whose design features comply with the recommendations. Also provide for walking, a schedule of sanitary and preventive measures. Consider protection from wild birds and rodents (we have already written about all this).
We will provide laying hens and broilers with dust ash baths with diatomaceous earth!
Rational feeding taking into account the age, productivity and physiological state of the bird will be useful. And also the use of premixes! Consider also equipping the poultry house with reliable forced ventilation for large flocks.
Getting rid of fleas: an integrated approach
It is very difficult to completely get rid of insects. Much depends on the degree of parasite infestation of the bird. The procedure includes three components:
- carrying out disinfestation of the premises in which chickens are kept;
- treating birds with anti-flea agents;
- taking preventative measures to prevent re-infection.
Disinsection of the chicken coop and processing of the poultry must take place in parallel.
Chicken coop treatment
To get rid of chicken fleas in a chicken coop, you need to treat all surfaces, including perches, feeders and nests, with an insecticide solution After finishing the treatment, you should wait several hours.
It is important to remember that the room must be cleaned after the disinfestation process is completed. Old litter and garbage must be removed or burned. The treated room should be rinsed with water and, if possible, treated with lime.
Non-flammable surfaces can be burned with a blowtorch. It should be taken into account that it will take a long time to fight pests - it is advisable to repeat the disinfestation procedure after 2-3 weeks (insects at the pupal stage are less susceptible to poison and can survive).
To treat chicken coops use:
- chemical preparations based on chlorophos, karbofos, organochlorine compounds, etc. These are extremely effective products, but very toxic and can harm chickens. Before use, the bird should be moved to another room;
- synthetic pyrethroids, which, acting on the central nervous system of insects, cause their paralysis and death. You can carry out the treatment without removing the birds from the premises, but you should refrain from eating their eggs and meat for several days;
- natural pyrethroids (solutions of Dalmatian chamomile, mixtures of wormwood and tansy) are safer for poultry and people, but less effective. The advantage of natural remedies is the ability to prepare them at home.
You can move the cleaned chicken coop after ventilation.
Individual processing of birds
In parallel with disinfestation of the chicken coop, it is necessary to destroy pests directly on the birds . This is the most difficult and important part of the pest control procedure.
There are several ways:
- applying special drops (“Pyrethrum”, “Sevin”, etc.) to the back of the bird’s head;
- bathing and spraying feathers (solutions of Butox 50, Aversect, etc.);
- treating chickens with a brush or cotton swabs with powders (deltamethrin powder, dry Pyrethrum) - in this case, it is necessary to ensure that the drug does not get on the mucous membranes or in the eyes of the bird.
The anti-flea product should be applied to the bird's withers and carefully and thoroughly rubbed into the skin using a cotton swab (as shown in the photo)
When using, you must strictly adhere to the instructions supplied with the drugs so as not to harm your poultry.
Application of birch tar
Birch tar is a kind of our national brand. In the households of Russian peasants, this substance has been used for centuries for medicinal, veterinary and many other purposes. Until the beginning of the 20th century, tar was produced annually in large quantities, was one of the most important domestic exports, and was highly valued in Western European countries.
Today, birch tar is a common pharmaceutical preparation that summer residents who want to receive environmentally friendly products successfully use in the field of livestock and poultry farming, as well as when caring for their garden plots
Birch tar is an oily, thick, dark brown or black liquid with a strong, characteristic odor . The product is completely natural. It is made by dry distillation of birch bark taken from young birch trees. Tar is harmless to people, pets and birds not only when used externally: getting it into food does not pose any health hazard. In medicine, the product is used to treat skin diseases, and is included in some pharmaceutical preparations (for example, balsamic liniment according to Vishnevsky), as well as perfumery and cosmetic products (tar soap, shampoos and creams).
The popularity of birch tar is due to the following properties:
- extremely high antibacterial and antiseptic activity;
- the ability to quickly and effectively destroy or repel many parasitic insects and pests of garden crops;
- the possibility of use for the healing of minor skin lesions resulting from injuries or bites of blood-sucking parasites;
- ease of use;
- availability and relative cheapness.
The drug is perfect for ridding poultry of fleas, ticks, feather eaters and other insects that cause damage to the skin or plumage. In addition, tar is widely used in veterinary medicine (as an internal and external remedy): it is used to treat horses, cows, sheep, goats and pigs for a wide variety of ailments, from skin and hoof lesions to diseases of the digestive and respiratory tract.
In chickens infected with fleas, birch tar is carefully applied to areas of the skin that have been bitten by parasites, as well as those that have been pecked and scratched due to severe itching . Already after the first procedure, the number of fleas hiding in the plumage decreases sharply, since insects cannot tolerate the resinous smell of the drug. The product has a pronounced wound-healing effect, relieves itching and pain. Therefore, wounds on the skin of birds quickly heal, and the upper layer of the epidermis quickly regenerates.
To clean the chicken coop , a fumigation procedure is carried out in the room. Step by step it looks like this (material consumption is given for processing a room up to 50 sq. m.):
- 100 ml of birch tar is mixed with 800 ml of dry sawdust and left for 1 hour for thorough soaking;
- a wide vessel (for example, a basin) with a volume of 4-5 liters is filled with charcoal (you can take a store-bought one, which is intended for cooking kebabs). The coal is set on fire and brought to a state of slow smoldering;
- remove the birds from the chicken coop and close the windows tightly;
- A basin of coal is placed on the floor of the chicken coop. Sawdust soaked in tar is laid out in an even layer on top of the coals;
- when smoke comes out, the door is closed from the outside. The smoking device is left in the room until the coals are completely burned out (usually this takes from 3 to 4 hours);
- after the end of smoking, the chicken coop should remain closed for another hour. Then you need to open the door and windows and ventilate the room until the smell of smoke completely disappears.
In a chicken coop treated in this way, fleas and other bloodsuckers, as a rule, do not appear for six months. The effect can be further enhanced by hanging several small open vials of birch tar in places inaccessible to the bird (for example, under the ceiling). The smell of the product will be constantly present in the room, repelling not only skin parasites, but also flies, mosquitoes and other flying insects.
Using birch tar to rid poultry of parasites is effective and safe, and with a small flock it is not at all difficult. This is confirmed by the personal experience of many generations of domestic summer residents.
Preventive measures
The success of pest control depends largely on how regularly and efficiently preventive measures are taken to prevent re-infestation.
Prevention of chicken fleas involves the following procedures:
- regular cleaning of the premises from droppings, food residues, old sawdust or straw;
- adding twigs of wormwood, yarrow, tansy, geranium, lavender and other plants with a pungent odor to the new litter. In winter, you can use mint, lavender, and eucalyptus oils;
- protection from contact with wild birds;
- periodic visual inspection of chickens (it is better to look through a magnifying glass).
Before bringing a newly purchased bird into your home, it must be kept in quarantine for several days. Within reach of the chickens, place a container with a mixture of fine sand and ash (1:1) in a layer of 20 cm so that the chickens have the opportunity to “bathe” in it. Chickens roll in the ash, its smallest particles clog the respiratory organs of fleas, and grains of sand, when shaken, knock insects to the ground.
Ash is one of the most effective folk remedies for removing fleas from birds.
If you find fleas on poultry, do not panic. There are a large number of inexpensive and effective pest control products. Success will be guaranteed when implementing a set of measures. However, it should be remembered that prevention is a much cheaper and easier way to protect poultry from parasites than subsequent treatment.
Are lice in chickens transmitted to people?
What are the dangers of chicken lice to humans? Our blood is not digested by chicken lice. At the same time, there are cases when bird parasites end up on human skin. This problem can be solved with a regular shower and shampoo.
However, we should not think that chicken lice are harmless creatures in relation to us. Medicine knows of cases where chicken parasites cause human illness with encephalitis, brucellosis, salmonellosis and other dangerous pathologies. By the way, the causative agents of these diseases can also be contained in eggs and poultry meat affected by lice.
How to fight lice in chickens?
Tricks to get rid of parasites.
The strategy for combating parasites can be divided into two stages:
I – processing of chickens.
II – disinfection of a chicken coop freed from poultry.
The first step is to stock up on antiparasitic insecticides.
Important! Do not allow drugs to enter the gastrointestinal tract, the organs of vision or the nasal cavity of the bird. Most commercial products contain compounds with toxic effects.
In case of large-scale damage, experienced poultry farmers rely on fast-acting chemicals (Butox, etc.). What if there are several birds to be processed? This means it’s better to use Bars drops and Clean House spray. An aqueous solution of Executioner will also help. PS: not all effective preparations for lice in chickens are listed.
Let's figure out how drops are used. First, the locations for applying the product are determined. What if chicken lice have settled on all parts of the bird’s body? Then the drops are applied to the areas with the largest number of parasites.
When single specimens of insects are observed, applying drops to the withers of the chicken will be sufficient. The drops are applied between the spread feathers on the skin and are not rubbed in, as they spread on their own.
Drip preparations are good because they destroy parasites regardless of their stage of development. True, they provide protection to the bird for a maximum of 30 days. Other important points. Drops against lice in chickens should not be used on young animals or sick adults.
Let's move on to sprays. First, the bird's plumage is cleaned. Various types of contamination negatively affect the effectiveness of drugs. The spray is used over the entire surface of the body and in the direction of the feathers.
The features of using aqueous solutions are the same as in the case of sprays.
Strategy for helping birds
The more evenly the drug is applied to the bird, the better. It is important not to miss the “hiding places” of parasites, for example, under the wings. Experts recommend carrying out 2 treatments, the second – after a 12-15-day interval in winter.
In the summer, there is a 9-12 day break between treatments. If you limit yourself to a one-time treatment, a new generation of fleas and lice will remain alive.
Advice! Choose a drug with the main active ingredient pyrethroid. This compound is obtained synthetically. It is an analogue of the insecticide present in chamomile. Products based on pyrethroids do not cause any harm to livestock, poultry and humans.
Regardless of the composition of the drug, antiparasitic treatment is carried out in a separate room. The flock is returned to the house after it has been cleaned, processed, washed and after at least a couple of weeks. It's better to wait 20 days. But this is unrealistically long, you must agree.
Treating the chicken coop for lice
What about the chicken coop? The first thing to do is clean the poultry house! Bedding material, residues and feed reserves are removed. Surfaces are washed. Only after this are insecticides used.
Advice! Don’t want to be poisoned by store-bought drugs or get chemical burns? Then get special equipment for disinfection. You can wear thick clothes. You will need a mask for your face and gloves for your hands.
After disinfection, the poultry house is left alone for a couple of hours. After this time, fresh bedding material is laid down. The second treatment is carried out after 2 weeks.
During a repeat event, steam can be used. To do this, you need a special unit, which is available to the relevant services.
Why is the insectoacaricidal checker “PESHKA-V” convenient?
First of all, the processing does not require additional devices and tools. Simply place the checkers in a pre-sealed chicken coop, remove the caps from the necks and set them on fire.
Secondly, the insectoacaricidal bomb has a different principle of action - cypermethrin sublimes and, along with the smoke, spreads throughout the room, affecting all parasites without exception. After 5-6 hours it is allowed to be used for its intended purpose.
Thirdly, all that remains is to ventilate it for two hours, remove dead insects and neutralize the feeders and drinkers with a soda solution.
Offers to buy insectoacaricidal bomb "PESHKA-V" at manufacturer's prices. Call our managers to clarify the cost of the product or get additional information on the rules for its use.
