Chickens Stick Tight Fleas Infestation and Removing Them is one of the hardest parasite outbreak to get rid of but it can be done. It can take up to four months to completely remove them from your chicken and coop but if uncontrolled it causes anemia, loss of condition, severe skin irritation and sometimes death.
Fleas are tiny, wingless insects of the order Siphonaptera that are an external parasite of backyard or free range poultry flocks. There are over 2,000 different species of fleas worldwide, causing a source of annoyance, blood loss, pain, skin inflammation, self mutilation, and sometimes death to their hosts. Fleas can also act as a vector for disease-causing pathogens. The most common fleas that infest chickens are the Sticktight flea as (quoted by Poultry DMV)
A stick-tight flea is a flea that goes after chickens. As with most fleas, they are hard to remove by hand and can reproduce quickly. All they need is a host of any type of animal and even humans can be flea infected. These types of fleas sucks the blood, tiring an animal constantly to the point of paralysis.
When an animal is not checked for fleas, they can easily spread it to other animals and areas. It must treated quite quickly. First, look to find if there is an infestation in your poultry. Fleas are usually found on their heads and under the eyes. To treat their fleas, hold them down and spread Vaseline over where the fleas are as this will suffocate fleas. Be very careful not to get it in their eyes. After one night, remove the Vaseline and get rid of the fleas.
Next, you have to clean the entire area where they are. With their eggs, you will have to dump out 2 to 4 weeks worth of what they make because of the infection they have. The coop has to be scrubbed off and burn the bedding. Install a new one towards the end.
There are various products that are not harmful that can be used to disinfect the whole coop. Do this thoroughly and you will have a flea-free zone for your chickens and the surrounding animals in your homestead.
Stick tight fleas are very hard to get rid of. They have a definite cycle that has to be broken.
Chickens put their heads close to the ground to forage. Fleas jump onto the face and hang on like a tick. Male fleas mate, then fall off or die. Females drop their eggs onto the ground where they hatch, and the cycle starts over.
Poultry fleas, also known as stick tight fleas due to their ability to attach themselves to a host and not let go, can be a danger to your flock.
After more trial and error, readers have found (Adam’s puppy or kitten spray) to work best and it can be dabbed on with a Q-Tip directly on the chickens.
-Put a couple of drops of Frontline on the chicken’s neck.
-Put some Adams Flea and tick spray in a
small container. Dip a Q-tip in the Adams and dab it onto any fleas you see. Do not spray the bird with the Adams. I found fleas on the face, neck, head, comb, wattles, ear lobes,etc. Look behind and underneath wattles, ear lobes and combs.
Some people prefer to use Vaseline on the individual fleas. I didn’t try it, but if it works, great.
-Put the Frontline on all birds housed together, whether they have fleas or not! Be careful and clean yourself, clothes and shoes so you do not transfer the fleas to other coops. (Unfortunately, I did not do this, and had to treat two more coops, but by then I knew what to do.)
-Repeat in 1 week with the Frontline and Adams.
-Check again in another week. Do not use the Frontline again, but dab any fleas you see with the Adams. You should see less fleas by now.
-Keep checking every couple of weeks, then once a month until they are gone. If you are still seeing live fleas after six weeks, you could try another couple of drops of Adams, but don’t overdo the Adams quoted by TexSpitz.
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