Chicken louse and the fight against it: preparations for parasites, prevention

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Chicken louse - (otherwise, feather-eater) a small insect that lives exclusively on the body of poultry and causes great damage to its he alth with its parasitic activity. There are about 40 such pests, and several of them can attack a feathered individual at the same time.

Mallophages (another name for chicken lice) are specific to their host: living on birds, they will never attack mammals.

Chicken louse description

Miserable in size (about 2 mm), lice are characterized by an oblong segmented yellow-brown body. Head with small antennae, large, wider than body. On the body of the host, the parasite is fixed thanks to the jaws (mandibles) and three pairs of legs with grasping claws.

The chicken louse feeds on bird fluff, feathers and exfoliated particles of the epidermis. He does not drink blood, but does not disdain secretions oozing from wounds and abrasions. Females are overly fertile: during the life cycle, one pair is able to produce about100,000 offspring. The eggs are small (0.5-1.5 mm), oval in shape, attached to down, feathers and the body. The appearance of a larva, outwardly similar to an adult specimen, occurs after 6-18 days. It transforms into a sexually mature louse within 12-20 days, passing through three stages of molting. Small parasites spend their whole lives on the body of the host, outside their usual habitat they can survive up to 4 (maximum up to 6) days.

Causes of mallophagosis infection

Chicken lice in a chicken coop infect poultry of all ages, but young birds suffer the most from such parasites. The source of infection is wild birds (sparrows, pigeons, crows), sick chickens, inventory and equipment. It has been noted that the number of mallophages is much higher in cockerels, since the latter, unlike hens, pay less attention to plumage cleaning.

The peak incidence of mallophagosis often occurs in the spring and autumn seasons. Downy eaters like young feathers, so during molting, the symptoms of the disease worsen. The defeat of chicken lice is mainly due to poor care, crowded content, poor diet, and dampness in the chicken coop. If chicken lice appeared: how to get rid of such harmful insects? What preparations to use? How to recognize a pest?

Chicken Lice Symptoms

Detecting lice with the naked eye is quite difficult: insects are intolerant of light, so they hide in secluded places (in the near-anal zone, on the lower andlateral parts of the body and under the wings) and can even adapt to the color of the plumage of the chicken. A high number of parasites causes baldness of poultry, most often the back, neck and abdomen are bare.

After careful examination of the feather, you can see holes in it that the pest eats out in the process of moving along the bird's body. Also, pests can infect the eyes of poultry, which causes an inflammatory process (conjunctivitis).

Chicken lice infestation can be identified by several signs:

• The restless behavior of the bird. The chicken pecks at itself and plucks the feather in an attempt to get rid of the parasite.
• Significant loss of feathers and exposure of skin areas. With a severe lesion on bald areas (as well as on earrings and combs), crusts of dried blood, wounds and damage, lice eggs and their secretions are noticeable.
• Weight loss and reduced egg production.
• Poor weight gain in young chickens.
• The death of a bird.

Chicken lice are hard to see with the naked eye; to simplify inspection, it is recommended to warm the chicken with a lamp or hold it under direct sunlight for 5-10 minutes. Insects will crawl closer to the heat source and become clearly visible. Outwardly, these are living black dots, very similar to moles. A chicken louse does not live on a dead bird; from a cooling corpse, it immediately crawls into a more favorable habitat.

Chicken lice - spreaders of infections

Lice in chickens, in addition to parasiticactivity, are carriers of various kinds of infections, most often helminths. And this in the future will certainly affect the person who has consumed the meat of a sick chicken. Therefore, if you find lice on poultry, you should immediately get rid of them. Treat an infested feathered individual by spraying it with insecticides (using a garden sprayer).

Wetting the plumage should be done evenly. Also, in the fight against parasites, you can use special powders that are carefully rubbed into each bird individually, while observing the recommended dosage and avoiding the drug getting into the eyes and nose.

Chemical treatments

Since chemicals that have a paralyzing effect on the nervous system of an adult insect do not kill chicken lice eggs, treatment should be done twice: in the cold period with an interval of 12-16 days, in the warm period - after 9-12 days. When kept in a chicken coop, the bird is sprayed with drugs on perches at night, when kept in a cage, right in the cages. The most effective preparations for chicken lice:

• chlorophos aqueous solution 0.3-0.5% concentration;
• "Permethrin" - 0.5% emulsion;
• "Turingin" 5-7% concentration;
• "Entobakterin" -2% aqueous suspension;
• "Cyodrin" - 0, 25% aqueous emulsion;
• Pyrethrum powder;
• deltamethrin powder for sprinkling chickens;
• aerosol "Ekoflis", "Get", "Nyuda";
• drops"Neotomazan", "Bars", "Frontline", "Dana", "Stronghold". They need to be applied to the body in several places, and then the medicine will independently distribute over the skin.

Chicken coop processing

Simultaneously with the treatment, it is required to process the room in which the chickens are located. How to treat a barn from chicken lice? The action of such insecticides as "Karbofos", "Sevin", "Butox", "Neostomazan" is effective, which should be sprayed with litter and all surfaces.

Everything that is not afraid of fire must be burned with a gas burner or a blowtorch, and the room must be closed and wait a few days for the drug to work. The bird must be removed from the premises for the time of processing, and when settling back, the chicken coop must be ventilated, wet cleaned, and the litter removed. During this period, the litter should be updated, the feeders and drinkers should be washed with water, and it may be possible to forget about such a problem as chicken lice forever.

How to get rid of chicken lice folk methods?

The acrid smell of chicken lice can scare away vinegar, to which, for greater efficiency, you can add the same portion of kerosene, or a solution of benzene, kerosene and ammonia, which should be used to treat the chicken coop and its feathered inhabitants.

You can scatter herbs on the floor that repel parasitic insects: chamomile, wormwood, tansy or wild rosemary, or spray essential oils of eucalyptus or rosemary.

Preventive measures

Prevention of the disease with mallophagosis consists inperiodic treatment of the chicken coop with steam or boiling water, timely removal of litter and food debris, regular replacement of bedding. Walls should be whitewashed every year using a mixture of bleach and slaked lime. It is also important to prevent the introduction of parasites into the chicken coop with new livestock and to exclude contact of chickens with wild birds. Birds should be inspected every month for lice and ash baths (equal proportions of ash and fine sand) should be provided for dry bathing.

If there is a high risk of infection, it is recommended to add "Chlorophos" (per square meter - 2 grams of the drug) into a dry litter, digging in which chickens will disinfect their own feathers.