Momma Jay's Natural Lice and Mite Killer for Pets and Livestock
Recently I was given a flock of chickens. Well, my new ladies were owned by an elderly gentleman that obviously couldn't see very well.
They were absolutely inundated with chicken lice, mites and legmites.
The infestations was so bad that some chickens were missing their toes.
As you probably gathered from reading my Hubs, I am an organic gal.I wanted to treat those nasty monsters with an organic product. Boy did I ever get it down! Now my ladies are mite and lice free.
It didn't cost much money, either!
I cannot guarantee this will work for you, but I am pretty darn hopeful.
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You must retreat in order to kill the newly hatched parasites.
Keep a large area full of sand mixed with equal or greater parts of wood ash handy. The chickens will dust themselves to kill parasites. Ash is a wonderfully healing natural product.
Check your birds from time to time for re-infestation. Treat them as needed.
After two treatments with the legmite spray, my chickens were nearly healed. I only used the jelly once, when I first treated them. The spray really works well at killing the legmites!
Things You'll Need
5-gallon bucket
Pure neem oil
Wood ashes
Sand
100 proof vodka (you can use rubbing alcohol, if you wish)
Petroleum jelly (or an organic type of thick jelly substance)
The Technique
Fill your bucket with enough water to cover all but your chicken's heads.
Add a few ounces of pure neem oil to the bucket and stir really well.
Dunk your chickens in the bucket and allow their feathers and skin to become sodden-wet. They really need to be soaked through!
Plunk the chickens in a draft-free place so they can dry out.
Natural Legmite Spray
Mix together one to four tablespoons of neem oil with about a half cup of vodka. Add to a 12-ounce spray bottle. Top the rest off with plain water.
Shake really well and then soak the bird's legs with the solution. Allow their legs and feet to dry or don't, it worked fine both ways.
Shake the bottle often to keep the solution suspended properly.
Now, take a huge pile of wood ash and dust each chicken individually. Get the wood ash into the feathers and all the way to the skin. This will take a little while. Your chickens should be black after the treatment.
Now cover their legs with your jelly stuff. Really cover it, gob it on and rub it into the scales.
I plucked away all of the infested feathers around their vents. The lice had laid clusters of eggs and they were absolutely cemented on.
You should notice a difference in scratching immediately. After a few days the birds should start to look better. After one or two weeks, they should be nearly as good as new.
Remember to treat their living quarters when you treat them.
Retreat in four to seven days. Do the birds and their coops/runs.
There are a few reports that large amounts of neem may affect rooster fertility. I am not experiencing a decline in fertilized eggs and I use quite a bit of neem oil!
