We’ve covered what chicken lice are, how to prevent them, and the signs to look for to recognize an infestation.
It’s now time to figure out how to treat a chicken lice infestation when you know you have one. There are a few different options available. Here they are:
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Treat with OTC Meds
Some chicken keepers think the only way to treat chicken lice is with over the counter meds. I haven’t had an infestation I couldn’t lick with proper cleaning techniques and diatomaceous earth.
However, this doesn’t mean other chicken keepers haven’t come across this bad of an infestation.
Therefore, it’s important to understand there are over the counter medicines you can use to treat chicken lice and if you’re more comfortable with this method, you should know what’s available.
If your flock is infested with chicken lice, you can use dog flea shampoos or dog flea dips. Don’t use medicine meant for humans because it won’t impact this particular type of lice and could harm your chickens.
Also, you can use garden and poultry dust. This is a great way to kill any pest or parasite you don’t want around your flock.
Most treatments should take four weeks and be done one time per week to kill off any newly hatched nits.
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Treat with Wood Ash and DE
There are some chicken keeps which prefer to keep things more DIY and natural when possible. There’s nothing wrong with this method either.
I’ll be upfront; some people don’t like to use diatomaceous earth around their chickens because they’re afraid of it harming their delicate respiratory systems.
If you use DE around your birds, be wise with it. You should place diatomaceous earth and wood ash in their dusting bath and let your birds apply it to themselves unless the infestation is terrible.
In those cases, it’s best to hold the chicken and gently apply DE to their skin and stirring up as little dust as possible.
You’ll also want to be sure to thoroughly clean the coop, remove all bedding, and dust everything with diatomaceous earth. Don’t reapply bedding or anything to the floor of the coop for an hour.
Don’t allow your chickens back in the coop for two hours after you’ve applied this treatment to protect them from any flying dust particles which might impact their respiratory systems.
Again, be sure to apply this treatment once a week for four weeks. Keep inspecting your birds each week at treatment time to see if the parasites’ numbers are decreasing. Also, check out our info on Chicken Mites and molting, to know what else to look for.
Well, you are now in the know about chicken lice. You know how to spot them, what they do, how to prevent chicken lice, and how to treat an infestation. Hopefully, this will spare you and your chickens any unnecessary hardships.
We’d love to hear from you. How do you treat chicken lice? Has any method worked particularly well for you?
