Mite infestation. Need advice.

[WingDing]

I discovered that we have bird mite infestation from a wild bird nest that was hidden up under our porch. Now I have mites and Toby has them. Tonight, we'll see if my son's bird has them. The earliest vet appointment with the the avian vet down the street is Sunday morning. He is at another location an hour away on Wednesday. Toby doesn't travel well at all so I took the Sunday appointment.

Questions: Is it safe to wait 6 days to see the vet or should I take the day off to take Toby in 2 days?
What do we need to do to get rid of the mites from our home? We were about to spray down the entire exterior of the house anyway, but what to we do inside? What's safe? Do we wash down the cages everyday and throw out all the toys?

TLDR: I found the nest because all the baby birds died and were on the ground. I tore down the nest. Unfortunately, Toby's cage is just inside a window only 6 feet from where that nest was. My office where I work all day is upstairs right above that, explaining why we both have the mites. I used packing tape to take a sample from the bottom of his cage and viewed some mites using a microscope. I've been have crawling sensations all over my body the week prior and Toby has been scratching nonstop. Toby seems very tired. I am freaked out to say the least.

Here are some pictures I took with the microscope:

Any advice is appreciated!

 

[goalerjones]

the birds will need to be quarantined. Others on here who have dealt with mites can give you ideas on how to kill the mites on the birds themselves. It's hard to say how long your birds have had the mites, so 6 days might not be an issue. There was an interesting study done using permethrin on wild birds who had fly problems in their nests. The scientists gave them cotton balls containing the permethrin and they took it back to the nest, which killed the flies, but didn't harm the birds. attached is a link to the article. The TLDR comes down to the birds vs the eggs in wild birds. If your birds are not breeding pairs it appears permethrin can be used to suppress mites in nesting materials, but not sprayed directly on the birds themselves.

Sub-lethal effects of permethrin exposure on a
passerine: implications for managing
ectoparasites in wild bird nests

ahttps://openaccess.wgtn.ac.nz/articles/journal_contribution/Sub-lethal_effects_of_permethrin_exposure_on_a_passerine_Implications_for_managing_ectoparasites_in_wild_bird_nests/16920412

 

[WingDing]

We're putting a plan together to exterminate the house ourselves this weekend and then start the birds on Ivermectin treatment from the vet on Monday. We're researching the best insecticide to use without harming our birds. It is going to be tough but we can't let this go untreated for long.

 

[kme3388]

Sorry to hear about Toby I hope he feels better along with everyone else. I’ve never dealt with mites.

 

[WingDing]

Following up on the happenings in the past few days as a record for other folks that might run into this. Here's what we did, right or wrong.

• Local exterminators either didn't treat for bird mites, had never heard of them, or refused to treat them for liability reasons since we had pet birds. We had to exterminate ourselves and be very safe about it.
• From the big-box home store, we bought a 2.5 gallon pressure sprayer, respirator masks, eye goggles, and chemical resistant gloves that go to the elbows.
• My son and I exterminated the exterior of our house with Ortho Home Defense. We hit every nook and cranny of our 1980's 4800sqft house. Established a perimeter barrier. We climbed on ladders and onto the roof to cover every possible intrusion into the house. The bird nest was removed days ago and the porch was completely exterminated. If any pests were there, they are gone now. We used 5 gallons of insecticide on the exterior of the house and garage. No exterminator would have gone to those lengths.
• We bought a pesticide that professionals use called Talstar P and plan to use it in the future on the house exterior. It didn't arrive fast enough to use it so we went with the Ortho Home Defense instead.
• We bought Martin's Permethrin 13.3% from the local Tractor and Feed store to treat the interior of the house and their cages.
• We moved the cages to the backyard, pressure washed them, sprayed with soapy water, scrubbed, rinsed, dried them and then treated the bottom of the cages with the Permethrin spray to create a barrier to mites.
• We moved the birds around to keep them out of the interior rooms that we were spraying. In the two rooms where the birds hang out, we used the Permethrin spray along baseboards, around the windows, and in all of the nooks and crannys. I also sprayed the floors where the cages sit.
• Toby the Eclectus went to the vet on Sunday where the vet found mites and eggs. He gave Toby Ivermectin and prescribed Pyrethrin spray or dust since they didn't have it on hand.
• I sprayed down Toby's PVC play stands with Permethrin, wiped them down, and put new vet tape on them. I plan on replacing the cut branches he climbs on every few days. The "splat mats" under the play stands have been treated and will get washed and retreated every few days.
• All of the birds toys are going into the freezer every couple of days to kill the mites on them.
• My local pet store is awesome and had Scalex Mite Spray on the shelf. My local Pet Superstore rocks. The big places, PetCo and PetSmart, they pretty much stink at everything nowadays, at least in my area.
• We're going to have to figure out how to spray the mite treatment on Toby The Eclectus who is a "hands-off" bird. I figure that my son will attempt to towel him and I will spray him and massage the permethrin spray into his feathers and skin. God help us. Seriously, please God.
• I will use packing tape to take samples from the bottom of both birds cages every few days and check them under the digital microscope to see what the mite population looks like. This may become a regular procedure for us.
• We need to eliminate the places that birds are able to build nests. That's a redesign of our porch/outdoor kitchen area. In the mean time, I'm going to buy some bird deterrents to keep birds away, at least for a while.

So, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it! God bless anyone who gets bird mites into their home when they have pet birds. I know that my Eclectus has been absolutely miserable for the last weeks being invested with them. He spends his mornings hunched over, standing on one leg, being a little more active in the afternoon, but not much. I haven't had a good night's sleep in a while with the invisible creatures crawling over me. It just creeps me out.

It's been hard work, but life with birds gets hard sometimes, right? Enjoy the good times to the fullest and make the best of the hard times.

 

[kme3388]

Following up on the happenings in the past few days as a record for other folks that might run into this. Here's what we did, right or wrong.

• Local exterminators either didn't treat for bird mites, had never heard of them, or refused to treat them for liability reasons since we had pet birds. We had to exterminate ourselves and be very safe about it.
• From the big-box home store, we bought a 2.5 gallon pressure sprayer, respirator masks, eye goggles, and chemical resistant gloves that go to the elbows.
• My son and I exterminated the exterior of our house with Ortho Home Defense. We hit every nook and cranny of our 1980's 4800sqft house. Established a perimeter barrier. We climbed on ladders and onto the roof to cover every possible intrusion into the house. The bird nest was removed days ago and the porch was completely exterminated. If any pests were there, they are gone now. We used 5 gallons of insecticide on the exterior of the house and garage. No exterminator would have gone to those lengths.
• We bought a pesticide that professionals use called Talstar P and plan to use it in the future on the house exterior. It didn't arrive fast enough to use it so we went with the Ortho Home Defense instead.
• We bought Martin's Permethrin 13.3% from the local Tractor and Feed store to treat the interior of the house and their cages.
• We moved the cages to the backyard, pressure washed them, sprayed with soapy water, scrubbed, rinsed, dried them and then treated the bottom of the cages with the Permethrin spray to create a barrier to mites.
• We moved the birds around to keep them out of the interior rooms that we were spraying. In the two rooms where the birds hang out, we used the Permethrin spray along baseboards, around the windows, and in all of the nooks and crannys. I also sprayed the floors where the cages sit.
• Toby the Eclectus went to the vet on Sunday where the vet found mites and eggs. He gave Toby Ivermectin and prescribed Pyrethrin spray or dust since they didn't have it on hand.
• I sprayed down Toby's PVC play stands with Permethrin, wiped them down, and put new vet tape on them. I plan on replacing the cut branches he climbs on every few days. The "splat mats" under the play stands have been treated and will get washed and retreated every few days.
• All of the birds toys are going into the freezer every couple of days to kill the mites on them.
• My local pet store is awesome and had Scalex Mite Spray on the shelf. My local Pet Superstore rocks. The big places, PetCo and PetSmart, they pretty much stink at everything nowadays, at least in my area.
• We're going to have to figure out how to spray the mite treatment on Toby The Eclectus who is a "hands-off" bird. I figure that my son will attempt to towel him and I will spray him and massage the permethrin spray into his feathers and skin. God help us. Seriously, please God.
• I will use packing tape to take samples from the bottom of both birds cages every few days and check them under the digital microscope to see what the mite population looks like. This may become a regular procedure for us.
• We need to eliminate the places that birds are able to build nests. That's a redesign of our porch/outdoor kitchen area. In the mean time, I'm going to buy some bird deterrents to keep birds away, at least for a while.

Jeez, that's my story. God bless anyone who gets bird mites into their home when they have pet birds. I know that my Eclectus has been absolutely miserable for the last weeks being invested with them. He spends his mornings hunched over, standing on one leg, being a little more active in the afternoon, but not much. I haven't had a good night's sleep in a while with the invisible creatures crawling over me. It just creeps me out.

It's been hard work but life with birds gets hard sometimes, right? Enjoy the good times to the fullest and make the best of the hard times.

That sounds like so much work. I can’t imagine having to do all of that. Are mites like flies, and are very itchy?

I spray home defense around my house every single spring, and fall. Otherwise we will have an ant problem. Every single house I have lived in here (and there’s been quite a few) we get ants. At this point I just use home defense as a precautionary measure.

Poor Toby 😢 I hope he feels better. I would have never thought to use tape strips under the bird cages to make sure the mites are gone.

 

[WingDing]

Are mites like flies, and are very itchy?

I feel them crawling on me, like, all over me, especially on my face around my nose and on my forehead. It drives me a little insane. Sometimes I feel an itchy bite, but I don't seem to be sensitive to their bites very much at all. And they are truly microscopic. You cannot see them.

@kme3388 It's good that you exterminate your house. We were late to the game and hadn't exterminated for the Spring yet. It is possible that the mites wouldn't have made it into the house if we had exterminated. The key thing we need to do now is eliminate the possible nesting places for wild birds and the entry spots for rodents.

Toby is not doing well. He sits with one leg tucked up and closes his eyes for long stretches. He is eating, but kind of sporadically. There are particles of scaly skin at the bottom of his cage every morning so I think he is picking at his skin. I'm calling the vet today to check on the results from the stool sample and to give him an update.

BTW, our vet is Dr. Ross that was on the Animal Planet show "The Vet life". Over the past few years, he's been very knowledgeable, communicative and kind.

 

[goalerjones]

I feel them crawling on me, like, all over me, especially on my face around my nose and on my forehead. It drives me a little insane. Sometimes I feel an itchy bite, but I don't seem to be sensitive to their bites very much at all. And they are truly microscopic. You cannot see them.

@kme3388 It's good that you exterminate your house. We were late to the game and hadn't exterminated for the Spring yet. It is possible that the mites wouldn't have made it into the house if we had exterminated. The key thing we need to do now is eliminate the possible nesting places for wild birds and the entry spots for rodents.

Toby is not doing well. He sits with one leg tucked up and closes his eyes for long stretches. He is eating, but kind of sporadically. There are particles of scaly skin at the bottom of his cage every morning so I think he is picking at his skin. I'm calling the vet today to check on the results from the stool sample and to give him an update.

BTW, our vet is Dr. Ross that was on the Animal Planet show "The Vet life". Over the past few years, he's been very knowledgeable, communicative and kind.

You can try using sulfer soap and using a shampoo which also contains sulfer. Mites don't like sulfer.

 

[WingDing]

You can try using sulfer soap and using a shampoo which also contains sulfer. Mites don't like sulfer.

Thanks for that my dear I appreciate the suggestion. Luckily, things are dying down, and I mean the mites are dying. I'm doing well and Toby is better. We're going to stay with the Pyrethrin spray on both the bird and me, Permethrin spray on the perimeter of the bird living areas, and the Ivermectin prescription for the bird. All seems to be heading in the right direction.

The vet let me down a little and lost track of Toby's poop sample -- there was a lot going on that day at the vet's office, but I'm disappointed that they don't even acknowledge that a sample was even taken. At the time, he thought is was a good idea, the assistant took the sample, but there is no record of it, and I was not billed for it. I should have recorded the entire vet visit. Lesson learned. My vet is awesome, but I feel that there is so much activity in that hospital, things can fall through the cracks. Ultimately, I am responsible for my bird's health so I should be more careful about reviewing the treatment and billing.