Sora6886

New member
Jun 14, 2022
3
0
Nsw Australia
Parrots
Caiques, sun conures, eclectus, parrotlets, macaw, kakarikis, galah, macaw
Ok so I suddenly have a bunch on mites on/in the floor of one of my Aviaries.

None on the pair of birds in that aviary yet and I have also used avian insect liquidator to prevent it from happening.
I don't clean the floors super regularly but it's still done regularly enough.
Now in the past(years ago) I had a tio of mite infestated chickens and part of the treatments was putting diatomaceous earth all over the floor and also ash from the fireplace on the floor too. So this combined with the treatment stuff on the chickens themselves it rid the mites from them and their coop and the dirt too.

So this gets me thinking what can I do to the floor of my aviaries for future prevention that's parrot safe?

My aviary floors are mesh with soil underneath.
The aviary with the mites has eclectus in it and other eclectus and macaws next to it.

Would diatomaceous work and be ok for parrots?
 

SailBoat

Supporting Member
Jul 10, 2015
17,646
10,008
Western, Michigan
Parrots
DYH Amazon
Your infestations are very likely due to not moving your Aviaries often enough along will cleaning them regularly. With ground /soil as your floor there is a point in which the soil become saturated and needs to replaced or the Aviaries moved. Chemicals can help, but the same problem occurs.

My Great Aunt had chickens on their Apple Farm and I recall helping her clean-out the coop and removing a layer of soil and replacing it. She repeated the process twice a week with the coop being moved three times each year. Is that too much, I am not sure, but that was what she did.
 
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Sora6886

Sora6886

New member
Jun 14, 2022
3
0
Nsw Australia
Parrots
Caiques, sun conures, eclectus, parrotlets, macaw, kakarikis, galah, macaw
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I see thankyou for this info
I think the infestation is due to alot of recent rain that it's even flooding areas near me and what's going on in the soil as a result. Since it's always been fine until now.
I'm going to be cleaning more often until the infestation is gone but just wondering if I can do stuff to the soil to help prevent it in the future. I know I used ash from my fireplace to stop my previous chicken mite infestation being caught by the other chickens at the time who wandered around near coop that had the infestated tio. Since ash is so fine that it soffcates mites and its natural so it worked really well.
Yes I want to avoid chemicals as they don't usally mix well with birds especially eclectus even if they bird safe.
Your infestations are very likely due to not moving your Aviaries often enough along will cleaning them regularly. With ground /soil as your floor there is a point in which the soil become saturated and needs to replaced or the Aviaries moved. Chemicals can help, but the same problem occurs.

My Great Aunt had chickens on their Apple Farm and I recall helping her clean-out the coop and removing a layer of soil and replacing it. She repeated the process twice a week with the coop being moved three times each year. Is that too much, I am not sure, but that was what she did.
 

HeatherG

Well-known member
Apr 25, 2020
3,893
6,966
I know I had a bag of dried egg food get infested with tobacco beetles. I didn’t find it until a bunch of beetles hatched out. I vacuumed the heck out of my apartment and put diatomaceous earth around the baseboards since it is non toxic.

Another forum member used wood ash to cure his baby macaw of a mite infestation.

Either of those substances might help.
 

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