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The variety of "nice" fauna that live on chickens is not limited to mites alone. It was a shame for other insects to cede such luxurious food resources to only one group parasites and they also settled in the feather cover. We are talking about insects that scientists call feather eaters and lice, and people simply call them chicken lice. In fact, these lice eaters have nothing to do with lice and belong to a completely different genus: Mallophaga. Sometimes, by the name of this genus, parasites are called mallophages, and infection of chickens by down feather eaters is called mallophagosis.
It is not possible to find out what chicken lice look like due to the complete absence of this type of insect. Perhaps this is due to the very narrow specialization of real lice. Lice species are so specialized that they can parasitize only one or a few host species, allowing scientists to judge the degree of relatedness of different types of living organisms. A native of the Bankivsky jungle, the chicken most likely simply did not have the evolutionary opportunity to acquire its own louse, compensating for this with 17 species of down-eaters.
The main difference between lice and lice is the structure of the oral apparatus. The louse has a piercing-sucking mouthpart, while the lice eater has a gnawing mouthpart.
Several species of fluff eaters can parasitize a chicken at the same time, but their “areas” do not intersect. Each type of parasite lives in its own area of the chicken's body.
Down feather eaters feed on the upper layers of skin and feather down. If there is a significant dominance of parasites, peri-eaters can gnaw off the entire feather, leaving only the stump. Different types of fluff eaters look different. The picture shows the five most common species of fluff eaters that parasitize poultry.
Down-eaters under the letters “b” and “c” without a microscope and at a quick glance can be confused with a human head louse.
Human head louse.
This photo, taken under a microscope, is of the species menacanthus stramineus. Having seen the parasite alive, as in the photo below, many believe that it was lice that appeared on chickens.
Since feather eaters are constantly confused with lice, people have a natural fear of becoming infected with lice.
How do beetles become infected?
Down-eaters are parasites of a “single host”, spending their entire lives on the same individual. There, the female lays eggs from 1 to 10 eggs per day, depending on the type of parasite. The eggs are attached to the feathers and after 5 to 20 days the larvae emerge from the eggs. After 2–3 weeks, the larvae turn into mature insects.
The transmission of feather eaters from one bird to another occurs through close contact, through objects in the chicken coop or ash-dust baths, which, theoretically, should help chickens get rid of parasites. In nature, this would happen, since chickens would bathe in dust in different places.When birds are kept crowded in chicken coops and aviaries, such baths, on the contrary, become breeding grounds for parasites. The fluff eater reproduces very quickly and soon up to 10 thousand parasites can live on a chicken.
How dangerous is the fluff eater?
Theoretically, the parasite should not be dangerous; it does not pierce the skin to feed on blood, as a louse or flea does, causing irritation and introducing pathogenic organisms directly into the blood. In fact, the feather eater is no less dangerous than blood-sucking insects. By clinging to the skin with its paws when moving, the fluff eater causes severe itching in the chicken. The chicken tries to scratch itself and gradually pecks itself into the blood, providing infections with free access to the body. The loss of feathers damaged by the down feather eater also does not improve the health of chickens.
Symptoms of infection with the downy feather eater
The chickens are restless, constantly trying to groom themselves, and pecking at their bodies. Feathers break and fall out. In place of the fallen feather, bare, inflamed skin remains. Often you can see only bare edges. If you separate the feathers with your hands, you can see small, fast-moving insects. If you feel like someone is crawling on your body, there is no doubt about it. It's not a sensation, it's really crawling. A down-eater who decided, with the help of a person, to move to another chicken.
How to get rid of parasites
In fact, the fight against fluff eaters is not only possible, but also quite effective, provided the correct tactics are used.
In the comments under the video, a real rally began with a demand to indicate the name of the drug that was used to remove the beetles. In reality, the name of this particular remedy is completely unimportant. The drug should be one of those used for the prevention and destruction of ectoparasites: ticks, feather eaters, lice and fleas. Some drugs also destroy worms as a bonus. There are a great variety of remedies for parasites today and they come in almost any form: suspensions, powders, aerosols, in some cases even special “sweets”. But the latter is not for chickens, but for predators.
Depending on the number of livestock, you can treat the bird with an aerosol or powder from Frontline, Bolfo and others.
For large livestock or in order to save money, you can choose cheaper analogs: “Stomazan”, “Butox”, “Neostomazan”, “Deltsid”, “Deltamethrin”, “Ectocid”. It is very difficult to list all the drugs and you will have to choose them based on your wallet and the number of birds in your yard.
With a large population, it is more convenient to spray the insecticidal preparation in the form of an aerosol.
Dust, even if you can find this discontinued product, it is better not to use it. As an insecticide it works very well, but it is unlikely that any chicken breeder needs to hatch ugly chickens from eggs.
Errors when treating against the fluff eater
The instructions for most long-acting insecticidal preparations indicate that one treatment is sufficient to get rid of parasites for a period of 2 to 4 weeks. Therefore, having sprayed the chickens once, the owners believe that they have gotten rid of parasites. This is not the case with the fluff eater.
Firstly, these drugs only act on insects. The eggs remain unharmed and after a few days, new fluff eaters will emerge from the eggs. Therefore, processing must be carried out repeatedly. The treatment is carried out at least 3 times with a break of 15 days between procedures.
Secondly, it is not enough to treat only chickens. If we are fighting a feather eater, we also treat the chicken coop, perches and nesting boxes.
Processing is also carried out repeatedly.
Thirdly, surfaces must be treated very carefully, without missing a single crack, since pereaters can avoid the action of the insecticide. The best option would be to treat the chicken coop with a sulfur bomb, having first removed the chickens from it.
In the fight against featherworms, you should not rely only on folk remedies in the form of ash-sand baths for chickens. By ridding one chicken of the fluff eater, they will introduce this parasite to another. The contents of the baths must be changed very often so that parasites have less chance of reaching a still healthy chicken.
There is also a little trick here. You can add insecticide powder to the ash-sand bath. But this is for those who are not afraid of “chemistry”.
The fluff eater has another surprise. Like fleas and ticks and lice, it can go without food for several years. Therefore, even if the treated chickens are moved to a new chicken coop, the old one must be thoroughly disinfested.
Conclusion
Down-eaters can cause a lot of trouble for chicken owners, but by knowing how to deal with them and carefully following the instructions for using the drug and treating chickens and premises, the parasites can be stopped before they have time to spread throughout the entire territory of a private farmstead. If the poultry house is heavily infested with down-eaters, they can even be brought into the living quarters of the house. Nothing terrible, but unpleasant. Therefore, with treatment of chickens against fluff eaters there is no need to pull.
