Oh dear! I have a foolproof way of getting rid of bird mites. No chemicals! Sick birds will even treat themselves. Diatomaceous earth. It is a fine powder composed of dried, sort-of-fossilised diatoms. They have very hard cell walls in the dried state of the earth. To us, with skin, it is a gentle dry cleanser. To any life using a chitinous exoskeleton (insects, arachnids etc.) it is abrasive death. It grinds their armour away and clogs their spiracles (how they breathe). The faster they move, the faster they die. Dry shampoo, and dusting of skin is all it needs to work. Birds will dust-bathe themselves; apparently with great pleasure. Our clothing, bedding etc. can be dusted and the earth simply shaken out along with any dead mites. A clean cat-litter tray with diatomaceous earth and a few catnip leaves will treat pet cats and a dusting whilst grooming will do the dogs. Birds are just given a dust bath. You can even dilute it up to 10 - 1 with other, cheaper fine grit without losing effectiveness. I keep pounds of it in my survival preps! It is so utterly complete in its kill range and so safe to us. You can even eat the stuff safely, birds often do, as it removes internal parasites as well! One of the benefits of keeping chickens is you learn this stuff. Our chickens had mites a few years ago when a new chicken was introduced. The mites swarmed over cages, nest boxes, hutches and the poor chickens. We could not get rid of them! No chemical worked. Cages vacant for years still had an infestation; - just waiting for its next meal. They swarmed toward any warm-blooded creatures unlucky enough to come in range. We were contemplating complete culling of all chickens and burning their cages. Then I bought a tiny pot of the earth in a big pet shop. I had little hope of it working, as I had almost given up, but tried it anyway - one last 'Hail Mary' pass. One dose of the earth and they were gone forever. Ebay sells it in kilo bags. On a lighter note. Bird mite diet is species specific. Every one that bit you was poisoned - fatally!
------------- How do you tell if a politician is lying? His lips or pen are moving.
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