Lady Gouldian Finch | Blood Mite Article

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Removed birds from infected area and sprayed them with a Pyrethrin-based bird-safe insecticide (I used Pestex AND Scalex) before placing
them in a new cage and moving them to an uninfected area of my home. Administered S76 in bath and drinking water as directed on bottle.
On day 2, I applied Scatt to each bird. (This was completely successful in ridding my birds of any mites that may have been still on them). I
watched every speck of dust carefully and looked at anything suspicious under the microscope until I was satisfied there were no remnants of
mites, nymphs or eggs.

Removed infected cages and destroyed them. Note: Wire cages with plastic tray bottoms really do not have any place for the mites to hide,
but I still destroyed my many cages (so that trash collectors would not try to use them and spread the mites unknowingly to their own birds).

Used a Pyrethrin-based insect bomb in bird room once per day for 7 days, then once every six days for 1 month...just to be sure (I tried
EVERY kind of bomb I could find). After each bomb I washed EVERYTHING with bleach and hot water because the bombs typically leave an
oily residue on any surface they make contact with. The bomb that I think finally worked is called ZEMA. (I used a total of 12 bombs)

Using a turkey baster, I filled the bulb with Sevin and dusted in every crack and crevice, including between the walls and under the quarter-
rounds at floor level. DO NOT USE THE BASTER TO BASTE YOUR TURKEY AFTERWARDS – PLACE THE BASTER IN A PLASTIC BAG AND
DISPOSE OF IT!

I eventually removed EVERYTHING from my bird room and replaced it (I am still replacing items more than a year later!).

Hope and pray my husband doesn't find out how much I've spent trying to replace everything!!!

Kristen Reeves, July 6, 2007

Dermanyssus Gallinae (Blood Mites, Red Mites, Chicken Mites)

As bird keepers, we all know the importance of keeping cages clean and observing our birds closely each day for
changes in behavior and health. It is my hope that once you've read this article, it will reinforce the importance of these
duties and express to you the urgency of finding problems early.

After many long and rewarding years of owning and breeding several types of canaries and small finches, I found myself in need of additional
breeding cages. Good breeding cages are costly, especially those that have the amount of room I demand for my breeding pairs. So when my
local bird store put two sets of used stackable breeders up for sale at a reasonable price, I snatched them up.

Now, I tell my own clients not to purchase used cages. You never know what might be lurking in them even after they have been thoroughly
cleaned. On this day I was feeling pretty confident that I could make these cages work. Heaven forbid I practice what I preach! I brought them
home and completely dismantled them for cleaning. I was horrified to see thousands of dead blood mites (dermanyssus gallinae) under every
overlapping surface (Hint, hint! Danger Will Robinson!). I called my local bird veterinarian who instructed me to use bleach and hot soapy
water to clean the cages, and then spray them with a commercial, bird-safe insecticide. She said I should have no problem since the mites I
was seeing were dead.

Assuming the information I had received was correct, I proceeded to solder loose and broken cage bars and divider slides, then spent two full
weeks with my oldest daughter scrubbing every crack and crevice with hot soapy water, then again with hot bleach water. We allowed the cage
parts to dry in the hot sun. To be safe, we painted the cages with commercial grade auto paint in an effort to seal up any crevices that may
conceal anything we couldn't wash away.

By this time, I had spent nearly a month and a whole lot of money preparing the cages for use – they looked like new – I thought, hmmm, I think
it's time for a new, larger bird room to show off my beautiful birds! I went about clearing out a room in my basement. I purchased additional full
spectrum lighting, timers, and shelving. I installed an aquarium in the room to keep a modest humidity level, and a thermometer and
hygrometer to monitor the heat and humidity, respectively. I installed my grow light table for growing bird greens and sprouting seed. I
organized my microscope and accessories so that I could easily monitor droppings and perform gram stains with my bi-yearly quarantine
procedures. This room was shaping up to be what I had always wanted for my beautiful babies! I was finally able to place my breeding pairs in
their new cages, and all was right with the world...for about 22 days.

The first sign of trouble was when I began to notice that my Gouldian finches, in particular, were behaving very strangely. They were extremely
restless and fluttered their wings constantly. They spent a great deal of time jumping from perch to cage bars and back again. They preened
almost constantly when they weren't jumping around. Those of us who own Goulds know they DO NOT JUMP AROUND! I had no idea what the
problem was. I took each and every one of those birds in hand and inspected their vents, skin, feathers, legs and beaks. I could see nothing
but perfect little bodies. I ran gram stains on all of them, but found nothing out of the ordinary. I was certain their seed mix was correct and they
were getting the right amount of nutrients through the supplements I gave them. I allowed them an extra bath each day and adjusted the heat
to about 75 degrees so that they would be dry before lights out. Nothing seemed to calm them. I watched over the next few days only to see
them going light. This was not good! What could possibly be wrong? I was perplexed!

About the 25th day, my worst nightmare came true, literally – I figured out exactly what the problem was...blood mites!

Blood mites are the Dracula of the bird world. They appear as tiny specks, no larger than a grain of salt. The female mites feed on birds when
they roost for the night, or settle down in their nest boxes. After feeding, the mites will appear a brownish red to bright red – not unlike those
fast little red spiders we may see climbing on us after a walk through our gardens. They will colonize in any dark, dry space such as the ends
of wooden perches, under the flaps of sheet metal cage trays, in the cracks of molded sand perches that have begun to separate, nooks and
crannies of manzanita perches – anywhere they can squeeze that is within a close proximity of their nightly meal.
Under the microscope, the mites look like miniature crabs with 8 legs and a sharp mouth. The newly hatched young appear white, not unlike
bird dander or dust. The eggs are not visible to the naked eye, but can be seen with 1000x magnification.

Over the course of the next few weeks (soon to become months, then a year), I spent my every waking moment (in between chauffeuring my
four children to school and running my normal errands) inspecting the walls and cages for signs of the mites. Every single day, I still found
more, but the most disturbing part was that they had obviously been feeding. Hello??? There are no birds in here – do they eat people???
Please tell me they don't eat people! I spent hours researching blood mites on the Internet. I called every Exterminator in the phone book. I
called every available Avian Veterinarian in the State of Michigan. I contacted Michigan State University and many websites pleading for
information on how to get rid of the mites. Nobody can help because they had never heard of a "blood mite". They all ask me if I've correctly
identified the bug...hello????? I'm positive I know what this menace is, thank you very much!!! They still can't help.

Now I'm in a panic. Will the mites move to other parts of my home??? Will they suck my blood, my husband's, my children's, my other pets'??? I
need answers NOW! Here I am, a grown, 40 year old woman, brandishing a magnifying glass in one hand, a bottle of Pestex in the other and
screaming, "DIE, DIE, DIE", as I spray every mite I see. There must be a better way!!! Then it hits me. Pestex is made of pyrethrin, a naturally
occurring pesticide derived from a form of chrysanthemum. Maybe if I use a bug bomb that contains pyrethrin, it will kill the mites. I run off to
the Hardware store and read every label on every bug bomb they carry. Most of them contain permethrin and a very low dose of pyrethrin. I
consult with the sales staff. They are concerned for the safety of my family and other pets...this stuff is deadly...but I purchase several of them
and head home to do the deed.

I sit down to read the instructions...I have to what??? Remove all people and pets for 3 hours then "air" the room out for another 30
minutes??? Turn off all pilot lights and unplug everything including my fire alarms??? Does this company realize it is snowing early in Michigan
and that we require heat to survive????? I think maybe I can get away with sealing off just the bird room...I can't possibly take all of my pets
out of the house! So I prepare the bird room by sealing up the first of two outer doors with duct tape. I unlock the one small window and set up
a step ladder with a window fan to air the room out after the bomb is done. I seal up the aquarium with plastic wrap and duct tape. I set all of
the cages in the center of the room, directly under the bug bomb, set it off, then seal up the remaining outer door and move to the upstairs.
Then it hits me. Oh no, I can smell the pesticide filtering up through the floor boards!!! Will it kill us? Will it kill my African Grey and other birds
and pets??? I quick run to the van, fold the seats flat, grab my son, the four huge cages I've crammed my entire flock into, the cat (without a
kennel), the dog (without a leash), the mouse in her aquarium, and lastly, my African Grey as she tries to peel the skin off the back of my hand
and arm. I cram us all into the van and pull out of the driveway. Oh no...I need to use the little girls room...I have no money, no coat, no phone.
But I do have a DVD player in my van, so my son can watch movies, and I had packed his lunch before he left for school...we can do this!!!
After three hours of listening to Cat in the Hat, I am finally able to come home and air out the bird room...did it work? I won't know until morning.
First thing in the morning, I'm in the bird room scouting for mites. Oh no, they are now everywhere! They've come out of hiding looking for
food! Even the rubber gloves I had used when cleaning with bleach had mites in and on them!!! So I pack up the animals and my son again,
but this time I'm prepared, kennels, leashes and lunch for all! I turn off all the pilots and alarms and set off the bomb and leave the house.
Surely this will work!!!

The next morning I follow the same routine. I still see mites crawling everywhere. I pack everyone up and set off a third bomb, come back and
clean everything again. I wait a day and set off a fourth bomb. I'm really starting to panic now! They are in my lights, the timers, and the
electrical sockets the timers are plugged into. They are in the holes I had drilled to hang shelving; they are under the wall paper and in the
acoustical ceiling tile. They are in my stash of nesting materials and the corncob and walnut shell bedding I use in my cages. They are in the
aquarium lights I use on my hospital cage...anywhere that was dry, but especially warm. It hits me...everything must be thrown away. I can't
take any chances that I miss even one little mite!!! I also dismantle and pack up the used cages and call the store I purchased them from. I
return them for a refund (after an R-Rated and rousing chorus of expletives) and am able to recover a small portion of the money I've already
spent trying to eradicate the mites.

It's become obvious that In order to kill them, I need to find out the life cycle of these critters so I know how long it will be before I kill them all! I
call Laraine at LadyGouldianFinch.com in a panic. I explain to the nice lady who answers the phone my dilemma. She tells me Laraine is in the
aviaries, but that she'll give her the message and have her call me back. Thank goodness!!! I wait, not so patiently, for Laraine's call.
When Laraine returns my call, I explain my situation. This is not just a cage of birds - this is my entire 10' x 12' bird room and an entire flock!
Laraine has the patience of a Saint! We discuss bleach and the various pesticides I had tried to use, she asks me a few questions such as,
"Do I have mice?". She makes me think of a few other ideas for searching my house AND the Internet. I finish my call with her and spend the
rest of the evening and well into the wee hours researching and looking for mouse droppings. I drag out every bird book I own and start
pouring over every bit of information I can find about blood mites and locate the proper spelling for their Latin term. I type the term into my
search engine and voila! A huge list of sites!! Maybe now I'll get some answers!!! Maybe...

Over a year later, I'm cleaning up the residual effects. The real tragedy here is that I lost a huge number of birds to infection and anemia. You
see, mites are bad enough, but they also carry other diseases, and I'm not completely convinced that bleach and hot water kills some of the
diseases that must have been residing in those cages.

My poor babies contracted scaly face/leg mites and had to be aggressively treated. Some of the birds, already weak from anemia, did not
handle the treatment well and died. Others contracted Trichomoniasis. Because I did not recognize the symptoms, they grew so sick that they
had to be euthanized. I couldn't bear to see them suffer any longer AND I was afraid they would make the rest of the flock sicker. This was
before I really knew what I was looking at. Now I feel horrible that I have put them down, since I had the cure right there in my med cabinet!!!
Most of the birds have shown very poor plumage from over preening (which should be remedied once they all complete their molt.) I've had to
contend with worms – whether from the cages or the mites, I don't know – and the worst of all, anemia, which is now finally under control
through an aggressive protocol of iron supplements and dark green, leafy vegetables, as well as a change in the vitamins I add to their food
and water.

I feel some of my birds are finally strong enough to breed again, but I'll only take the chance with a few of the strongest. I do not want to stress
their wee bodies any more than they've already been. I've lost nearly two whole breeding seasons because of the mites.
As for me, well, I've been scarred for life! To this day I walk around my bird room with a jewelers loop looking at every speck that doesn't look
"quite right" to make sure the mites haven't returned. I never want to go through something like this again and will ALWAYS follow my own best
advice – DO NOT PURCHASE USED CAGES AND INSPECT EVERYTHING CAREFULLY, DAILY!

Unfortunately, I don't know if I've really figured out the life cycle. I just kept bombing until I saw no more signs of mites.
So how did I finally rid my bird room of this potentially deadly pest? Unfortunately, I'm not sure which step finally killed
them. I DO know, however, that pyrethrin kills them on contact. I also know that the measures I have taken seem to
have worked...FINALLY!

Much to my dismay, the mites are known to the general population as "chicken mites". They are difficult to eradicate. I discover things I already
know such as they like to hide in warm dry places during the day and feed on the birds only at night. I read that they will, indeed, move to other
parts of the structure and feed on humans and other pets if there are no birds to feed on (little panic here!). There is conflicting information.
One site says the mites and their eggs can remain dormant for up to six months and can go without a blood meal just as long; another says it
takes a mere few days without a meal for them to die. I also read that it appears they require a higher humidity to reproduce. I realize that in
my effort to give my birds the most comfortable and advantageous breeding environment possible, I have created a "best case scenario" and
haven for the mites. I have contributed to the population explosion by keeping the humidity and heat high in my bird room!!! I cannot imagine
how many there might have been had I not found them early!!!

My Nightmare

The Never Ending Saga...

Hours of Research

Tragedy

Eliminating the Mites

Steps That Worked for Me