Does My Chicken Have Mites or Lice? How to Check and Treat
Restless nights, pale combs, dirty-looking clumps at feather bases, and roost avoidance all point to external parasites — check at night with a flashlight, treat birds and coop together.
Most likely causes
Red (roost) mites
What points to it: Birds reluctant to enter the coop or roost, pale combs, drops in lay; the mites hide in cracks by day — a white paper towel wiped under the roost bar at night comes back blood-streaked, or you spot gray/red specks moving.
What to do: Treat the COOP as much as the birds: strip bedding, scrub or torch cracks, treat with an approved product (permethrin-based for coops, or elector PSP), repeat in 7 days to break the egg cycle. Dust or spray birds per label.
Northern fowl mites
What points to it: Unlike red mites these live ON the bird — dirty-looking greasy clumps and crawling specks around the vent, day or night.
What to do: Treat the birds directly (permethrin dust/spray per label, repeat in 7 days) plus housing; check new birds before they join the flock — this is how it arrives.
Poultry lice
What points to it: Straw-colored fast movers on skin when you part vent feathers; white egg clusters cemented at feather shafts.
What to do: Same bird-focused treatment and 7-day repeat; lice live their whole cycle on the bird, so housing matters less but flockmates all need doing.
Scaly leg mites
What points to it: Raised, crusty, thickened leg scales — see the scaly legs guide.
What to do: Different mite, different treatment — oil-based smothering or ivermectin per the scaly legs guide.
Check these first
The two-minute night check settles it: flashlight to the roost bar, the underside of the roost, and each bird's vent area. Do it monthly as routine — early infestations are trivially easier.
When it's probably nothing
Dust bathing is mite PREVENTION, not evidence of mites — a vigorous dust bath habit with calm nights and red combs is a healthy flock doing maintenance.
This guide is experienced-keeper guidance, not veterinary care. When a bird is crashing or a symptom is spreading, a poultry vet or your state extension lab is the right call — fast.
📄 Free printable: The Chicken Never List
The 15 foods that can hurt your flock, on one page — print it, tape it inside the feed-bin lid.
Harold knows your flock's history
Homestead Paradise keeps your flock's health records, lay records, and feed history — so when something looks off, Harold answers with your birds' actual story, not generic internet advice. Snap a photo with Harold's Eyes and log what you find, so next time you'll know what worked.
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