On the thread entitled "Sevin Addition", Birdy Girl asked a question concerning bird mites. Do the birds bring the mites with them or do they pick up the mites once they are here? I thought it was a good question and would appreciate any thoughts on the subject.
Kenneth
Bird Mites
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Louise Chambers
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The mites do both - some stay and will overwinter in housing, even up north. Others make the journey to South America and back with the birds. So even if you carefully clean housing to remove all nest mites, fleas, etc., the martins will be bringing some with them.
Louise
Louise
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John Miller
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Kenneth
Here's a good article about insect parasites on martins..but don't read at bedtime.
http://purplemartin.org/update/Parasites.html
If you scroll to the end and read about mites -- the kind we see in nests -- it says they breed only in the nest.
Martins do carry a lot of different kinds of insect pests with them year round. My take from the article is that they probably carry some of the nest mites too...but the mites need the nest environment for the larvae to mature and we know that nests sometimes "bloom" with mites. The article says the baby martins provide the larvae with a blood meal. Yuck. It say the larvae present when the birds fledge actually die, but the mature mites may survive to the following year.
John M
Here's a good article about insect parasites on martins..but don't read at bedtime.
http://purplemartin.org/update/Parasites.html
If you scroll to the end and read about mites -- the kind we see in nests -- it says they breed only in the nest.
Martins do carry a lot of different kinds of insect pests with them year round. My take from the article is that they probably carry some of the nest mites too...but the mites need the nest environment for the larvae to mature and we know that nests sometimes "bloom" with mites. The article says the baby martins provide the larvae with a blood meal. Yuck. It say the larvae present when the birds fledge actually die, but the mature mites may survive to the following year.
John M
Kenneth,
To combat in house mites:
I pull all of the old nesting materials from each nest after all of the PMs leave my site.
I use a 50/50 Clorox/Water solution in a spray bottle to thoroughly clean stuck on bird
droppings in and out of my PM housing. I think this will also kill any bug in the crevices.
I do not put any nesting material until two-three weeks before the PMs comes back. I
have used pine straw 9 of the 10 years.
To combat brought in mites:
I do nest change as soon as I see the young PMs have some feathers or see some mites
crawling around.
I am glad to share this information for I have had no mite or blow fly problem for nine
years now.
I hope this will help someone.
To combat in house mites:
I pull all of the old nesting materials from each nest after all of the PMs leave my site.
I use a 50/50 Clorox/Water solution in a spray bottle to thoroughly clean stuck on bird
droppings in and out of my PM housing. I think this will also kill any bug in the crevices.
I do not put any nesting material until two-three weeks before the PMs comes back. I
have used pine straw 9 of the 10 years.
To combat brought in mites:
I do nest change as soon as I see the young PMs have some feathers or see some mites
crawling around.
I am glad to share this information for I have had no mite or blow fly problem for nine
years now.
I hope this will help someone.