Hello there, fellow poultry farmers! How’s business doing? We hope your business will always be profitable every day, more, and long lasting. Well, if you are already in animallova for a long time we believe that you might try to have your own chicken farm, or just simply having them as a pet; one is surely profitable and one is triple role pet that can be a very excellent alarm. However, today we are going to talk about one of the inevitable disastrous events, that might harm your chicken or her flocks which is lice attack. Yup, lice attack not only can attack our hair and make it itchy and troublesome, but it can also infect our lovely can’t fly bird. Whether this attack your farm or your pet still it would create a troublesome situation later on, we guarantee it. Which is why today we are going to talk about Must Know Facts About Poultry Lice That Might Attack Your Flocks; put your attention and check it out!
Why We Must Know about This?
Animallova would always regards that prevention is better than treatment. Thus, by knowing all of these facts; you might get an insight on how to prevent such situation from ever happening to your flock. If you just simply “Nah, animallova would provide the cure about it someday; don’t worry about no lice attack.” You are totally wrong. Remember, people talk about this proverb every day in order we don’t end up in regret one day; if you are lucky you can cure your flock easily but if not, it might be too late and there is no anything left to be saved.
The Facts
Well, more or less there are at least 7 facts about lice attack that you must know. Please use this information as an insight to prevent this troublesome micro creature from being attacking your farm. Put your attention and good luck!
They Attack Both Human and Poultry
Yup, just like avian flu who can attack both of us, lice infestation could also attack both human and poultry. Thus, we can infect poultry with lice vice versa they can also infect us with lice. Yeah, indeed troublesome huh? We suggest you if you live near poultry and you see them scratching their body more often than usual we suggest you to keep your distance vice versa.
9 Kind of Poultry Lice
Well, the more troublesome fact about lice that they are not a single species as there are, more or less, 9 kind of poultry lice that might attack your hair skin or your flock body. The 9 kind of poultry lice are:
- Menopon gallinae
- Lipeurus caponis
- Cuclotogaster heterographus
- Goniocotes gallinae
- Goniodes gigas
- Goniodes dissimilis
- Menacanthus cornutus
- Uchida pallidula
- Oxylipeurus dentatus
The Live of Poultry Lice
This guy attack by laying some eggs and it will hatch around 4 to 5 days. Luckily, these bastard’s life isnot long enough; just probably around 12 days as a young lice and 12 days as adult, so yup their lifespan is around 24 days. Also, adult female of lice could lay two eggs per day so that means 12 times 2 equal 24 eggs on a single life time yeah, no wonder it would be so itchy when these bastards attacking your hair or your poultry.
Close Contact Infection
Luckily for us, they are not spread through air bone and only could spread through close contact. Which means that, it is not recommended for you to use the same hairbrush as your friend and it is not recommended for you to let your flock to play with another wild poultry as wild poultry is the number one factor why your flock get troublesome disease.
Prefer Chicken Than You
Well, if the lice is given two options which to infect you or to infect your chicken, they will prefer your chicken. Yeah, this means they will choose to infect chicken rather than you. However, this does not mean that you are invisible towards them, they still can bite you and leave some crazy itchiness around your skin. So, be vigilant and never let your guard down.
Crazy Itchiness for Your Flock
Identifying lice on your flock is indeed an easy job for anyone. If you see any chicken who love to scratch herself and can’t waste a second to not scratch it, then they are the one who is being infected with lice. If this happens, you need to see around them vents, wings, chest as they are the favourite spot for the lice. Just remember, do not underestimate these bastards, as they will make your flock lose their feathers and eventually a degradation of chicken meat and eggs will surely happen if you underestimate it.
How to Cure it?
If you fail to prevent it, it is time for you to make sure the damage is done for good and will not harm your flock anymore. Fortunately, we can kill those bastards with a simple large, deep dust, bath which contains play sand and food-grade diatomaceous earth. Just mix them, the portion will be up to how many chickens are infected with lice, and just pour them on the lice most favourite spot on chicken body. However, if the infestation has been severe, it is recommended for you to use pyrethrin based insecticide that you can buy from nearby poultry store; the usage is still the same, just by a simple pouring and poof those lice are gone for good. Just remember, never let your flock to have contact with another wild bird as we mentioned before, they are the number one factor why your flock get a trouble. Also, it is recommended for you to wear hair cap to prevent any lice infect each other, whether you infect your flock or your flock infects you. Remember, prevention is always better than treatment. Good luck!