Note: from 1 red mite to 16,000 in 2 months!
If there is 1 red mite in the chicken coop today, there will be 16,000 in 60 days. Red mites multiply extremely quickly. What seems like almost nothing one day can suddenly look like an explosion of red mites the next day. This is also the reason why it is so important to start treatment immediately. Because the more red mites there are, the longer it takes to get them under control. But how quickly do red mites actually multiply?
Red mites
15 April '22 • 2 min reading time
1 blood mite lays 8 eggs per day!
Adult female blood mites lay 8 eggs per day when the temperature rises above 20 degrees. However, they also start laying eggs at temperatures as low as 5 degrees, which means the blood mite problem can begin in winter. These eggs simply wait until the temperature exceeds 10 degrees before hatching. Therefore, it seems that they suddenly appear in large numbers with a rise in temperature. In reality, they may have been there for weeks, months, or even years. Eggs can even hatch 2 years later!
Different Stages of Blood Mites and Their Distribution
Blood mites have different stages, and not all of these stages lay eggs or suck blood. The eggs and larvae do not need blood yet and cannot reproduce. The protonymphs, deutonymphs, and adult blood mites do suck blood. However, only the adult blood mites lay eggs. It takes about 6-8 days for an egg to develop into an adult blood mite (depending on the conditions). Adult blood mites live for about 30 days. This means they lay 240 eggs in their lifetime!
Below are the different stages and the percentage of each stage present in the coop.
Eggs: 35% Larvae: 10% Protonymph: 10% Deutonymph: 22.5% Adult blood mite: 22.5%
We explain the different stages because not everyone realizes that part of the blood mite does not go to the chicken while part does. If you want to effectively control blood mites, you will need to treat both the coop and the chickens.
Blood mites multiply by a factor of 3.2!
Blood mites can reproduce extremely well, with the population doubling in about 6 days. Assuming not all eggs reach maturity (only 40%), 1 adult blood mite can produce 16,000 blood mites after 60 days! And in any enclosure where there is just 1 blood mite. With 100 blood mites, this means that after 2 months there will be 1,600,000 blood mites!
This extreme growth of blood mites is why we always advise addressing a blood mite problem as soon as possible. The sooner you tackle the problem, the easier and better the result will be. Therefore, hang a blood mite tester under the perch and start treating immediately once the first blood mites are visible in it.
Why a Combined Approach is Necessary
As you may have read, 55% of the present red mites suck blood. This means that 45% of the red mites are not yet sucking blood and therefore have not yet come into contact with the chickens. If you only treat the chickens with an herbal supplement, you are only addressing this 55%. The remaining 45%, consisting of eggs and larvae, still have the opportunity to mature and can quickly rebuild the population.
Additionally, if you use a housing spray based on silicon dioxide, you also target the larvae. They wear themselves down on the spray, causing them to dry out and preventing them from filling up with blood. Therefore, only with a combined approach can you kill the majority of the red mites. Achieving 100% freedom from red mites is virtually impossible. However, it is possible to keep the level of red mites low. Read the step-by-step plan here.
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