Affiliate disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. Please see full disclosure.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Click here to read my affiliate policy.
Treating poultry lice doesn’t have to involve chemicals that may be dangerous to you or your birds. Invest in a big bag of food-grade diatomaceous earth (a must-have for organic gardening!) and follow the tips below to rid your poultry of lice and keep them from coming back.
Dust Your Chickens
To keep your chickens (and yourself!) healthy, don’t try to treat lice with chemicals like permethrin. Instead, turn to safe, natural insecticides.
Diatomaceous earth (like this one) is a natural, abrasive powder that dehydrates chicken lice to kill them off and keep them from coming back. When you use the food-grade version, diatomaceous earth is one of the safest remedies for treating lice on poultry.
To use, hold your chicken gently and sprinkle diatomaceous earth all over their body using your hands or a powder duster (we use this one). Be sure to get the dust as close to their skin as possible, and cover all parts of their body, including their vents and feet.
Treat your whole flock at the same time, even if you have birds that don’t seem to be showing signs of poultry lice. This is because lice can easily move from chicken to chicken, and you want to get this problem under control as quickly as possible.
You can repeat this diatomaceous earth treatment again in a week if your birds are still showing signs of a serious infestation, but it’s likely the additional tips below will negate the need.
Let Your Chickens Bathe
Dust bathe, that is! Giving your birds an area where they can dust bathe is one of the most effective ways to both treat chicken lice and prevent lice infestations in the future.
Dust baths serve many purposes. In addition to being a way for chickens to interact socially, dust bathing really does keep your birds clean. The dust from these baths settle on your chickens to create a barrier to keep lice off their bodies.
At the same time, this layer of dust can also choke off existing bugs and prevent an infestation from taking hold.
To make your chickens’ dust bath more effective, add some diatomaceous earth or wood ash. Diatomaceous earth does a good job of dehydrating poultry lice, but wood ash — the powdery refuse from burning wood — does an even better job of smothering them.
To get started, put on a dust mask, add 12 cups of diatomaceous earth to 50 pounds of play sand (this one is a good option), and then mix well.
If you have access to firewood ash, you can try one of these alternate dust bath recipes:
- 25 pounds play sand
- 50 pounds ash
or
- 10 pounds play sand
- 2 cups diatomaceous earth
- 20 pounds ash
Once you’ve built a dust bath (or dust baths if you have an especially large flock), stand back and let your chickens do the rest of the work.
RELATED ARTICLE: How to Identify Poultry Lice
Clean the Chicken Coop
While your entire flock is busy getting clean outside, turn your attention to the chicken coop. Returning clean chickens to a dirty, infested coop will only keep the lice life cycle going. So your aim is to get a clean coop asap.
To start, remove all the old bedding and dispose of it far away. You can add the dirty bedding to a compost pile if it’s far from the coop, but a better option is to burn it.
Once the coop is cleaned out, spray it down with a high-pressure hose. This will disturb the chicken lice in their hiding places, causing them to scatter.
Sprinkle dehydrated lime across all surfaces of the coop, including the floor and all nooks and crannies. Allow the lime to sit for several minutes, and then pour boiling water over all the same areas to kill any remaining lice.
Give the coop a good scrubbing with a brush, and then rinse again to wash out all the residue.
Don’t forget to clean underneath roosts and other small spaces, as they’re easy to overlook but provide the perfect spot for lice to survive the purge.
Related Article: How to Care for Chickens in Winter
Use Natural Lice Killers and Repellents
After thoroughly cleaning the coop and allowing it to dry, sprinkle lime or diatomaceous earth everywhere you can reach. Lime creates an inhospitable environment and helps control odors, while diatomaceous earth kills on contact.
Neem oil (we recommend this organic oil) is another natural remedy for lice, mites, fleas, and other pests. It won’t kill an active infestation, but it will repel future invaders with its strong smell.
To use, simply spray undiluted neem oil on the floors, walls, and roosts of the coop.
When it’s time to add fresh bedding, consider wood shaving (this is the one we use). They’re affordable, absorbent, and said to deter external parasites like chicken lice and mites. They’re also easy to clean up, which you’ll be doing several times over the next few weeks to eradicate lice and lice eggs.
Related Article: How to Prevent Poultry Lice
Paint the Chicken Coop
Painting your chickens’ living quarters is a smart way to keep a clean coop and discourage a poultry lice infestation.
Applying a thick coat of paint to the coop, including the nesting boxes and roosts, will seal off the porous wood and prevent chicken lice from hiding out in cracks.
Paint your coop after thoroughly washing it out, and allow adequate time for the paint to dry before adding fresh bedding and allowing the chickens to return.
Help Your Chickens Heal
Restoring the good health of your chickens is a vital step in treating lice. While chicken lice are not blood-sucking mites, giving your birds iron-rich treats will fend off any chance of developing anemia and give them the energy they need to heal their bodies, mend bald spots, and replace missing feathers.
Giving your chickens treats will also distract them from the excessive preening that will lead to more damaged or loose feathers.
Some great iron-rich treats for chicken include:
- broccoli
- dandelion greens
- kale
- meat scraps
- oatmeal
- raisins
- strawberries
Stay Away from Other Chickens
It will do no good to treat poultry lice if they’re going to be constantly reintroduced to your chickens’ environment. Taking steps to prevent an infestation in the first place will keep your birds healthy and happy.
For starters, limit your visits to family, friends, and neighborhoods who also raise chickens. If that’s not feasible, at least stay away from their flocks so as not to accidentally bring lice home on your clothing and other belongings.
Quarantine New Birds
Don’t introduce new chickens to your backyard flocks until you’re certain that they’re free of external and internal parasites.
If your new birds are showing signs of chicken lice infestation, isolate them in a chicken trailer or temporary coop while you treat them using the tips above. Only allow your flock to become one when you’re sure you’ve eradicated the adult louse and hatching eggs.
If you’ve got an egg-laying flock, or you want to build one, check out our comprehensive guide to the best chicken breeds for eggs.
Related Article: How Much Does It Cost to Keep Chickens?
Set Up a Scarecrow
No, a scarecrow won’t send poultry lice scurrying, but it will keep away wild birds that may introduce parasites to your entire flock.
As an added bonus, scarecrows will also frighten away hawks, rats, and other predators and pests that you’d rather keep away from your chickens.
FAQs about How to Treat Poultry Lice
What do poultry lice feed on?
Poultry lice feed on dead skin and eat the debris around feather shafts. Lice don’t feed on chicken’s blood the way mites do.
So, if the thought of chicken lice gives you the creepy crawlies, you can rest easy: Poultry lice are not like human lice and have no interest in making a home on your body.
What are the symptoms of chicken lice?
Chicken lice symptoms include:
- Bald spots caused by excessive preening due to itchiness
- Decrease in egg production
- Dirty feathers around the vent and pale pink combs
- Drooping wings, fatigue, and listlessness
- Visible lice, lice eggs, and debris on feather shafts
When a lice infestation is serious, there are obvious signs that there’s something wrong with your birds. But when an infestation is mild or still taking hold, symptoms might not be as obvious, so make sure you check your birds over regularly.
Constant vigilance is just good practice when you’ve got any animal to care for. Plus, with chickens, you don’t want to wait until egg production has halved before you intervene.
Do I have to use chemicals to treat poultry lice?
You don’t need to use harsh chemicals to treat poultry lice.
If you’re vigilant about monitoring your chickens and treating them for lice at the first signs of an infestation, you do not need to use chemicals.
Natural remedies like diatomaceous earth, firewood ash, and neem oil are effective at killing lice infestations and preventing their return.