Bird mite infestation. Advise?

[JornsBergenson]

I discovered that we have bird mite infestation from a wild bird nest that was hidden up under our porch. Now I have mites and Toby has them. Tonight, we'll see if my son's bird has them. The earliest vet appointment with the the avian vet down the street is Sunday morning. He is at another location an hour away on Wednesday. Toby doesn't travel well at all so I took the Sunday appointment.

Questions: Is it safe to wait 6 days to see the vet or should I take the day off to take Toby in 2 days?
What do we need to do to get rid of the mites from our home? We were about to spray down the entire exterior of the house anyway, but what to we do inside? What's safe? Do we wash down the cages everyday and throw out all the toys?

TLDR: I found the nest because all the baby birds died and were on the ground. I tore down the nest. Unfortunately, Toby's cage is just inside a window only 6 feet from where that nest was. My office where I work all day is upstairs right above that, explaining why we both have the mites. I used packing tape to take a sample from the bottom of his cage and viewed some mites using a microscope. I've been have crawling sensations all over my body the week prior and Toby has been scratching nonstop. Toby seems very tired. I am freaked out to say the least.

Here are some pics from the microscope. The images are blurry through the packing tape I used to extract them.

 

[saroj12]

Avian insect liquidator

 

[Rebel]

Avian insect liquidator

Have you used this? Hard to believe anything is 100% safe.

 

[saroj12]

Have you used this? Hard to believe anything is 100% safe.

Yes still do. On the baseboards and the wheels with the birds in the room

 

[Rebel]

Yes still do. On the baseboards and the wheels with the birds in the room

It says it “controls” mites, ants etc. Does that mean it kills them or just repels them?

 

[Sparkles99]

How do you tell if you have these?!

 

[saroj12]

It says it “controls” mites, ants etc. Does that mean it kills them or just repels them?

Kills and repels roaches

 

[JornsBergenson]

How do you tell if you have these?!

Bird mites get into the home usually due to a nest of wild birds in the eves or attic of the home, just like in my case. In most cases, I think mites would be discovered in a vet examination that was initiated due to the bird scratching and acting different than normal. I suspected mites because they got on me and I have experienced this before many years ago before I had birds. On a human, there is a persistent feeling of something like an insect crawling on you, primarily on the face. The mites are too small to see in a mirror or even a magnifying glass. The best way to look for them is to use clear packing tape to peel up a area and then looking at the tape with a microscope.

We're putting a plan together to exterminate ourselves this Weekend and then start the birds on Ivermectin treatment from the vet on Monday. We're researching the best insecticide to use without harming our birds. It is going to be tough but we can't let this go untreated for long.

 

[Rebel]

Kills and repels roaches

Must be pretty potent to kill a cockroach. Cockroaches survived when all the dinosaurs were killed off.

 

[Sparkles99]

My budgies would like to remind you that not all the dinos died.

 

[saroj12]

My budgies would like to remind you that not all the dinos died.

Today has started out laughing Good one @Sparkles99

 

[JornsBergenson]

Following up on the happenings in the past few days as a record for other folks that might run into this. Here's what we did, right or wrong.

• Local exterminators either didn't treat for bird mites, had never heard of them, or refused to treat them since we had pet birds for liability reasons. We had to exterminate ourselves and be very safe about it.
• From the big-box home store, we bought a 2.5 gallon pressure sprayer, respirator masks, eye goggles, and chemical resistant gloves that go to the elbows.
• My son and I exterminated the exterior of our house with Ortho Home Defense. We hit every nook and cranny of our 1980's 4800sqft house. Established a perimeter barrier. We climbed on ladders and onto the roof to cover every possible intrusion into the house. The bird nest was removed days ago and the porch was completely exterminated. If any pests were there, they are gone now. We used 5 gallons of insecticide on the exterior of the house and garage.
• We bought a pesticide that professionals use called Talstar P and plan to use it in the future on the house exterior. It didn't arrive fast enough to use it so we went with the Ortho Home Defense instead.
• We bought Permethrin 13.3% to treat the interior of the house and their cages.
• We moved the cages to the backyard, pressure washed them, sprayed with soapy water, scrubbed, rinsed, dried them and then treated the bottom of the cages with the Permethrin spray.
• We moved the birds around to keep them out of the interior rooms that we were spraying. In the two rooms where the birds hang out, we used the Permethrin spray along baseboards, around the windows, and in all of the nooks and crannys. I also sprayed the floors where the cages sit.
• Toby the Eclectus went to the vet on Sunday where the vet found mites and eggs. He gave Toby Ivermectin and prescribed Pyrethrin spray or dust since they didn't have it on hand.
• I sprayed down Toby's PVC play stands with Permethrin, wiped them down, and put new vet tape on them. I plan on replacing the cut branches he climbs on every few days. The "splat mats" under the play stands have been treated and will get washed and retreated every few days.
• All of the birds toys are going into the freezer every couple of days to kill the mites on them.
• My local pet store is awesome and had Scalex Mite Spray on the shelf. My local Pet Superstore rocks. The big places, PetCo and PetSmart, they pretty much stink at everything nowadays in my area.
• We're going to have to figure out how to spray the mite treatment on Toby The Eclectus who is a "hands-off" bird. I figure that me son will attempt to towel him and I will spray him and massage the permethrin spray into his feathers and skin. God help us. Seriously, please God.
• I will take samples from the bottom of both birds cages every few days and check them under the digital microscope I have and see what the mite population looks like. This may become a regular procedure for us.
• We need to eliminate the places that birds are able to build nests. That's a redesign of our porch/outdoor kitchen area. In the mean time, I'm going to buy some bird deterrents to keep birds away, at least for a while.

Jeez, that's my store. God bless anyone who gets bird mites into their home when they have pet birds. I know that my Eclectus has been absolutely miserable for the last weeks being invested with them. I haven't had a good night's sleep in a while with the invisible creatures crawling over me.