J/«r. 2, 1908.] Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. 219 



Make up as much of the stock emulsion as it is thought will be needed. Tliis can be 

 kept in a suitable vessel and a portion taken out and diluted as needed. If the bucket 

 or liolder attached to the spray-pump holds .1 gallons, one half gallon of the stock 

 emulsion shoidd be taken and put into the bucket or holder and 4^ gallons of soft 

 water added, and tlie whole well stirred. It is then ready to be sprayed on tlie places 

 occupied by the mites. 



A beginning should be made at a particular place and the whole habitation of the 

 mites sprayed in a regular order, of whicli account should be taken so that the same order 

 may be followed in suijsequent spraying. The spray should lie directed with special 

 care into all crevices, holes, joints, and other hiding and breeding places of the mites. 

 The first spray of kerosene eniulsicm will kill within five minutes all of the mites and 

 eggs with which it comes into contact ; ))ut many mites will l)e left in the hiding-places 

 unaffected l)y the spray. 



The spraying, therefore, should lie repeated as soon as the first spraying is completed. 

 Hven this will not kill all of the mites, hence a third spraying should be done as soon as 

 the second is completed. At each repetition the beginning should be made at the 

 same place, and the same order followed as in the first. These three sprayings done in 

 one day and in rapid succession will destroy nearly all of the mites, but, as my researches 

 have shown, many eggs are left in places untouched by the spray. 



If mites are seen crawling about the building the next day, it should be sprayed again. 

 One might ordinarily suppose that he had now exterminated the mites. But such is not 

 the case, for, in about three days, a crop of young mites will be found hatched from the 

 eggs that escaped the first spraying. If these were allowed to go undisturbed it would 

 not be long ere the building would be as badly infested as at the beginning. Therefore 

 the spraying should be repeated every three or four days, spra^'ing two or three times on 

 each occasion, for about two weeks. 



It is not necessary nor advisable to exclude the chickens from their regular coop while 

 the process of extermination is going on, except while the spraying is in progress. If 

 the chickens are deprived of their regular (juarters they will be compelled to select 

 tempfirary quarters, which will soon be as badly infested with mites as in the old, 

 through multiplication of the mites which are carried on the bodies of the fowls. If the 

 chickens are not required to make a new roosting-place, the mites which are carried out 

 by them will either drop oft" upon the ground and perish, or will crawl off into the 

 crevices about the roost and be killed by subsequent sprayings. 



In one case, a sack of corn which had been in a hendiouse, and was swarming witii 

 mites, was removed to a distant l)uilding, which M'as not occupied by fowls of any kind. 

 No attempt was made to destroy the mites, yet in two weeks they had all tlisappeared. 



Their death was doubtless due to the fact that they had no host upon which to feed. 

 This ol)servation leads to the supposition that if the fowls were kept away from a 

 building infested with mites, the n'.ites would entirely disappear within a few weeks. 

 In practice, however, it would be inadvisable to attempt to get rid of the mites in a 

 certain coop by keeping the fowls out of it, and thus starving the mites ; for, while the 

 mites would thus be destroyed in the regular hendiouse, the temporary roosting-place 

 would likely soon be as badly infested as the old. 



A sugar-barrel which was used as a nesting-place by the hens, and which was swarming 

 with mites, was sprayed with kerosene emulsion. Afterwards a hoop was removed, and 

 was found to be covered on the inside with a large number of mite eggs. These eggs 

 had been thoroughly moistened by the spray, and the mites upon the hoop had been 

 killed. A piece of the hoop was cut out and placed under a glass dish. The air was 

 kept miiist by placing inider the glass dish a smaller dish containing water. Other pieces 

 of the hoop were left lying in an outbuilding, so that they migiit be under conditions as 

 nearly natural as possible. Observations were kept up for nine days, but the eggs failed 

 to hatch, and were at the end of this time shrunken, and evidently in such a condition 

 that subsequent hatching was impossible. 



Summary. 



The chicken mite is one of the worst enemies of chickens. 



The mites live and breed in fissures about Iniildings, and feed upon the fowls when 

 thev go upon the nest or perch. 



Mites may be introduced into a fiock by a fowl or other bearer brought from infected 

 premises. 



Mites may be exterminated by thoroughly spraying the building and its contents with 

 kerosene emulsion. 



Kerosene emulsion kills not only the mites but also their eggs, when it comes into 

 contact with them. 



