Mites and Lice on Poultry. 11 



scaly leg is left untreated the feet often become badly distorted, and 

 in some cases the fowl can scarcely walk or get up to the perch. 

 Sometimes terminal joints of the toes are lost. As the mites are 

 transferred from one bird to another, scaly-leg fowls should be treated 

 promptly and should not be introduced among clean birds. Car- 

 bolineum or crude petroleum used on the roosts doubtless wiU aid in 

 preventing the spread of the scaly-leg mite from one fowl to another. 

 Applying crude petroleum to the legs with a brush or dipping the legs 

 into this oil (fig. 6) is very effective. One application usually is 

 sufficient, but if the scales are not largely shed off after a lapse of 

 30 days the treatment may be rej^eated. Kerosene oil is applied by 

 some farmers in the same way, but is less effective than crude oil. 

 In using either, care should be taken not to get the oil on the upper 

 part of the leg or on the feathers. A less severe but more laborious 

 treatment consists of soaking the feet in warm soapsuds until the 

 scales are loosened and then greasing the feet and legs with sulphur 

 and lard, or lard containing 6 per cent crude carbolic acid. 



The other itch mite,^ commonly called the depluming mite, is a 

 very small creature which burrows into the skin near the base of the 

 feathers. The intense itching sometimes causes the fowls to pull 

 their feathers until they are almost naked. Dipping of all fowls of 

 an infested flock in a tub of water containing about 2 ounces of 

 flowers of sulphur and one-half ounce of laundry soap to each gallon 

 of water .will give comj^lete control. The fowls should be completely 

 submerged and the feathers ruffled as described in the dipping process 

 with sodium fluorid. Care should be taken to keep the dip stirred 

 during treatment so as to keep the sulphur in suspension. In case 

 a flock has lice as well as the depluming mite, three-fourths ounce 

 or one heaping tablespoonful of sodium fluorid may be added to each 

 gallon of water in the foregoing mixture. 



There are two other species of small soft-bodied mites sometimes 

 found on poultry. One of these ^ bores into the skin. The other,^ 

 which has been found in several places in this country, occurs in the 

 air passages, lungs, liver, and other internal organs of chickens and 

 turkeys. Serious injury probably is not caused by these mites ex- 

 cept when they are present in large numbers, when breathing may 

 be hindered. Another small mite ^ sometimes feeds on the feathers 

 of fowls but causes no apparent injury. Still another species ^ has 

 recently been found by the writers in great numbers along the grooves 

 on the underside of the shaft of the wing feathers of turkeys in Texas 

 and Louisiana. Associated with this, but apparently in very small 

 numbers, another mite ^ was taken. Neither of these caused any 

 apparent injury to the host. Several other kinds of mites are found 

 on various birds, as well as domestic fowls, but these are of little or 

 no imj^ortance as parasites. 



1 Cnemidocojitcs gallinae Railliet. * Rivoltasia bifurcata Rivolta. 



2 Laminosioptcs cysticola Vizioli. * Freyana chanayi Trouessart. 

 2 Cytoleichus nudus Vizioli. * Megninia cubUalis Megnin. 



