BREEDING AND GENERAL MANAGEMENT 65 



Red Mite. 



With the advent of warm weather this scourge of the 

 canary breeding room usually makes its appearance. 

 I know not why but red mite is far more prevalent now 

 than it was thirty or forty years ago. In those days 

 most breeding cages were home-made, and roughly made 

 at that, to-day they are nearly all made by professional 

 cage-makers, are well put together and nicely finished. 

 In the olden days, most of us used to lime wash our cages, 

 now-a-days the majority are painted or enamelled. 

 This, together with their superior finish, ensures fewer 

 hiding places for the red mite, yet in spite of all there is 

 no gainsaying the fact that red mite is far more in evidence 

 than ever. 



It is a well-known fact in the horticultural world 

 that weakly plants are the ones that are infected with 

 vermin, and the same applies to sections of the live 

 stock fancy other than canaries. Can it be that the 

 reason why red mite thrive so strongly in these days is 

 because our birds are not so strong as were their ancestors 

 of thirty to forty years ago ? 



In the olden days it used to be considered a disgrace 

 to have to acknowledge the presence of red mite in the bird 

 room, because it was generally accepted that when 

 red mite were present the sanitary conditions of the room 

 and cages were not what they should be. In fact, red 

 mite were held to be synonymous with dirt and neglect. 



Certain it is that if one has a sickly bird in the room 

 it is soon infected with red mite. Whenever a bird is 

 ailing in the warm weather it should be placed in a cage 

 by itself and removed from the bird room altogether, 

 for once red mite get a footing in a room they increase 

 with wonderful rapidity, especially in the summer time. 



The best way to fight the red mite is to always be on 

 the defence. Keep your birds, their cages, nest pans, 

 all appliances, and the breeding room itself perfectly 

 clean. Paint all the crevices of the cages with carbolic 

 acid, turpentine, or paraffin every time the cages are 

 cleaned out, and dip the perch ends in turpentine at the 

 same time. Every time you put a new nest pan into the 

 cage, dust it with insect powder, when you replace the 

 eggs in the nest on the fourth morning dust them with insect 

 powder, and the day before they are due to hatch repeat 



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