AMERICAN POULTRY CULTURE 
with suspicion and examine it carefully for lice, as 
they are almost certain to be present in force when 
least suspected. 
When the beginner finds his houses or fowls so 
badly infested with vermin that the trouble is easily 
apparent, he will find he has more of them on his 
hands than he can well realize until he finds how 
hard they are to exterminate. The fowls them- 
selves and the roosts and nests are the leading 
habitations of the pests, and these should come in 
for first attention. In bad cases the vermin spread 
to the walls, ceiling and other parts and fixtures 
of the house. During the summer time is when 
lice are the most troublesome, because warm 
weather is more favorable for their rapid increase. 
While there are quite a number of different 
kinds of lice and mites which prey on domestic 
fowls, they may, with chickens, for all practical 
and elementary purposes, be divided into two main 
classes—(1) body lice, which stay on the fowl 
nearly or quite all the time, and may be detected 
traveling around over the skin, especially on the 
neck or under the wings, or nestling among the 
fluffy feathers around the vent; and (2) the red 
mites or lice which infest the poultry house fixtures, 
hiding in cracks and crannies during the day and 
coming forth after night to seek their prey. 
I am a strong believer in the efficacy of the dust 
bath as a means of ridding the fowl’s body of 
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