MISCELLANEOUS 
hatching them, the stronger and healthier 
they will turn out to be. 
Lice and mites are the 
cause of more failures in 
the poultry business than any other two 
things. If you can not go into your poul- 
try house without getting mites on you, 
then your success in the poultry business 
is no success at all, but a dismal failure. 
Mites are a very small insect, or louse, 
that infest poultry houses and prey on the 
birds at night. They suck the blood of 
the fowls, and, after they have gorged 
themselves, leave the birds, to hide during 
the day in the cracks and crevices of the 
roosts, nests and buildings. 
When they get a start they breed very 
rapidly, and will soon get so numerous 
that they drive the fowls to new roosting- 
places and in some instances kill them 
outright. They weaken the birds so much 
that they can not lay eggs, and such weak- 
ness makes them an easy prey to all sorts 
of diseases. 
They breed in their dark hiding- 
places, and their presence may be readily 
known by the numerous little white specks 
seen around the cracks and crevices in 
10 143 
Lice and Mites 
