THE CHICKEN MITE. 9 
winter. The lowest temperature experienced by any of the mites 
under observation was 15° F., the highest 97.5° F. Adults and sec- 
ond-stage nymphs, during the months of July, August, September, 
and October, lived longest when moisture was applied — from 91 to 
98 days. Under dry conditions the mites lived 56 to 85 days. Dur- 
ing the months of August, September, October, November, and De- 
cember mites under dry conditions lived from 100 to 108 days. The 
longest that adults which had never fed as adults lived was from 
88 to 96 days; this was during the months of October, November, 
December, and January. All stages on a stick of wood lived 91 to 
113 days in the months of September to January, inclusive. All 
stages in a glass chimney with a cracked egg lived more than 107 days 
during the same months. 
First-stage nymphs have about the same period of longevity as the 
other stages. During the months of July to November, inclusive, this 
stage, when moisture was added, exhibited a longevity of 81 days 
under both moist and dry conditions. Second-stage nymphs seem to 
be the longest lived. During the months of September to January, 
inclusive, individuals in this stage lived 139 days. Females which 
had completed oviposition lived from 29 to 39 days during September 
and October, when kept under dry conditions. Females feeding and 
depositing continuously live longer than those not allowed so to feed 
and deposit. In the life-cycle experiment some females lived longer 
than 53 days. 
One may therefore conclude that the mite can be starved out of a 
chicken house by keeping fowls and other animals away from the 
house for four months during the summer season and five months 
during the cooler season. It is probable that with uniformly cold 
weather, as in the Northern States, the longevity would be some- 
what greater than in these experiments, all of which were conducted 
at Dallas, Tex. 
FEEDING AND HIDING HABITS OF MITES. 
FEEDING HABITS. 
The usual habit of the mite is to feed at night. An experiment was 
conducted to determine whether mites feed and leave the fowl imme- 
diately or whether they have a particular time for dropping, such 
as just before daylight, as one writer claims. Two hours before dark a 
fowl was put on a roost containing a large number of hungry mites. 
Very few mites ventured far out of their hiding places at this time. 
A few did go to the fowl. At dark, two hours later, only four mites 
were found to. have fed and left the fowl. One hour after dark 
nearly 600 mites (adults and first and second stage nymphs) had fed 
and left the fowl. One and a quarter hours later 535 more fed mites 
left the bird. Mites continued to drop in smaller numbers until after 
