Do mites have to be treated?

[bbbdco]

Just to give you a short update on my birds and a question about mites. I have 24 gourds on two separate poles. One pole has 8 gourds, and the other pole has 16 gourds. 12 of my Gourds Contain Purple Martin Nests. The other 12 gourds are either empty, or have partial Purple Martin nests. Five gourds have or had sparrows. The last two weeks, 40 eggs have hatched. There are six eggs that have not yet hatched. The hatching started two weeks ago, and continues. So I am quite happy with everything so far. Today I noticed that one of the gourds has a ton of mites inside and outside. Only one gourd. The other gourds look OK. The birds in the “mite” gourd are 2 weeks old. I know that some people change the nests on their birds. I am wondering if this is really necessary? I have read articles pro and con about this. I assume that purple martins have been dealing with this problem for thousands of years, and they have learned to survive without human intervention. I really do not want to introduce any chemicals into my gourds, so I am tempted to just leave that one gourd alone. Those birds should be fledging in the next 12 days or so. I’m just wondering what others think of my situation? Should I replace the nest on that one gourd? or just leave it alone for now and see how things turn out? I prefer not to use any chemicals. Thanks for your input.

[flyin-lowe]

If it were me I would put a teaspoon of Seven under the front of the nest, the mites will be gone in a day or two.

[defed]

you could swap it w/ one of the unoccupied gourds, essentially conducting a nest change in doing so. i only have 1 pair and did my 1st nest change a few days ago. i considered swapping in an unused gourd just to make it faster, but opted to just dump out the nest and put the new pine needles in. the original nest looked pretty clean tho, and probably didn't need to do it. i will do a check tomorrow and see how it looks.

[brent]

If you don’t want to use chemicals then by all means change the nest and clean that gourd to remove as many mites as possible. Those mites will suck the life out of those chicks. My first year I was apprehensive about using chemicals or changing nest material. I had jumpers and many died. Since then I use Sevin during prenesting and again when nest building begins. If I see any mites I add some then too but rarely does that happen. I don’t use a whole teaspoon but I do add maybe about 1/8 of a teaspoon and rub it into the tray bottom and sides. But please change that nest and save your chicks. Defed has a good idea to simply swap out with another gourd. I’ve done that with nest trays. Brent

[C.C.Martins]

Eventually they will jump to escape and its a rare time that mites are confined to just one. They crawl everywhere and swarm.
You've some good suggestions, suggest pick one and go with it before those chicks jump and perish or like Brent said die right off.

[Conrad Baker]

You definitely have to control the mites. They multiply very quickly, and will take over everything. Then you will lose everything. I would not put the nest in a different gourd, the parents may abandon the nest. I would put some Sevin at the beginning of the opening, and under the nest. Nothing will stay in the nest, cavity, or house once it is infested.

[defed]

You definitely have to control the mites. They multiply very quickly, and will take over everything. Then you will lose everything. I would not put the nest in a different gourd, the parents may abandon the nest. I would put some Sevin at the beginning of the opening, and under the nest. Nothing will stay in the nest, cavity, or house once it is infested.

i didn't mean move the nest to another gourd. i meant remove the infested gourd and take a spare gourd w/ a new nest and put it in its place and put the babies back in, the same way some just swap nest trays in and out. it's essentially just doing a nest change but faster. if the gourd are the same (super gourd, troyer horizontal, etc) they shouldn't care. i suppose there is always a chance they could reject it, but i can't see why they would.

[C.C.Martins]

I take a lot of joy from watching the martins arrive, come in at night, seeing their antics, their lovely calls and ultimately raising a family.
I also take a lot of pride knowing iv helped them along even a little bit.
One of those sources of pride is looking at the colony and picking out the new arrivals because they are scratching mites, resident birds don't scratch. Sevin dust will always be part of our colony make up.
Tom

[bbbdco]

Thanks for all of your replies. I also did some further research. I really do not have the ability nor tools to replace the nest, so today I went out and purchased Sevin 5% with carbaryl. I took a long handled teaspoon and filled it with about half teaspoon of powder. Then I dropped the powder inside the nest. I also slightly wetted a paper towel and sprinkled about a half a teaspoon of powder onto the paper towel. I wiped down the outside of the gourd with this moisturized Sevin-5 towlet. I did this with two gourds that I could see mites on or inside. Only one of the gourds had what I would call a heavy infestation. All the birds are still alive. I hope this helps. I will see what happens and let you know how the season proceeds. It’s really hard lowering the racks because I had total knee surgery two weeks ago today. But I’m getting along fairly well… with a fair amount of pain.

[Conrad Baker]

You definitely have to control the mites. They multiply very quickly, and will take over everything. Then you will lose everything. I would not put the nest in a different gourd, the parents may abandon the nest. I would put some Sevin at the beginning of the opening, and under the nest. Nothing will stay in the nest, cavity, or house once it is infested.

i didn't mean move the nest to another gourd. i meant remove the infested gourd and take a spare gourd w/ a new nest and put it in its place and put the babies back in, the same way some just swap nest trays in and out. it's essentially just doing a nest change but faster. if the gourd are the same (super gourd, troyer horizontal, etc) they shouldn't care. i suppose there is always a chance they could reject it, but i can't see why they would.

I misread (or misunderstood) your post. I thought you meant moving the nest to another gourd, but replacing the gourd with a clean one and placing nest and babies in it should work well. I still think I would treat the new gourd with Sevin, but understand if you don't wish to do so.

[defed]

I misread (or misunderstood) your post. I thought you meant moving the nest to another gourd, but replacing the gourd with a clean one and placing nest and babies in it should work well. I still think I would treat the new gourd with Sevin, but understand if you don't wish to do so.

with my tiny 1 pair colony, i chose to do nest changes. not sure how many pair until it is impractical to do so. if i ever get there, i will decide which way i want to go.