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Guy at the feed store in Tulsa laughed at my garlic trick for mites, then I tried his way
I had been dumping a whole minced garlic clove into my hens' waterer every single day for about 4 months because some video told me it stops mites, and honestly I thought I was being smart about it. Then last month I was buying scratch at the feed store off 11th and this older guy behind the counter asked why my jug smelled like pasta sauce, and when I explained he just shook his head and said I was wasting my money and probably making the water taste bad enough that the girls were drinking less. He told me to stop with the garlic and instead focus on keeping the coop dry and dusting the roosts with diatomaceous earth once a week, and he said mites hate dry bedding way more than they hate garlic. I pushed back at first because I had read so many posts saying garlic was the natural fix, but about 10 days after I switched I checked under the wings of my Rhode Island Reds and there was way less irritation than before, and they were definitely drinking more water too. Turns out the garlic thing was doing nothing except costing me about $6 a month and making me feel like I was doing something. Now I just keep the coop dry and do the DE dusting on Sundays, and honestly the girls seem happier. Has anyone else been told their home remedy was actually hurting more than helping?
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abby_palmer1mo ago
That pasta sauce smell comment probably stung but the guy was right. I did the same garlic thing two winters ago, dropped a whole clove in the waterer every morning for almost 5 months, and my girls barely touched the water when it sat out warm. Cost me way more than $6 too since I was buying the fancy organic cloves. Switched to just keeping the bedding dry and scraping the roost boards every couple days and the mites cleared up on their own within two weeks. Felt dumb for not catching it sooner but you live and learn with chickens.
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