Chickens in the Backyard May be Buggy

You don’t have to live in a farming community to see chickens roaming the yards of your neighbors. Raising chickens in suburban and urban areas has become quite popular. Backyard chickens carry parasites, however, a post titled “Backyard Chickens May Have Mites, Lice and Fleas” on the Entomology Today website warns. “Many of these pests are uncommon on typical production farms, and there is little university research or extension information being conducted on backyard flocks,” says Amy Murillo, the researcher who wrote the story. Common pests include the chicken body louse (Menacanthus stramineus), the sticktight flea (Echidnophaga gallinacaea), the northern fowl mite (Ornithonyssus sylviarum) and the chicken mite (Dermanyssus gallinae). Traditional pesticides can work well to control them, the article says.