Red spider mite in house ?

[sarahkeast]

I suspect we may have got the chooks red spider mites into the house. Some really tiny little critters seem to pop up when ever I am on sofa with lappy. Had thought it might just be house spiders, but recall reading somewhere about getting them off chooks.

Plan on having a good hoover up tmw [it was sunny so in garden all day today] and clean around. Dont really want to spray anything. I use DE on chooks and sometimes spray with nasty bug killer in chook house, they seem to be ok at the moment tho.

Any experiences of this ? Advice, suggestions etc ? They dont seem to be biting or anything nasty, but it is weird when you can feel tiny creepy thing on skin.

Cheers

[Lost-in-the-Day]

Do you have a steam cleaner you could do a once over with? Vacuuming is how I deal with mites and fleas but I've been told told that a steam cleaner is more effective because it kills any that escape the vacuum. There are also some powders available that kill chicken mites, though I don't know if they are able to be used inside the house where people and other animals go, you'd have to read the instructions to be sure.

[madwitch]

I have also heard that steam cleaner is the way to go.
I have consulted my grandmas book but find no remedy for mites in the house. She does however recommend the use of rosemary, thyme or mint in the nesting box of the hens. I have used this method for a couple of years and (so far) have had no problem. The nest boxes are cleaned out at least weekly and a few stems of fresh or dried herbs(in winter) are added to the straw