My husband goes into the chicken house and comes out with fleas. This is the first year that this has happened. We don't know if it's chicken fleas or from the rats we occasionally trap in the chickenhouse. Then he has to strip off all his clothes and do the laundry and have a shower or he will be covered with bites.

I go in and they don't bother me. Either they find me too sour for their taste (he on the other hand is sweet) or they do bite me but the bites don't irritate my skin. I think it's that they don't bite me because he sees them jump on his clothing and I have not seen any on my clothing or my body.

The feed store sells anti-flea powder that you sprinkle on the chicken but no general treatment to use on the whold building. The garden shop has some mega-insecticides but we'd rather not use anything too toxic because of the chickens.

Anyone have any good ideas? It's got him pretty creeped out.

Hey Babsie, those are called "stick tights," (they have nothing to do with stockings). Click here.

For general information about fleas, in other words, to learn anything and everything you or anyone else ever wanted to know, or expected to know, or now can't resist finding out about fleas, including the sheet music to the song "My Dog Has Fleas," click here.

Happy birding and bugging!

Catty

Sprinkle a liberal dose of 20 Mule
Team Boraxo in the coop... Not only will it rid of fleas, but cockroaches and spiders too....
Use it on your carpets also...
The stuff works wonders.....

I'm kind of surprised that they're there to begin with. Usually, chickens are pretty good at getting rid of fleas and ticks.

Thank you for your suggestions. I also called Department of Agriculture (technically I suppose we're chicken ranchers, with our two hens) and they recommended a powdered insecticide, so my husband is; now free of fleas, for which I'm really grateful. I will surely try the borax. It is less toxic than the insecticide.