I believe it’s the dust the accumulates on them that is the actual flammable part.
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Mount that sucker on a pole in middle of a field somewhere haha.
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Sounds like a better spot for a purple martin house.
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I’ve never seen one occupied, even in the forest preserves, but it couldn’t hurt to try!
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I just found one tiny baby on the ground this morning. It was still alive, so I gently collected it, and offered a tiny bit of water via an eye dropper. It actually did take the water. Maybe because we’ve been in the midst of an heat wave. And then it seemed quite vigorous. I climbed a ladder to put it back in the nest, but the nest was pretty full. I didn’t want to disturb its siblings, so I gently put it on top and left it alone. But I’m a little worried it will fall again.
Do you have any tips on the best way to put them back in the nest so they don’t immediately fall out again? Or do you think they all wiggle and work it out?
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Argh. Honestly, trying to eliminate invisible mites seems like the easy answer compared to mystery itchiness. Kinda like when your cat is peeing all over and you hope it’s a UTI rather than behavioral. 
To be clear, I don’t mind the barn swallows but I DETEST bats. I know they are helpful at controlling insects but they are slowly taking over the barn loft and I am completely disgusted.
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Me, too!!! In the summer, the stench in my indoor was nauseating. Nope.
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Aww, thank you for putting him back! Yeah, I just plop em up there. Most of my nests are on larger horizontal surfaces, so I can also put them on the “porch” next to the nest.
Like these guys!
Before, like, 2 days ago, I’d never had one just pop right back out. This year I had one who just nose dived straight back out which was very weird. He seemed to have some sort of neurological condition like wry neck in chicks, which I’ve certainly never seen before. I put him in a little bucket in a high place near his nest hoping his parents would feed him and he’d improve, but he did not 
But that was really an oddity, and I usually get dozens of babies back into their nests every year.
In general, you don’t want to feed or water them, it’s super easy to drown them. I’m glad it worked out okay for your little bird! But just getting them back up & letting mom and dad feed them is usually the best route 
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Ikr? I’m sorry to not have a better answer. I assume you’ve been down the Zyrtec route?
Wow, bats taking over the loft sounds wild. Will they relocate to bat boxes? I see bats flying here at dusk but they don’t roost in the barn.
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Yep, Zyrtec, switched to hydroxyzine. Equiderma bath. Equiderma Lotion. Essential Equine tea- tree rinse, healing cream. Fly boots on, fly boots off. It started about a week after she was body clipped - when it got really hot last week. I don’t know what else to do. I don’t see her kicking as much when she is out but she still does somewhat - hard to say if being outside is enough of a distraction OR if it is something going on in her stall.
I read a lot last year about bat houses - and where to place them. That’s the part where I get stuck. I can’t figure out a good place to put them - or how to get them up. I would pay $$$ if I could get some kind of bat consultant to come here, put up the bat boxes and get them to move out 
ETA: I have also tried 4 (5?) different fly sprays. Ecovet, Fly-X, Outsmart, Ultra Shield Red and a mystery mix in a spray bottle from last year 
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Ha! I’m glad I’m not the only one who has the mystery bottle
Is she super itchy up in her groin, or actually down on her lower legs? (Or both…?) ALL of my horses are super itchy up in the groin this year, and I really do think it’s the heat and humidity. They’re often already sweaty when I put them out in the morning. I keep meaning to pick up some liquid baby powder especially for my one mare who is just really very offended by how she feels, as I think that sort of anti chafe type stuff might help her out. But maybe one more thing to throw at your girl, too, to see if it makes a difference. It does sound like you’ve well covered any creepy crawly things as a cause.
Email those bat world guys and see if they might have a contact for you! I follow them on FB and swear they’ve talked about companies that do that sort of thing. Not just exterminate (which they also talk about ) but responsibly relocate and rehouse.
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Chafing! I had not thought of that one yet! I am getting baby powder!!
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There used to be an awesome product that was liquid baby powder–it went on like a lotion and was all silky & powdery when it dried. It was AWESOME.
It doesn’t look nearly as available now (
) but was pretty much just corn starch and water? Or corn starch and lotion? Now I’m tempted to just mix some stuff up in the kitchen & see if I can get close!
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This thread was helpful. We had barn swallows nesting above one stall. The horse was constantly stomping. We figured that he just didn’t like the little flies and put fly boots on him. the stomping got worse.
So when the little birds flew away, I got rid of the nest. We stripped the stall and sprayed it. I scrubbed the horses legs with medicated shampoo and washed his boots in bleached water.
No more stomping. I had never thought of bird mites until this thread.
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Interesting! I ended up moving my mare that wouldn’t stop kicking into another stall and, voila, the kicking stopped. Just got a new horse in over the weekend so she had to go back to her old stall. I think the babies are out of the nest there - does anyone know if I’m screwing a bird couple if I tear down their nursery? Or do I have to wait until they head south for the winter?
I have chickens, barn swallows, and cats. The cats have never gotten a barn swallow or baby. They nest too high up. They do get the starlings. Never had an issue with mites on the horses and we’ve enjoyed the mosquito reduction.
We do cobweb for fire safety.
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You can take it down if the babies are out of it. If the adults want to raise another clutch, they’ll build another nest.
But if you get up there, and find eggs in it, you do have to leave it. Removing it once they’ve laid is a violation of federal law and international treaty.
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Thanks. I wouldn’t take it down if there are eggs in it but if there are no eggs it is coming down today.
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If you do find eggs, you can spray the nest and whatever it’s on with some pyrethrin or permethrin fly spray, and that should help any mites that are there 
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