How To Keep Chigger Bugs Away From Your Bird Feeder

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Maybe you've noticed tiny red bugs crawling on your bird feeder. If so, your feeder might be attracting chiggers, which are tiny mites that can burrow into your skin and cause itchy rashes. Beyond itching for about a week, these mites can also spread diseases to people, which is the main reason why you should take measures to mitigate their presence in your yard. Unfortunately for bird lovers, feeders create good environments for chiggers because they'll often consume organic matter like spilled seeds or bird droppings.

Once mites are present, they will lay eggs in the moist soil. Infestations typically peak during the warmer seasons. These mites not only irritate humans but also birds. Once they attach themselves to birds, the host can spread them to other areas. Of course, good bird feeder upkeep is the best way to combat these bugs (as well as a guaranteed way to attract more songbirds to your yard). As long as you refill your bird feeder every few days, you shouldn't have to worry about these pests getting into the feeder itself. There are also several ways to prevent chiggers from living on the ground around your feeders. 

It should only take a few minutes to mite-proof your feeder space. One of the most important things you can do is get a feeder with a tray to catch any seed that the birds knock off. If there's any high grass around the feeder, you should mow it. If there's high vegetation that you don't want to get rid of, then move your feeder 10 to 15 feet away from it. You should also regularly rake up spilled seed or bird droppings and dispose of it in a compost bin or the garbage. Once you've removed any decaying organic matter, there are plenty of plants that will repel pests from your yard naturally like mint, lavender, and catnip.

If you continue to have issues with chiggers, there are a few additional steps you can take. Try spreading gravel around the feeder to make the environment harder for them to live in. You can also sprinkle diatomaceous earth around your feeder. This soil comes from fossilized algae, and it has sharp edges that damage the exoskeletons of chiggers. It also dries them out. You can purchase a 2-pound on Amazon for around $17, but wherever you buy it, make sure that it's food grade so it doesn't harm your birds. As for other critters, if you have issues with pests like aphids or cutworms, you can get rid of them with a simple newspaper hack.