Bedbugs can be carried into poultry houses by other birds or into human dwellings where they become a pest of humans. Control must be directed inside the housing facilities. Chiggers may be a problem where turkeys are kept on open range. Chiggers often are covered with dense, feathered hairs that give them a velvety appearance. They are often bright red with a figure eight-shaped body about 1 mm long.
Chiggers feed in clusters on the thighs, breast, underside of the wings, and around the vent.
Chiggers are most efficiently controlled by treating the range with insecticides before releasing the turkeys, however, repeated treatments may be necessary if the turkeys remain on the range more than a few weeks. Biting midges and black flies develop as larvae in swiftly flowing water. When adults emerge, they quickly seek warm-blooded hosts on which to feed. The feeding is painful and, in addition, leucocytozoan parasites that cause a malaria-like disease in birds may be transmitted during feeding. Control may not be possible on non-confined birds.