Yesterday I had a flock of 52.......................... today 7.
When I discovered dead and dieing birds yesterday, I grabbed 3 dead and headed for a state ran disease lab, only about 30 miles away............................... by the time I got back, birds healthy when I left were dead. I had six live birds in the pens at dusk. [The state doctor had not found the problem yet today when
I informed
him what had killed them] Today one of those was dead, but I found 2 that had flown over the top of a fence, hid, and lived.
I had seen swarms of gnats on my dead and dieing birds, a few on the healthy, but had never considered the possability that the rapid deaths were being caused by the gnats. My neighbor says the buffalo gnats have killed entire flocks in this area before; they crawl in the nostrils, get in the airways, and death may occur soon after.
Locals tell me that with the population a plague levels, the only two remedies are either a high velocity fan, or spraying bleach in the coop. I figured spraying bleach was too hard on my bird's respiratory systems, tried hanging little glass bottles full of bleach around, but it did not help enough. I bought a high velocity fan today at
Walmart for under $40; it worked great. I also replaced a burned out bug zapper, but not a gnat flew into it. I also tried various repellents, they work for a few minutes at best............................ so much for vanilla, skin-so-soft, etc. that everyone says works.
Here's what I've learned by experience over the last two days:
Either buffalo gnats in general, or this subspecies, only fly from dawn to dusk.................... they hate the dark. They prefer tall grass or a wind break like pine trees, but will fly into a dry pen as well. If a bird survives a bad attack, it will seek a dark place to hide the next time around. In an emergency, shutting birds in a fully dark coop will work [though we all know chickens need light to eat or drink.] My coops are partially open front and light paneled, darkness was sought in nest boxes and corners. The little room off my rabbit hutch-turned-brooder was not dark enough even though the doorway is small, maybe because of the wire floor, and the gnats made short work of the chicks hatched at Easter. The gnats can't fly against much wind, a good fan will blow a swarm away immediately. With in minutes of turning it on, my 6 survivors were happily standing in front of it. Its on a timer now, to run from dawn to dusk 'till this plague is over.
