Flies, flies, flies!

[bluetrain]

Wow....I am glad it is not just me. Everyone I have talked to in our area has been saying how there seemed to be more flies this year. I use the sticky fly thingies....seem to work fine. I will have to stock up and spread some DE.

 

[AHappychick]

I use spalding fly predator and fly tape. I am also putting sand in the runs as I am thinking keeping it sandy and drier will help. I use de also.

 

[six little chicks]

Can I ask a really stupid question, what is DE?

 

[iluvcks]

Google diatomaceous earth. its awsome stuff. We can't get it around here so I use stall dry. It has DE in it. I also am having a problem with flies. I read that spritzing the area with white distilled vinegar will get rid of them. I am going to try it today. I have the Michigan State Agriculture inspector coming out to my place Monday morning to certify my little (24 hens) operation a farm. I want no disgusting flies buzzing around.

 

[Equus5O]

If there's poop, there's flies. It's just the way it is.

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

Flies are terrible this year. We keep our coops extremely clean, use DE and now adding Sweet PDZ but still quite a few flies. I, too, bought the stinking fly traps. They work pretty well, but geez they do stink!!

I'm going to add some fly strips high up in the coops (silkies don't fly

) and see if that helps. I'm also thinking about installing a permethrin automatic fly control mister. I've got to do more research about using it with poultry.

 

[NeeleysAVLChicks]

Goodness, I'm glad I'm not the only one with the crazy fly problem this year. I swear it wasn't nearly this bad last year and we haven't been doing anything different! I'm going to check out the fly predators, my usual DE/fly trap deal just isn't cutting it this year.

 

[AlaskGirl]

Yeah, I get that panicky feeling in my coop every once in awhile when they start swarming but then I forget all about it as soon as I leave! I am going to try vinegar spray since I use vinegar in cleaning hard water stains. I'm so glad someone else thought of sharing ideas!

 

[dieselgrl48]

I have been using the fly trap's for the couple of summer's.They have the plastic dome type at TSC and the plastic bag ones at Walmart.They are very smelly so wouldn't recomend putting near your house.They work great though.I just hung my first new one this year yesterday and going to pick up a couple more this weekend.We are surrounded by cattle as well as our ducks and chickens and the flies are INSANE here.I put the fly strips in the coops as well.

 

[bethandjoeync]

we are having a major fly problem too. I can't seem to get the coop dried out with all this rain we keep getting. and the run...eww that is worse. as soon as it starts to remotely dry out....we get down pours. I think we are going to do the fly trap thingie and the stickie tape as well. my birds don't care one bit to eat the flies...wish they did though