fly control?

[pips&peeps]

Does anyone have the link to that homemade concouction that worked?

I just spend a wad of cash on some strips and those stinky, awful smelling bags.

We have chickens and horses (including three other neighbors with horses) around here, so the fly population gets large when it heats up. We had four days of nice weather and they were out. Fortunately today it is raining so they are gone again.

 

[sundance]

I make my own fly catcher so don't worry to much about flies Marrie

 

[klf73]

anything to put on the shavings/straw/hay/chicken poop if you are going to compost that gets rid of the flies? Or do I have to bury it with a layer of topsoil? sorry to threadjack, but it is about flies

 

[JennsPeeps]

Here's the fly trap I made last year: http://insected.arizona.edu/flyrear.htm, except mine was made to be lethal for the flies.

For bait, use some stinky, sticky cecal poo. Add about an inch of water. The flies will check in but they won't be able to get out. Leave it in the sun for extra killing power (sun = hot trap).

Another option is to use rice wine vinegar, honey & water. Mix them up. The flies will be attracted to the smell & will drown in the water. BONUS: feeding pickled flies to chickens (I discovered this by accident last year & was

while the chooks went

).

 

[Chicken Fruit]

I think if you have less wet you have less fly larve, they dont like dry manure. I keep mine dry with pelleted bedding and i only just saw one fly a few days ago, there hasnt been any since....

 

[Puget Sounder FC]

Thank you for all the great suggestions. As soon as it warmed up they (the flies) came a swooping. Though the chickens did find it entertaining.

 

[Big E]

Will chickens eat fly maggots in their own poop? My coop is full of flies laying in the night soil of my 5 chickens. If I leave them cooped up a bit longer in the AM - before releasing them to free range - will the chickens begin to scratch and eat the fly eggs/larve inside the coop?

 

[frogs n chickens]

I have put wire under the roost and a droppings board under that. I have a door on the side of the coop to remove and scrape the poop into the compost heap. I also sprinkle around food grade diatomacious earth and have no flys whatsoever in my coop. I even have my neighbors horses eating down my fields for me and no flies in the coop.
I read about the DE on byc and am trying the deep litter method I learned here also; so far, so good; I even had the chickens cooped up for a full week while I was on vacation with no smell and no flies in the coop.

 

[Holly O]

Homemade Fly Control Traps
Empty one gallon milk container. Be sure to keep the cap. Cut four or five small holes all around about two inches down from where it starts to slope towards the cap (about where the center of the handle is.) Mix 1/4-cup syrup and 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar and pour into container. Fill to halfway with water and put on cap. Place a couple of these flytraps where the flies are thick. You will probably have to empty it out every other day or so. I would make new ones because I find emptying it to be pretty gross.

Or try this
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=119052

 

[Holly O]

Homemade Fly Catchers
Instead of buying fly catchers at the farm store.
Take an empty two liter bottle
Put a banana peel into the bottle
Add 1 c. sugar
1 c. cider vinegar
Fill up to the curve of the neck with water. Put the lid on and shake. Remove the lid and tie twine on the neck and tie into a tree.
This will fill up with flies like you wouldn't believe. When it is full just screw the lid on, cut it down and throw away.
This will save lots of money.
These are especially important if you have farm animals. Its amazing how great these work.

Another one
use some smooched cheese bits, soy sauce, water, and 3-4 orange segments, with the skin broken so the juice can come out. Total volume came out to about a 1/4 cup. 90-95% of flies were gone in less than 24 hours. no fermentation time needed (maybe the cheese or soy sauce sped up fermentation).

use a small glass jar (like baby food size) and saran wrap with rubber bands to make the lid. poked 15-20 or so holes with a paperclip, stretching them out just a little, to make sure the bigger flies could crawl in. left the jar overnight. Sometimes shook/shifted spots elsewhere in the apartment to disturb flies where they were sitting, if it was not near the jar, to get them to find the jar faster.