Small flying bugs in duck coop

[woknrouen]

I went to clean my duck coop this morning and saw it was infested with small flying, jumping black bugs. They were crawling around in the straw bedding. It has been pouring rain for a week straight so the straw in my run was super wet and dirty. The back of the run that turns into the fully enclosed coop was dry and had no bugs however. I cleaned out all the straw and pressure washed the whole coop. I'm still worried however. I can't identify the bugs. I don't think they're mites, I've also checked my ducks and they don't have any bugs on them. I ordered first saturday lime but I'm scared it's not enough to keep them from coming back. What can I do and are my ducks safe? Also, are the eggs still safe to eat?

 

[Canadian Wind]

Looks like what we call blackflies around here, a really annoying pest to humans and other mammals. I detest them, but they shouldn't be a problem for the ducks.

 

[ruthhope]

I found our shed has black flies today -- they are not seen in the morning when I let the ducks out and they are gone by dusk when the dusks go to bed, but I needed to get things from the shed during the day today, and there they were!

I mucked out the deep bedding and there was no sign of grubs, so I don't know where the black flies are breeding. But if they have laid eggs in the bedding -- it's gone from the shed to the compost heap!