Buffalo Gnats are back *UPDATE*

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feather and mountain man

feather and mountain man

Corn fed Indiana farmgirl
10 Years
Jan 17, 2010
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And they killed 6 of our meat rooster and now all the chickens are not happy cause they have to stay in the dark barn with a fan on them all the time no free ranging or sun bathing. They run to the door and want out so badly but they will be there until the end of June at least. I don't know what else to do. Any ideas?


The gnats are eating us alive to. We have tried everything and on top of that the sqeaters are bad tooo! AAAHHHHH!!! IT sucks!


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It is a large gnat that lives near the rivers and sucks blood. Google it if you want to see pictures nasty creatures they are.
 
I don't know if it works, but have heard to spray the chickens with Watkins vanilla extract or pure vanilla. You do have to reapply it several times a day.

Some people swear by it.

Note about buffalo gnats: the wetter the weather, the more of them there are. They are like mosquitoes and need to suck blood to reproduce. And like mosquitoes, they are worse when it is damp and wet.
 
Well the gnats are day feeders and don't like dark places. So the chickens are in the dark part of the barn with a fan on them to blow the gnats away from them and it keeps them off of them. I just hate that they have to live like that until the gnats go away at the end of June. We live by the rive so there is no getting rid of them until breeding season ends. It is just worse this year cause of the flooding we got. I have tried the vanilla but it is like trying to put a bandaid on when you need stiches. A lot of the wild baby birds are dying also. The ducks seem fine.
 
Well we lost another rooster. However we have found some reppellants and I wanted to share.

Banana Boat sunscrean works well. (APPLY TO COMBS AND RUB IN UNDER FEATHERS AVOID EYES BUT GETS ALL EXPOSED SKIN)

Plus vanilla either extract 1/2 water 1/2 mixture (YOU HAVE TO DRENCH THE CHICKENS FOR IT TO WORK) several times a day

or a vanilla perfume that I buy and the Dollar Generall store works well too. (DO NOT SPRAY IN EYES JUST FEATHERS) twice a day

You can also dust the chickens with a mixture of half baby powder and half seven dust

As an outdoor reppellant for living areas vanilla sented candles burning around your area works well too

Just wanted to share. The gnats are getting worse here but we are still fighting back.
 
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Well we are still fighting back I have found that the best relief for the chickens is the banana boat sunscreen and you can delute in water and sray them with a water bottle and the entire coop to repell the gnats.

Plus Absorbine pain relief liquid is a great repellant aswell. You can also put it on your shoes and clothing to repelle the gnats. I put some on a bandana and tie it in my pony tail to keep them out of my hair. Good luck all!
 
This year buffalo gnats are the worst I've seen them. I tried the pure vanilla. If there were 500 buffalo gnats in the hoop tractor, it knocked them down to about 400. I finally went and shook sevin over the girls. I don't know if that will help but seeing all those flies filled with my chicken's blood really ticks me off.
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Banana Boat Sun screen it works!


applied directly or diluted in water it is the only thing that is helping enough to consider at this point.
 

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