Battling the flies

[DaddyBird]

I am interested to know how you more experienced folks out there battle the flies. We have had an extremely wet spring and summer here in Tennessee and they are bad around the coop. I have a milk jug trap out there and a few fly strips but they are not even putting a dent in the problem. Every time we get a day or two fr the coop to dry out a little, I dust it down with DE pretty well. Any thoughts on how to control? We have a pretty small setup as we are in town. We have one of the prefab coop and run jobs 5'x9' and a converted dog run about 20'x 30' for exercise during the day.

We use pine shavings in the coop and bark nuggets in the small enclosed run.The larger run is grass.

 

[JanetS]

This is what we did. We bought a couple of basil plants(sweet and boxwood)and planted them in hanging pots and hung them around the outside of the run. Basil plants have a strong odor flies don't like. This made a big difference in the fly population. I don't know if this will work for you but it did for us. Good luck.

 

[SobbaChickens]

This is what we did. We bought a couple of basil plants(sweet and boxwood)and planted them in hanging pots and hung them around the outside of the run. Basil plants have a strong odor flies don't like. This made a big difference in the fly population. I don't know if this will work for you but it did for us. Good luck.

How many plants do you have in what size of an area?

 

[BottleHollow]

You can mix DE with the feed. It helps here when we use it regularly. Otherwise, you just do your best to keep everything dry, especially the feed.

I haven't tried basil but am interested in hearing more about it.