black catapillers???

[pekinduck<3er]

ok so my coop is in my woods a couple feet away from my house and when i was cleaning my coop and automatic food bowl i found purpleish black catapillars under it?? and today i cleaned their food bowl again and they were there again!! after i killed some others and threw them away in the water!! more came!!! how to get rid scared kinda for my ducks!!

 

[Amiga]

My first thoughts:

can you take pics and upload them?

Are they caterpillars or larvae? They could be beetle larvae attracted by food and water.

 

[pekinduck<3er]

ill try tommarow to dark outside and take pics!!! has this happened to any one??? and how to kill put mosquito repelent on them kiled alittle i know stupid but try new things lol and cant say i didnt try

 

[thekid]

if you want to kill them pour gasoline over them i am not sure if the gasoline would hurt the ducks though

 

[pekinduck<3er]

hmm ill try thnnx fo the advice!!!

 

[duck_shepherdess]

I'm surprised the ducks aren't eating them. Don't ducks love bugs?

 

[Alicia G]

I had something similar happen around my place. Do they have a long slender body and a sheen to there body? If so they are probably millipedes. They live in the woods and love to be under dark damp places. The feeding dishes would be the perfect place for them to be. There harmless and not poisonus, so you could just let your ducks eat them. I would be careful when using gasoline. My neighbour used it once on the floor of the coop to kill mites and it ended up killing three of his laying hens. Hope that helps.

 

[Amiga]

Yes, friends, please stop with the pesticide and petroleum. Those kill ducks.

If you want to discourage the creepy crawlies, either put the feeder and waterer on a different kind of surface - change the habitat. If they cannot find what they are looking for they will go away.

At this point, since (if I understand correctly) you have already used pesticide and possibly gasoline, keep the ducks away from there anyway - you could lose the ducks short term or longer term from poisoning.

Ducks eat bugs. It's free protein. But if the bugs have been poisoned, that will poison the ducks.

 

[The Duck ABC's]

I agree on not using poisons. You could use diamateous earth (Spelling?), if you really have to use something. It's saver then those chemicals. I also have my food and water bowl off the ground. It keeps the ducks from walking into them. A little bit of scrap wood is perfect for building something like that. 8 inches height is just perfect.

 

[pekinduck<3er]

ok thnx you guys i was a little scared about the cattapillars becuase every seasone these pure black cattapillars come through and theer poisinous!! if you touch there fur on them it burns like a ciggerete!

! but its not them and my female cayuga happily just ate them when i lifted it up!!

im glad i did not pousin them!!! yay thank you all for the advice!

and if i have any other problems with the ducks ill just post some more questions!! Bye!!