So the flies have started already in full force thanks to all the rain and I'm sure all the neighbors who don't pick up after their dogs. I was looking over my compost pile and doing some research, and I didn't have it piled correctly to build up the heat. When the heat starts going, flies can't use it for breeding besides around the cooler edges. So yesterday, I fought through it with a gravel rake, shovel, snow shovel, pitch fork, all manner of tools to work it into a proper pile. It didn't stink bad, so I was doing it sort-of right. Glorious black dirt on the bottom of it! And SO MANY worms! I didn't add worms, they showed up on their own. One handful of dirt could have 6 worms in it! I harvested some to feed to the chickens. Husband ordered Fly Bots to scatter around the place too, 15,000 of them! Enough for several horses according to the book. I keep hearing great things about them. Have any of you used them for chicken compost/areas? But what is the best trap for the already living flies? There seem to be two types buzzing around but I haven't identified them yet. I'm real good about picking up poo everyday, from everyone. The dogs, chickens, and rabbits. The ducks seem to work their's into the ground faster than I can pick it up, but since it's spread thin, the flies can't nest in it, it serves as an attractant instead. Hanging traps in the duck run perhaps? Mosquitoes can get pretty bad here too. One neighbor has an overgrown pond he doesn't care for (claims he dumps chemicals in it to kill them) and we're about the only people who keep our yard clear of excess foliage and leaves and debri for them to hide in. But they do hide under our porch and come up between the boards to bite. Moth balls or something thrown under there? We moved here late last summer to an over grown yard and waste scattered around that held water. So the first thing we did was clean all that up and weed whacked clear to the fence line. But we can't do anything for the other sides of the fence. Everyone has dogs around us too, mostly 2 or more large breeds. The flies were bad last year, and we didn't have the chickens yet. So this year, we're hitting it full force but we've never done it before. I seem to be the only one out there picking up dog doo, and I bury it a good depth into the compost pile to eliminate the odor. When I boarded a horse, I hung those bag style traps on either end of his stall and caught SO MANY flies it was insane. Other people started doing the same thing and we put a small dent in it out of that 24 stall barn. The bags caught a lot, so I was going to get a couple of those. Is there anything else we can do that doesn't involve spraying chemicals?
