DE and Bees....A Limited Answer

[GwenFarms]

As I posted a few days ago, I'm having problems with sticktight fleas. I try to be careful, as I think we all should, not to put anything in the environment that will harm bees, we are losing far too many. I emailed Randall Burkley to find out if DE is harmful and , if so, what an alternative would be. Their customer service leaves much to be desired. I will paste the entire communication. My email is at the bottom and the response is at the top. I did get the answer about the bees, for those of us who were trying to answer this question last week, or so.





RE: New Customer Information Requestþ
From: Byron ([email protected])
You may not know this sender.Mark as safe|Mark as unsafe
Sent: Mon 3/17/08 9:46 AM


Thank you for your inquiry. Diatomaceous earth is harmful to bees.








From:
Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2008 12:11 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: New Customer Information Request



Name: Gwendolyn
Address:
City:
State:
Zip:
Phone Number:
Email:
the message was Hi, I am having a problem with chicken fleas. They are on my birds and in my coops. I try to go organic, as we are planning to install beehives on our farm this spring. It is important to me that I do not use any products that could cause harm to bees, however I have to get rid of this sticktight fleas. I have fifty chicks that are moving into one of the coops this month. I don't want all of them infested. I would like to know if Diatomous Earth (Product #: 10893) is effective, safe to use with laying hens, and harmless to bees? I would also like to know what is the most effective product you offer regardless of harm to bees. If I get this done now I may not have to worry about the effect to my incoming bees. Thank you in advance. Gwen

 

[SeaChick]

HI Gwen,

Thanks for sharing that. Unsolicited advice: maybe you want to edit your post so you email address is not on there. I beleive that web-crawling spy thingies can harvest that email address and then you will get lotsa spam. (sorry I don't know the right technical names!)

Seachick

 

[MissPrissy]

There are sevral threads here were we talked about the use of DE and bees. Had I seen your thread in the last week I could have readily answered it for you. DE does indeed kill off honey bees.

 

[GwenFarms]

Thought I had done that Seachick. Thanks for pointing it out. Its fixed now.

Ms.P now that I do know that, do you know any alternatives?