Diatomaceous Earth

[mrsengeseth]

Can someone do me a favor and look at their bag and tell me what the breakdown is on the side or back of your bag?

I bought some from a natural gardening store today for my garden specifically (earwigs) and wanted to see if the stuff i got was safe for my girls.

Mine says:

Silicon dioxide from diotomaceous earth ....85%
Other elemental oxides ..........10%
inert ingredients......5%

is that the same as the food grade breakdown?

 

[pkeeler]

If it isn't labeled food grade then it is not food grade. DE from a gardening center is most likely for slug control, not a food supplement.

 

[mrsengeseth]

So I should keep them out of that part of the garden?

 

[SSO202]

Everything I have read says only use "food grade" DE for chickens. I ordered some online from RandallBurkey.com that is food grade. I think it was about $16 for 5lbs. I was unable to find food grade DE at any of our local stores.

 

[chickenbike]

I agree with newegg......better safe than sorry and keep your chickens out of the non-food grade DE.

I had to special order my 20kg bag of food grade DE from our farmer's supply store as they only had small 2kg bags in the store. (The large bags the gardening store had in stock were not labelled food grade and the clerks could not find a way to verify if theirs was food grade.)

Unless the outside of the bag is clearly labelled food grade I would not use it around your chickens.