flies

[Cheryl]

Can anyone suggest a "good" product to use for flies, I have way too many and they are coming into my house!!! While picking blueberries today, someone mentioned something to feed chickens that would help? Since I wasn't part of the conversation, just listening from afar, I didn't want to appear rude for listening in!

 

[babyriver]

Diatomaceous Earth-Food Grade might be what they were talking about. You can put it in there roost & their feed

 

[The Zoo]

I was just going to hang fly paper from the top of the pen (the chickens can't reach it). I'm over run with flies too!

 

[damselfish]

DE did not make any discernable difference in flies at our place.

What did make a difference was cleaning poop out of the coop every morning (we had been doing the deep litter method with DE added, where you're just supposed to mix everything in...that didn't work for us).

If you can get rid of the poop produced at night while the chickens are roosting, you will have conquered 80%-90% of the problem. Ours goes to a separate compost pile that the chickens don't venture out to.

Hope this helps...

 

[debbie.h]

You could try hanging a clear plastic bag filled with water close to the doorway. Flies don't likes this because of their vision and the water somehow distorts it.

 

[trilyn]

I feed the food grade de to my girls and there are no flies. At least no more than usual.

The de in the food creates an environment that larvae cannot hatch in. Works for me!

 

[3KillerBs]

Pardon my newbie ignorance, but I thought that the chickens would eat the flies.

???

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
I thought they would too, but nope. At least not mine.

 

[Cheryl]

how much de for how much food?

 

[cgmccary]

I fed Diatomaceous Earth ("DE), food-grade, to my chickens for about two (2) years, religiously and also put it in their dust holes, nest boxes & about the run. It never even put a dent in the flies and during that time, is the only time, my chickens ever got fowl mites. DE is all hype.

What has worked for me in controlling flies is a gnat-size wasp that eats fly larvae. I keep a solar fly trap but it is not very busy with the little wasps: http://www.arbico-organics.com/fly-control-program.html

These wasps work for me! I cannot put them in the run because the chickens will eat the wasp pupae, but I put them just outside the run in the fly hotspots. I get a shipment every 3 weeks and I am just past my 2nd wasp pack & am virtually fly-free.

There are other places to order them as well.

On the food-grade DE, if I remember correctly, it was 2%, about a teaspoon per cup of food. I don't use it anymore as it did not work for me.