flies :(

[Qi Chicken]

Our flies did not mind the Vanilla scent. It didn't work at all. I have to say that I found it disgusting. A chicken coop should not smell like chemical vanilla (and poop) it grossed me out.

We have a fairly large 10 x 11 foot coop, regular 8 foot ceilings and I had a fly strip hung in the exact center all summer. No problems. UNTIL... a few weeks ago, I went to lock up the girls and there was something strange hanging off the butt of one of the Silver laced Wyandottes. I inched forward, thinking her leg was grotesquely mangled or something and discovered that the whole strip was wrapped around one wing, onto her back and around to her butt. I can not even imagine that sequence. My husband and I untangled her, came off pretty easily actually, and she was fine. But we never found the tack that held it to the ceiling...

I use DE and didn't have much of a problem until it was consistently over 100 and muggy.

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

I'm the one who started the thread about the Vanilla car fresheners. This is my recommendation based on our experience here in hot, humid, Florida:

Use the Magic Tree Vanillaroma car airfresheners. Take them completely out of the plastic. Since they are outdoors with more air circulating you want the full blast of fragrance. Hang them where they are protected from rain.

We use 3 or 4 in a 4X8 coop. You can also purchase the aerosol spray of the exact same scent from Auto Zone and use it every couple of weeks to "re-charge" the trees. Three or so burst right onto the tree from about 1/4 inch away will soak them good.

Since we began using them 4 months ago, we have absolutely NO flies in any of the coops. There will be a few flies out in the turnout paddocks...especially if we put any kind of food item out there....but even then they are NOTHING like they were.

There is just something about the vanilla odor that flies hate.

I also put one of the Glade automatic spray dispenser with the vanilla fragrance inside the barn/feed/tackroom area. I dispenses a burst every 30 minutes and there are no flies in there anymore.

 

[ADozenGirlz]

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[soccerbabiesmama]

I have used food grade D.E. with no luck at all. We are off to TSC to get the fly bags and then to Walmart for the vanilla trees. We are getting pretty desperate to get rid of these flies! $ chickens, 100000000000 flies! I rake the run daily and it just seems to attract them!