FLIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[LynneP]

You need a pest-strip, too. Vapona, Black Flag, Tractor Supply and Home Hardware make them to hang in coops. I've used for years in barn, they work beautifully (pyrethin) and can be used in homes.

 

[Their Other Mother]

Quote:
Best product I've ever used!! We have been a return customer for 4 years now and will continue. We have horses and so do most of our neighbors along with cattle. The fly preditors have decreased our fly population by 90%. NO LIE!! The directions tell you to pour them on the ground around the manure but I have found that the chickens, birds and ants will eat them before they hatch so I made a little wire basket out of bailing wire and just open the plastic envelope they come in and set it in the basket and hang it from the barn ceiling. They hatch and fly out and will travel up to 300 feet. Sign up for auto delivery and they arrive every month at the same time and they give you a double portion durring the hottest part of summer when the fly population increases. I usually stop around late October here in the desert and start up again in March. You won't be sorry.

If your flies are really bad right now I would order like 3 or 4 packages to start with then taper down, but for next year you could just start off with one. read all their info and they explain the fly process very clearly.

 

[spatcher]

Remember when "SHELL" used to make the strips for inside the home? Well I bought 2 by another manufacturer at Lowes and dumb me, didnt read the small print. It says "not to be used in confined area where humans are present for longer than 4 hrs"! If anyone knows of a brand made specifically for homes would appreciate the info. I looked in Southern States but they had nothing. Thanks!

 

[black404]

Neporex or Not?

I read that this stuff is used in poultry barns. Could it hurt?

 

[hdchic]

I had gnats and flies....after cleaning out the poop, I turned a fan on that blew across the top of the brooder (not directly on them) and it seemed to help tremendously. I will also be employing the fly strips. I think its just the time of the year for those of us in the Mid West for flies. Warm weather, rain, etc.

 

[bobeena]

I live in the South too and the flies from our four or five hens were terrible. I kept their run absolutely dry and raked out, lavishly covered with DE. They range the fenced backyard during the day so droppings are here and there in the English ivy, leaves. I hung fly strips. Hung fly traps. Ordered and sprinkled fly predators. You couldn't open the house door to walk outside without 30 flies zooming in. You couldn't eat a sandwich in the yard.

This summer, I am going straight to permethrin-based spray in the yard every two weeks. I did that once and it was the only thing that worked. I don't like to use it, and did it at dusk when there was less a chance of harming bees, etc. But I live in town, and we can't do this to our neighbors.

best of luck to you in the '09 fly season!

 

[babalubird]

I'll vouch for the fly preditors from Arbico. They really help but I don't think they are a complete answer.Some companies sell them "sterilized" so they can't reproduce themselves. I want the kind that can. That's why I order from Arbico.

We use them around our horses but I think you have to fight flies on many fronts. My neighbor has purple martin houses, occupied in the summer. These birds really like flies.

We will eventually add a few guineas, runner ducks and muscovy ducks. But not sure we will order the predators then or not as I'm sure these bird species would eat them to

I am surprised with poultry around, the birds don't eat the flies. Perhaps a few guineas or muscovy ducks or runner ducks mixed into the group would help?

Just some ideas.

 

[LynneP]

These make a world of difference too, if you have a place to install where birds can't reach them and where they can remain dry. Will knock gnats down for 3 months (dichlorovos). Your birds might also be suffereing from blood loss. A gnat infestation can weaken them fast- any place where your tractor can be moved indoors to give them a break?




Available at hardware stores, tack shops, ag supply stores, co-ops, TSC under various brand names including Black Flag and Vapona.

 

[treeclimber233]

I know this reply is late but I have not been on here for a few months. Everyone is saying they clean their pens out frequently and still have flies. I am wondering where they are disposing of the litter from their houses and pens. I have 50 rabbits and 150 chickens and zero flies. When I clean up around my animals I spread the manure in my field, not dump it in a pile. Flies will multiply in the manure pile because it stays damp inside the pile. If you remove the manure from the premises or spread it for fertilizer so it dries out the flies cannot multiply. Remove the breeding ground and you kill the flies.