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- #11
TwistedTayy
Songster
I thought they would eat them but they didn’t in the last coop and then bam, war of the flies around the coop a few days later. maybe the pekins just aren’t as good foragers but as babies they would go nuts when I tossed them a water bug.I live in the hot, humid south as well. I only get maggots if wet crumbled food is allowed to stay in place. If you use a bowl instead of a feeder and let them clean it out between feedings problem solved. Btw, the maggots gross you out but are perfectly edible to the ducks. In fact, most of us buy them dead and dried as soldier worm larva or mealworms! I would not recommend spraying permethrin, google it with “mitochondria”. When my son was in 5th grade he developed chronic fatigue after our house was sprayed with it for bedbugs.
I agree with you on the permethrin but until the ducks are old enough to forage full time during the day and we also have a perimeter fence I’m resigned to use it. Mosquitoes are one thing but we’ve recently seen an increase in the tick and biting midge population in the last week. We just bought the house from an older couple who just weren’t able to keep up with cleaning so we also have a large water bug population in the house and I’m just sick of the creepy crawlers everywhere! I found some alien bug I’ve never seen before in the house last night and couldn’t identify it. (I’ll attach a picture in case anyone get can solve that low grade mystery) Needless to say, permethrin will never be what I use to maintain a bug free yard but just keep populations under control until the birds are old enough to do their share. And I’ll probably dilute it double. I commonly have to use permethrin at work because we have a terrible tick problem there. I actually will likely end up brooding guineas and taking them there. If I wasn’t worried about neighbors at my house, I’d have a flock of 50 guineas running around and happily put up with the noise!