Fly Control, anyone find something that works, and is chicken safe?

[Pghelp]

What is DE?

What is DE?

DE is diatomaceous earth, a natural product often used in insecticides. From Wikipedia:

A sample of food grade diatomaceous earth
Diatomaceous earth ( /ˌdaɪ.ətəˌmeɪʃəs ˈɜːrθ/) – also known as D.E., diatomite, or kieselgur/kieselguhr – is a naturally occurring, soft, siliceous sedimentary rock that is easily crumbled into a fine white to off-white powder.

 

[Ljhenson]

The fly traps are awesome. I have bought them at TS, WM and Lowes. They cost about $5 to $7. They start attracting flies immediately. The attractant in them does not have a pleasant smell, so I hang them away from my house and the coop to draw the flies away. I kept smelling a smell like a dead animal and I searched the entire pen and found nothing. I happened to be standing near the fly trap one day and a breeze blew the smell in my direction and suddenly it clicked... there was no dead animal... just nasty smelling fly bait.

 

[cmom]

I had a mite issue as well as flies. I decided to tackle the mites first. I had a severe infestation of mites last year. I tried DE and it didn't do anything. I had to do something so I used permethrin. The birds were in terrible shape and I thought they were molting but they didn't seem to be getting their feathers back. That is when I discovered the mites. I started to spray their coops thoroughly weekly and eventually they got their feathers back and became beautiful again. Permethrin does not kill the pests eggs, so repeated weekly sprayings were necessary. If you have an issue with flies, permethrin also worked to eliminate flies. I also had a lot of flies in the coops and the permethrin eliminated them too, to my surprise.