Fly issues?

[Zahboo]

We have a fly issue. We've started keeping our grains in closed containers, not letting treats sit around and I'm at a loss of what else I can do. I looked at fly predator but don't know if we have a large enough population to justify. They are just around the coop. We clean the hay every two weeks and then burn the hay we clean out. Any ideas? Do the fly bag traps work? I really don't want strips hanging around...

 

[ekemily]

I've heard that DE works, but I haven't tried it here because I live in a very humid area.
If you use a bait station, hang it away from the coop and house area b/c you don't wanna attract more flies to your coop.
I've been having fly issues too. They are terrible!
I'll be subscribing to this post to see if you get any different answers from me.

It's hard to find a product that won't kill your animals right along with the flies.

 

[Zahboo]

We live in NC, humid hot and rains everyday. I heard DE needs to be reapplied after each rain, which means we'd be reapplying a couple times a day. We won't stop getting rain until July.

 

[Cindiloohoo]

I'm using bait stations, but for every fly that dies...seems like it is replaced by a dozen! I heard at the local Co-op this is becoming a bad year for everybody. This elder gentleman said this is the worst he has ever seen in his "60 some odd years on the planet"

Older folks are so cute how they word things

 

[mordarlar]

Quote:
We use homemade fly traps and they work really well. I keep them a great distance from the house and we have seen a huge reduction in the flies that used to infest the areas more near our home and chicken.

The traps smell bad but only if you jostle them and i know some worry that they may draw in more flies but i haven't noticed that to be the case. I never see flies near our tractor and home anymore and i do place the traps a distance away. The traps fill up very quickly.

The traps are old soda bottles with the top cut off, chicken droppings and water in the bottom and the top inverted over and taped. It takes a week or so for the whole thing to really start working and i simply pour off the liquid into a new trap when an old trap gets full so i don't have to wait for it to "cook".

Here is a picture...

Before i poured some of this one off to make new ones it was so full the flies went up around the sides of the inverted, funnel like opening. You have to start out with much less water because rain will raise the level.

 

[Zahboo]

I like that idea because if our cat or dogs get into it it's not toxic, just bad breath

Thanks for sharing

I checked our flystrips we got set out today and counted 30 flies on one strip!

 

[ekemily]

mordor: love the idea. I'm definitely going to try it. How many parts droppings to water do you put? Thanks so much

 

[huntercf]

I use fly traps from a local home improvement warehouse, they work pretty good, I also put up fly strips.
If you want to kill alot of flys all at once (and have some fun), get a blow torch. When I worked on an egg farm (700,000) chickens, of course there was a HUGE fly problem. They had a modified torch that worked with propane and we would walk down the aisles committing mass murder...

. Sometimes you can find blow torches for burning weeds on places like craigs list.
Please don't jimmy rig something because we don't want you losing some fingers or worse.
Good Luck

And to all of you living near the Gulf Coast, I am sorry for your catastrophe I can only imagine what you are going through. I hope they get that spill under control soon.

 

[mordarlar]

Quote:
Hi ekemily

I guess it was about 2 tablespoons to 1.5 c. water.

The truth is that i was experimenting. I noticed that the flies would follow the tractor everyday. They pretty much ignored the the previous spots in favor of the location the tractor had been in the day before. After noticing how persistent they were it occurred to me that the recent droppings would make a really good trap bait. I knew that the soda bottle traps only work if the fly gets in, cannot find a way out, gets tired and drowns. So i added a little water. It really needs a week or so to get disgusting, and as a result appealing to the masses of flies, and the more flies that die in it the more they are drawn to it.

I hope it works for everyone as well as it is working for us.

 

[ryanhodapp]

thank you for the advise. I just noticed today that the flies are obnoxious. I have only had chickens in the yard 8 weeks and I have seen 1 possum, 3 rats and now the flies. it is going to be a long summer. First time today that I thought I may not be cut out for this.