Fly Problems

[QuackInn]

Minus the corn that we gave them to see if they would eat it.... what am I doing wrong?? Why all the flies and gnats??? We thought the stone would create good drainage in the pen. We hose/rake it out on a regular basis but not every day. TIA

 

[Knighstar679]

Are there any spots where there are wet feed hanging about?

 

[quackiemama]

Where are you located? And is that a feeder attached in the far right corner? I love your setup

 

[Duckworth]

Flies are an issue for us, too. I use Sweet PDZ stall refresher to neutralize ammonia and dry up the duck poop. It helps. I also have baited, reusable jar-style fly traps hanging on the outside of their enclosure that attract and trap hundreds of flies per week. I figure that the poop is going to attract flies no matter what, so I use the traps to get as many of them as possible lured to their deaths. I also hang a few fly strips securely from the ceiling of the enclosure to trap more of them. The jar fly traps do smell bad, so we hang them on the part of the pen away from the house. They are worth the smell to us, since they catch so many flies and the smell is mostly only detectable in the heat of the afternoon close to the traps.

When the traps get full, I spray water in through the openings and close the top so no flies or maggots can get out and put a brick on the top to hold the top closed. In a day or two, when I’m sure everything is dead, I put on disposable gloves and open the trap and dump it into the trash bag in the can we put our dog poop into, ties it up securely, then put it out with the trash. I time all of this with our garbage pickup so there is no smelly trash in our dumpster attracting flies. We compost our duck bedding or use it as mulch in our vegetable garden on our tomato and pepper plants.

 

[Dees ducks]

although it's a pain, I give my outside duck area which includes grass and stones a quick hose down in the evening. I just hose the poo into the stones and grass so that it drains into the ground. As for the duck house, I have cheap vinyl flooring which gets mopped every day.
This seems to work and although I am in the UK and we don't get excessive hot temperatures, I live in the middle of a pig farming county, in fact there's a pig farm right at the back of the house so flies are always a problem!

 

[QuackInn]

Are there any spots where there are wet feed hanging about?

Some feed does get in the rocks and we try to rake them and hose them down.

 

[QuackInn]

Where are you located? And is that a feeder attached in the far right corner? I love your setup

Near Philadelphia PA. Yes it is a pvc feeder but I stopped using it because I thought they were eating too much and a lot of waste. My ducks are fat.

 

[QuackInn]

Flies are an issue for us, too. I use Sweet PDZ stall refresher to neutralize ammonia and dry up the duck poop. It helps. I also have baited, reusable jar-style fly traps hanging on the outside of their enclosure that attract and trap hundreds of flies per week. I figure that the poop is going to attract flies no matter what, so I use the traps to get as many of them as possible lured to their deaths. I also hang a few fly strips securely from the ceiling of the enclosure to trap more of them. The jar fly traps do smell bad, so we hang them on the part of the pen away from the house. They are worth the smell to us, since they catch so many flies and the smell is mostly only detectable in the heat of the afternoon close to the traps.

When the traps get full, I spray water in through the openings and close the top so no flies or maggots can get out and put a brick on the top to hold the top closed. In a day or two, when I’m sure everything is dead, I put on disposable gloves and open the trap and dump it into the trash bag in the can we put our dog poop into, ties it up securely, then put it out with the trash. I time all of this with our garbage pickup so there is no smelly trash in our dumpster attracting flies. We compost our duck bedding or use it as mulch in our vegetable garden on our tomato and pepper plants.

Thanks! I’ll look for fly traps

 

[QuackInn]

although it's a pain, I give my outside duck area which includes grass and stones a quick hose down in the evening. I just hose the poo into the stones and grass so that it drains into the ground. As for the duck house, I have cheap vinyl flooring which gets mopped every day.
This seems to work and although I am in the UK and we don't get excessive hot temperatures, I live in the middle of a pig farming county, in fact there's a pig farm right at the back of the house so flies are always a problem!

Thank you!

 

[Duck_life]

i normally let them stick around so the ducks can eat the bugs.. plus they are normally only ourside of my pen GL!