Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth. Do you know the complete benefits?!?!

[flakey chick]

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Yeah, except most official use is as an anti-caking agent when you put it in their feed. The food grade stuff might even be in your pantry if you have any mixes (pancake, bisquick, cake mix, etc.)

 

[CallyB57]

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I found that DE had no effect on flies. The flies actually increased while I was using it. I was using the DE in the food at 2%, in their dust holes, nest boxes, intheir litter. After I found mites, I snowed the run with the stuff.

I also did my own experiment. I took a hen infested with northern fowl mite. With a dust pistol, I covered her at skin level with food grade DE only. She shook & a cloud of DE drifted through the air. While some mites might have been killed (as if she had taken a dust bath in regular dirt), the mites survived & thrived. Mixing the DE with sevin dust & rotenone of portions 1/3 each & dusting the hen, I found that the mites were significanntly reduced but not totally eliminated.

Treating the hen with Ivermectin drops on the skin of neck killed all the mites.

I do not have a problem with weevils but my chickens like eating them along with the beetles. I observed DE having no effect on large wood roaches whose body surface area is significant. I release ladybugs, green lacewings, praying mantis, the fly eating wasps & nematodes.

When I was speaking to the science of DE, I was primarily referring to the ridiculous claims made that it is an effective "wormer." Parasitic worms have evolved over a very long period of time to invade & inhabit their host. A little DE is not going to "shred" a parasitic worm in a chicken's gut (neither will sand). Normally, there is a balance of worms in any outdoor environment at any time. Healthy chickens keep these parasites at bay. When something else puts stress on your birds, the worms, being opportunistic, may override that natural balance (and that is when you see them).

Breathing silica particles by an animal with lungs may be harmful to that animal over a long period of time as silica is an irritant. If your chickens aren't living long lives anyway, this shouldn't be a concern for you.

Use DE if you want as I see it as rather benign to most creatures. I just believe you are wasting your money. There are many of us who haven't been using DE and we are not having any problems with parasitic worms, mites, lice or flies as well. I know poultry keepers/ breeders who have never used DE and no more problems than someone using it.

DE completely kills all flies in and around my henhouse. I have not seen a fly in months and I spend a lot of time in and around the henhouse with my cheekens. My cheeken's feed is dusted with DE also, and I have had no problems with mites, flies, or internal parasites. It's my experience and I would not be without this product!

 

[glitch]

I just started using the stuff myself.......at first I thought it didn't work, but it seems I just didn't use enough. With the second application, I tripled the amount I used. The coop wasn't just dusted it was coated.
This did the job in less than a day the coop was free of flies.
The stuff is great....I'm currently looking into using it in my dogs food as he has a nasty case of diarrhea.

 

[NYREDS]

I have had a change of heart. I now agree that DE is very beneficial-for peole sellin DE.

 

[CallyB57]

I am no scientist, micropalaeontologist, or anything else that would qualify me to tout absolutes about DE. I can tell you ONLY from my own experience that if I clean out my henhouses and sprinkle the floor liberally with food grade DE before I put down the pine shavings - NO FLIES are ever seen. If I run out of DE (only during the summer) and put the pine shavings in without it, not a whole week goes by before I start seeing flies everywhere, and I can't stand the flies. So....I am going to keep on using food grade DE for at least 8 months of the year. I can also tell you that when I ran out of DE, my rooster got scaly leg mites, and I think once the mites are up under the scales on the legs, you have to use something else to get rid of them (like, pyrethrin, or the synthetic permethrin). From my observation on that, I would say it is best used as a 'preventative' against mites...maybe there is something in the cycle of a mites life that causes contact with the DE to kill them. Perhaps newly hatched mites can not tolerate DE, therefore the new ones are killed and the old ones eventually croak. Like I say - I am not an expert, but these are my experiences. Have you ever seen a tick stuck on your chicken's foot? I have, but if nobody wants to believe it, that's fine by me.

 

[redupthehill]

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HI~ new to forums & hope I'm doing this right....the link doesn't work...but I am still looking for CHEEP fg de. Anybody? I live in No. Ca.
Thanks!

 

[kota1369]

I use DE in my coop, around the perimater of my home, garage and inside the garage in corners, and around the dogs beds.
I know for a fact it kills bees as I have used it on a yellow jacket nest. So, therefor it can obviously kill our well needed honey bees.
Fortunatly honey bees are one of the less aggressive bees out there.
I try to use it safely but my new conern with DE is its affect on earth worms. I go to a great deal of time and trouble like so many working
on gardens and composting. My chicken straw/leaves/grass clippings all go into my compost. See where I am going with this? If DE kills because it cuts the exo-skeliton doesnt a worm have that to, just like a roach, ant or bee?
I have to admit it helped with the ant, roach, fire ant and flea problem.......... but the more I research the more I ask. Like everything...... there is a lot of good information on the internet and a lot of mis-information and you have to weed threw the crap. I also recommended it to a friend who had bed bugs and that problem was taken care of in just over a week. After they had spent hundreds of dollars on treatment and threw out around 7 grand worth of furnature. This process of getting rid of bed bugs lasted almost a year till DE was discovered. It is most definatley a controversial natural product.
I say.......... whether we use chemicals or natural products we as the humans and supposedly superior beings, need to do our best to protect the environment. Use our best judgement for the situation and try to keep ourselves open to changes and continue to learn about what we are doing. There are pros and cons to everything.

For those interested this looks like a great backyard project.

http://www.backyardhive.com/General/General/BackYardHive_Beekeeping_Shop/

the lady with 4 dogs and 4 city chickens

 

[lmblackburn]

But, worms don't have exoskeletons like ants and beetles do.

 

[Bossroo]

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True, but the worms will injest the DE and then it will rip up their intestines. I used it regularly to deworm my 33 horses ( 1 tablespoon AM /PM for a few days mixed into their grain) evey 3 weeks.. The added benefit was that when the horse made road apples, and the flies lay their eggs on it, then when the maggots eat the DE in the road apples it would cut up their intestines... no more flies.

 

[HannaLee]

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HI~ new to forums & hope I'm doing this right....the link doesn't work...but I am still looking for CHEEP fg de. Anybody? I live in No. Ca.
Thanks!

Azure Standard is the best source. I know they drive through there, since I am south of you and I can get delivery!

www.azurestandard.com Call them to get the contact info for the co-op nearest you.