Gnats are attacking my babies!

[ArmoryChick]

The gnats must of hatched out today. They are swarming aroung the coop, and our 3 week olds are huddlied in a corner. The babies were running aroung all morning, and I noticed by evening they were all inside. When I went to check on them, the gnats were just swarming. My daughter and I dosed up with vannila spray, and then sprayed some around the door. That gave us time to fill waterers and feeders, but how do I keep them away from my chicks? Any ideas would be great!! Thanks!

 

[jenni2142]

I use hummingbirds. Just put out a couple of feeders, very few skeeters and it cut the gnats down by more than half. I also installed a fan in the coop to keep the air moving.

 

[ArmoryChick]

Thanks! We will try that. We have a fan just don't know yet where or how to mount it. Hummingbirds would be nice.

Also wondered if a bug light would help. Anyone use one around chicks?

 

[Tala]

I dunno if a bug light works for gnats, since they are so small. The trick of the bug light is that the bug touches both the hot and ground piece of 1/4" hardware cloth at the same time and ZAP! Gnats I would think would just slip right through.

Hummingbirds for mosquitoes?? Hmmmm I'm getting a feeder for them tomorrow

I always thought people fed them because they were pretty

 

[jenni2142]

hummingbirds eat bugs, we also encourage bats but batboxes take longer. homemade hummingbird food is just 1/4 cane sugar to 1 cup water, I don't boil just shake. The feeders are red so no food coloring is needed, the jury is still out on whether or not it harms them. they are also fun to watch, they do fight alot though and buzz us a lot, mostly my hubby cause they know I fill the feeders.

 

[littlepeddler]

I went out to feed and check on all my birds and seen just about the same thing you did. Some of my young 2-3 month old birds were huddle in a corner all trying to bury their heads with gnats all around. I sprinkle them all with 7 dust, and it didn't phase the gnats.

Ok, so here goes . I decided to put on them what I put on me when it is buffalo gnat season. Here comes the skin-so-soft bath oil spray.
I took the birds and sprayed around the head, wings and I did a real good job to. Wanted to make sure that is covered evarey thing on their head....GNATs Gone.

Now the girls smell good , look good and all seem to be walking around now and not swinging the head and the gnats are gone. So I will be ordering a huge amount for he next month. Try that.....and hope it works for you as well as it did for me. It's just the season until about May 31st.

 

[ArmoryChick]

We do have bats flying around all summer. We live in the counry. We are going to put up a couple hummingbird feeders as well.
We use vanilla body spray to keep the gnats off us, but I didn't know if I should use it in my chicks. They are only 3 weeks old. I did think about hanging a vanilla car freshener in the house with them

 

[LynneP]

Buffalo gnats can bleed out a full-grown moose or deer. For coops this works-





They're no-pest strips (dichlorovos). Hang high or cage so that birds can't peck them. Keep chicks indoors a few days to saturate the air space in the coop to create a refuge for your birds. Meanwhile, empty all water containers outdoors and keep bird water very clean. Mow grasses as much as possible near coops. Treat bedding with food-grade DE and use the same powder in the run so birds can bathe and coat themselves with the powder. Early part of season is worst for gnats, especially in calm pockets without wind. Deadly problem. You may wish to wait until they abate before obtaining more birds. Create a dark box where babies can retreat, too, gnats hate the dark.

You can also use any spray designed for horses to hit swarms of gnats in your run- SuperShield and Bronco are two examples.

Very sorry to hear this.

 

[littlepeddler]

Get at any farm store? Thanks I may get some for all the time. I have garden ponds and anything would help all year around.
Brenda

 

[LynneP]

Most hardware stores have them too.

For your pond, ask for the pellets that the military developed to prevent mosquitoes from harching.