Gnats in the coop....Need a remedy.

[Parson's Wife]

Not a joke. Not 10 or 20...many, many, more are in the coop!
Anyone? These gnats are brown, and very persistant.
The chickens are eating at them...but there's too many.

Any advice?
We live next to a swamp...and the gnats have been a problem...tonight...they seem to be swarming.

 

[mediazeal]

how about an electric bug zapper? The gnats might be attracted to it and fewer bothering the chicks

 

[aidenbaby]

Fly strips might help. I've heard some people suggest fans to help keep the air moving.

 

[Chicky Tocks]

I've noticed my hens slacking on the egg laying lately and tonight I discovered the laying boxes to be infested with gnats! One brave soul got in that box and laid an egg.

I sprinkled the DE all over those boxes and coated my dirt floor in the run with Sweet PDZ. They were horrible! This weekend I'll till the run floor and work in more PDZ. If that doesn't work, I'll put a fan out there.

 

[ChickeryChick]

What is PDZ?

ChickeryChick

 

[harewizard]

It's a stall freshner. I use Stall Dry.

http://www.sweetpdz.com/


Lisa

 

[Chicky Tocks]

Hee! And then I read more and saw that vanilla can be effective. I just sprayed the nests and run down with a can of French Vanilla Glade.

 

[Beed]

Hi, I have been having bug problems too and just made a bug catcher out of 2 liter soda bottle. Found how to do it by Googling. I cut the bottle at the curve and inverted it so the bottle neck is facing down into bottle, taped it w/ duct tape, filled it w/ 1 cup water, 1 cup vinegar, 1 cup sugar and a little bit of yeast and set it on table. You can punch holes around the top edge and hang it in coop too. I have only had mine out today and so far only a few bugs but I have mine in patio area for deer flies and mosquitoes. I used something similar after hurricanes because of severe fruit fly infestation and it worked great. I recently got an email about listerine being a great bug deterent. You could splash a bottle of it around coop maybe that will help. It will disinfect to boot. Good luck!

 

[Parson's Wife]

Thank you for all the great ideas. Just trying to keep things dry...will try others later. In all this rain....drip, drip, drip....it seems everything is mucky....the chickens messy, and the pen....ugh! I'm going to buy sand to spread in the pen area. Will look into DE.
the fly strips are a definite...those things work....and any that get caught...well, Praise God! I hate those bugs.

 

[luvarabhorses]

I have the big fly eliminator things from Farnam where you add a fly attractant and catch flys all summer. The gnats here have been so bad here that some of my chickens have eye infections. I was going to try the two litter bottle inverting the top to the bottom making the cut fairly close to the top. I was thinking about scooping up some fresh poo, adding some water. This should attract the green flies also. That would be a really cheap way to do it.