Gnats killed my babies. YES REALLY!! Don't let it happen to you.

[sayette]

Today I moved my 5 week old chicks from the garage to an outside pen. It was in the shade, plenty of water, and food, nothing in the grass or sprayed on the grass. I noticed that there were a lot of gnats swarming around while I set everything up but I didn't think it was a big deal. I put them out and watched them for a while. Evan sat inside the pen with them. There were an number of gnats but it didn't seem like that big of deal. I checked on them a hour later and they were all smooshed in the corner like they were sleeping. When I looked closer I could see the gnats were really swarming them. So I got a box fan and hung it about 10 inches off the ground to keep the bugs off of them. The air was blowing above them but not right on them. I also put out a pan of vinegar outside the pen to kill the gnats. It seemed to work. I don't remember if I checked them after that but at 4:00 I went out to check on them and 8 of the 13 were dead. They were totally covered in gnats and since they were dead several flies were on them too.
I did a search here for gnats and saw several posts saying buffalo gnats had killed other folks adult birds too. When I checked my birds over I noticed several had little red bites under their wings and a couple had bites on their faces.
I had the new pen set up at 10 and at 4 the majority of my chicks were dead. I am totally devastated. GNATS WILL KILL YOUR BIRDS!!! Please don't let this happen to you. For some reason they are particularly bad this year. They actually bite the birds. I have had chickens for over 5 years now and I never knew this was a danger. In 6 hours I killed 8 of my chicks. I'm not sure if the remaining 5 will make it.

 

[countrycakelady]

I am so very sorry. Look up all the posts on here about gnats...they are good information, and I am battling them too...my girls are older, 11 weeks old...but I am doing the vanilla spray and the car trees...it seems to help me.

 

[ten chicks]

Today I moved my 5 week old chicks from the garage to an outside pen. It was in the shade, plenty of water, and food, nothing in the grass or sprayed on the grass. I noticed that there were a lot of gnats swarming around while I set everything up but I didn't think it was a big deal. I put them out and watched them for a while. Evan sat inside the pen with them. There were an number of gnats but it didn't seem like that big of deal. I checked on them a hour later and they were all smooshed in the corner like they were sleeping. When I looked closer I could see the gnats were really swarming them. So I got a box fan and hung it about 10 inches off the ground to keep the bugs off of them. The air was blowing above them but not right on them. I also put out a pan of vinegar outside the pen to kill the gnats. It seemed to work. I don't remember if I checked them after that but at 4:00 I went out to check on them and 8 of the 13 were dead. They were totally covered in gnats and since they were dead several flies were on them too.
I did a search here for gnats and saw several posts saying buffalo gnats had killed other folks adult birds too. When I checked my birds over I noticed several had little red bites under their wings and a couple had bites on their faces.
I had the new pen set up at 10 and at 4 the majority of my chicks were dead. I am totally devastated. GNATS WILL KILL YOUR BIRDS!!! Please don't let this happen to you. For some reason they are particularly bad this year. They actually bite the birds. I have had chickens for over 5 years now and I never knew this was a danger. In 6 hours I killed 8 of my chicks. I'm not sure if the remaining 5 will make it.

Get fluids/electrolytes into them asap,need to replenish lost fluid (blood). Not sure if blood loss is the cause in death from gnats or some kind of allergic reaction that can result from these nasty bugs.

 

[realsis]

I am so sorry! This must be devastating! I know we also have a lot of nats. What should I do to rid our yard of them? How exactly did they kill your babies? By biting or by breathing them in? Or what? This scares me badly! I don't know exactly the kind of knats we have but they swarm in a big cloud. I am so so sorry for the loss of your babies! This must have been awful to see! I sure hope your other little ones make it! Keep us posted on how they are doing!

 

[sayette]

We have declared war!!! Just bought a bug zapper, 12 sticky fly strips and 12 vanilla car air fresheners, got a box fan running in the coop and just bought a smaller one to run under the coop.(its up on 2 foot legs and the girl's food is under there.) Put a pan of apple cider vinegar and soap out.(where the girls cant get it)

Gave the 5 survivors poultry electrolyte in their water and the babies are back in the garage. The big girls have been taken care of outside. Revenge is mine.....

I had no idea that the gnats were a threat. Its such a horrible waste. They were such tame and beautiful birds. They were completely healthy and perfect little birds and in less than 6 hours they were dead.

From what I have read they can react to the bites and also inhale the gnats. Mine had little bite marks on them. Its interesting that the 5 that survived were all bigger birds. They were pretty lethargic when we found them. I would have lost them too if I had waited another 1/2 hour or so.

 

[MercyMe03]

Wow! This is horrible!!! I am so sorry for your loss. I was looking for things to help with Mosquitos today and I came across this link http://skeeterbag.com . Since you are using box fans maybe you could use something like this to also help with the gnats! We are going to try it for the Mosquitos.

 

[Haunted55]

We have declared war!!! Just bought a bug zapper, 12 sticky fly strips and 12 vanilla car air fresheners, got a box fan running in the coop and just bought a smaller one to run under the coop.(its up on 2 foot legs and the girl's food is under there.) Put a pan of apple cider vinegar and soap out.(where the girls cant get it)

Gave the 5 survivors poultry electrolyte in their water and the babies are back in the garage. The big girls have been taken care of outside. Revenge is mine.....

I had no idea that the gnats were a threat. Its such a horrible waste. They were such tame and beautiful birds. They were completely healthy and perfect little birds and in less than 6 hours they were dead.

From what I have read they can react to the bites and also inhale the gnats. Mine had little bite marks on them. Its interesting that the 5 that survived were all bigger birds. They were pretty lethargic when we found them. I would have lost them too if I had waited another 1/2 hour or so.

I am so sorry this hapened to you! Another thing, besides the vanilla car fresheners I have found works, is the fly tapes with a drop of your blood on them. EWWWW!!!!!!! Yes, it works though. I live in the woods and have a serious problem with Blackflies and 3 Corner Flies here. Both will kill your birds and it is a miserable lesson to learn. Even more, take a piece of contact paper, peel the paper off the back and tack it, sticky contact paper, sticky side out, to the wall of your coop. There is something about the smell, of the contct paper, they really like, mosquitoes as well, and will go to the paper and become trapped. I am using a full width of the paper about 2' long, tacked to a wall of their coop and so far it has to be changed everyday. It is completely filled up with flying nasties.

Again, I am so sorry for your losses.

 

[RoseMarie1]

I am so sorry this hapened to you! Another thing, besides the vanilla car fresheners I have found works, is the fly tapes with a drop of your blood on them. EWWWW!!!!!!! Yes, it works though. I live in the woods and have a serious problem with Blackflies and 3 Corner Flies here. Both will kill your birds and it is a miserable lesson to learn. Even more, take a piece of contact paper, peel the paper off the back and tack it, sticky contact paper, sticky side out, to the wall of your coop. There is something about the smell, of the contct paper, they really like, mosquitoes as well, and will go to the paper and become trapped. I am using a full width of the paper about 2' long, tacked to a wall of their coop and so far it has to be changed everyday. It is completely filled up with flying nasties.

Again, I am so sorry for your losses.

Man this is horrible! I am so sorry for your loss! I sure hope the other stay safe. I lost one of my RIR's a few weeks back and have no clue what happened to it. It was several weeks old to but now that someone mentioned about the biting bugs, we have horse flies and yellow flies bad here and one might have bit it.
Thank you for sharing this idea on the contact paper. I am going to do this in my chicks pen. The mosquitoes seem to want to get in the corner where mine likes to pile up for the night. They're there during the day and everything so I will put the contact paper over there.

 

[sayette]

Thank you so much everyone. The 5 surviving babies are still looking good this morning. I looked at the skeeterbag and I am going to give it a try. I sew and I'm thinking of making a couple. If my sewing skills fail me I will buy a couple. They are $20 a piece. Its so simple but I think it will work.

 

[Sandstorm495]

Very sorry for your loss
Hope it never happens again.
Sorry i can't offer more help and any advice.
Hope the remaining five chicks make it.