GNATS/Vinegar

[Araucana Amy]

We are overrun with gnats..........Vamp heard that vinegar would deter them. So we sprayed all the chickens, the yard and the coop.
Then i read that you take vinegar and sugar as a trap and that it attracks them.
So did we just doom them to a worse attack?!?!!?
Amy

 

[morelcabin]

Vinegar in thier drinking water will deter them from the birds. And a vinegar rinse will as well. Another great deterant that I use is Borax and sprinkle it all over the pen

 

[Araucana Amy]

Thanks so much!!!!!

 

[eggzettera]

If I get a gnat problem in my worm bin I put in a container of apple cider vinegar the gnats will drown in it. You may want to do the same in your run......I can't imagine that the chickens would be very interested in it.
HTH

 

[Barnyard]

Quote:
The chickens don't try and eat the Borax? Just curious cause I will go buy some now, lol!

 

[LynneP]

I'd be afraid to use borax, myself. DE, maybe.

Um- Vapona and Black Flag make a no-pest strip you can hang in the coop, up here in Canada we fight black flies every year at this time, and the strips work well.

 

[2dream]

I have read about the vinegar in drinking water previously but no one ever says if it is regular household vinegar. Apparently there is different strengths of vinegar and some of it is hard to come by.
Anyone here know?

 

[Half-a-dozen]

Quote:
The vinegar in the drinking water is APPLE CIDER VINEGAR...... I found mine at the grocery store, (same isle as the rest of the vinegars), when you put it in the water tho use a plastic tub/container. It discolors the inside of the metal ones.....

 

[BearSwampChick]

Many people suggest the organic unfiltered ACV which has the "mother". That is the sediment that is in the bottom of the bottle before you shake it up. However, an article in Backyard Poultry (April/May '08 issue) written by Terry Beebe from the U.K. appears to use just regular old ACV. This is a good article.

Gnats are attracted to ACV. I keep a cruet of it on my table and I either have to keep it covered or change it often, because in the summer I find dead gnats floating in it. Keeping it in an open dish in the coop sounds like a good idea to me.

 

[Araucana Amy]

So are we attracting the gnats by spraying it in the coop and on the chickens?