Good Tip for Keeping Mosquitoes Out of the Coop!

[sharklasers]

A fan. A simple electric (or battery) fan, pointed at the chicken roost.

I searched far and wide (well, not that far, really) to find an answer to the question: how do I keep mosquitoes off my chickens at night?

The results from all around the internet said:
1) get rid of standing water
2) cut your grass real low
3) wrap the coop in mesh
4) spray pesticides in the coop

None of these were great solutions for my situation, but my poor chickens were just completely covered in mosquitoes, night after night. I tried all the suggestions (even #4, I'm ashamed to admit - desperate measures and all that), and more, but nothing worked - I live in the swamp, and mosquitoes are just a part of life. But those poor chickens.

Then it hit me tonight - I could just run an extension cord out to the coop and point an old box fan at the roost! Mosquitoes are notoriously weak flyers, and even a small fan can blow them far, far away.

Sure enough, from the moment I turned on the fan, every last mosquitoes was swept off my chickens by a hurricane of wind. Success!

Now, admittedly, this could become a fire hazard without proper precautions, and you will be paying a (negligible) amount more on the electric bill, but, for me, it worth it to keep my breakfast-making-buddies free from nightly mosquito bite misery.

Just thought I'd share. I'm sure it's been mentioned elsewhere, but I couldn't find it, so I figured I would post it again.



keywords: mosquito, mosquitos, mosquitoe, mosquitoes

 

[chickengeorgeto]

The results from all around the internet said:
1) get rid of standing water
2) cut your grass real low
3) wrap the coop in mesh
4) spray pesticides in the coop

Then it hit me... Mosquitoes are notoriously weak flyers, and even a small fan can blow them far, far away...

Skeeters are pest and when dealing with pests an integrated pest management strategy is the only thing that has a chance to work. An integrated pest management system is basically one where you do some combination of all of the above. Up to and including killing them all and let the Earth Goddess Gaia separate the innocent from the guilty.