How do I kills pests and not my flock?

[Western Twilight]

In our yard, we have calla lilies that attract a variety of flying bugs. They are too high for the chickens to eat. We'd like to kill them off, but we don't want chickens eating poisoned bodies.

Is there a safe insecticide of some sort that doesn't create a hazard for birds?

 

[KimberlyJ]

I would first try a few drops of dish soap (Dawn) in a spray bottle of water. Spray it on the lilies, that may help. I know people use Sevin dust ON their chickens, but wait to see if someone else OK's this since I'm not sure about it.

 

[Hollywood Chickens]

If they come out at night you could try a bug zapper, we had one once and it is gross but it works.

I would go with traps instead of insecticides because there is less of a chance of it harming the chickens.

What kinds of bugs? here in FL we are bug experts

 

[Western Twilight]

I completely forgot about this thread. The bugs are some sort of beetle that flies up into the lilly flowers, and then stays put. Can't electro-zap them with the racket. Hard to shake them off. Spraying makes a mess, and only gets about 10% of them.

I might try Sevin. Anyone have objections to Sevin?

 

[wyododge]

Soap works great. you could also try dabbing honey on them here and there to stick em.

 

[rancher hicks]

Quote:
I wouldn't use anything like Sevin where my chickens could eat it.

some ideas, surround plants with fencing to keep chickens out, only grow plants that are the least prone to cooties, choose your chickens over plants. , build a chicken run to keep them away from your plants. Fence off a large part of your yard and dedicate it to chickens only.

 

[partsRheavy]

Don't do anything about the insects. The chickens may eat them and thus keep them under control.

We have calla lilies in TX but they get very few insect pests even though they're nowhere close to the chickens' foraging area. Had to thin them back and put excess in compost pile but certainly didn't need to spray them with anything.

I would avoid using insecticides - allow the chickies to eat the small beasties and a low-level balance between insects and predators (the girls) should become established.

If it were a bad mite problem ON the chickens themselves I would probably say different.