A while back someone posted hanging the vanilla tree car fresheners in the coop keeps flies away....I was skeptical but tried it anyways and guess what- no flies in the coop!!
Switching to sand in my run helped a lot. Moisture seems to be the key. I used hay prior to switching to sand. The hay was wonderful until we had some heavy rain and the bedding got wet. Then I would have an explosion of flies. My inner coop is rainproof and I use a fairly deep layer of horse bedding so its basically a desert environment in there. It was the outside areas that were the problem for me. I'd dig up some wet hay and find a host of maggots. There was virtually no poop in the hay either since I would scoop it out on a regular basis. The flies came for the hay more than anything as far as I could tell. I've switched to sand and not only is my run super easy to clean my fly problem has all but vanished. Another mistake I've made was getting a "bait" type trap for the flies. For one thing it stunk soooo bad....it smelled like rotting garbage. I had to move it outside of the coop and by the end of day 3 I had around 400 dead flies STUFFED in the thing. A small fraction of those were residents of my small coop. The rest must have come from miles only to die in my trap. I must admit there was a bit of satisfaction knowing I had killed so many flies but the trap was counter productive since it attracted more flies than it killed. I've also tried sticky traps and they seem to accumulate more feathers than flies...though they didn't attract more flies than they killed and they were extremely affordable. So, it was a lateral move. I have not tried the vanilla, but it sounds like a pleasant smelling plan at the very least.
We also tried the vanilla air freshener thing. It has worked SO well for us that we now put them on the back porch & can leave the back door open & don't have to worry about flies coming in. I don't know what it is that they don't about the synthetic vanilla fragrance, but it has been effective. All I know is that it works & I only had to spend $6. They are hung near the top where no chooks can get even close to them. I have been sharing this tidbit with everyone. Thanks to the person who posted it a while back! What a most awesome tip!
Hanging the vanilla air fresheners worked in my back yard I have them hanging in the run, the coop around the swimming pool and in the car port. I have shared this with everyone I know even my daughter-in-law that works at her moms fruit stand.
Yeah!!!! I'm the one who posted the thread about them...but I'm sure I saw it on another thread here. I am absolutely amazed that we no longer have ANY flies anywhere. We hang them on the porches, in the coops and under the barn shedrow. BTW...PepBoys has them 12 for $4.67.
I have a dirt run because I like being able to go in and turn the soil so the girls can go hunting for worms and bugs. I do have occasional flies, but as soon as I see them I sprinkle the whole run with DE and the flies are all gone by the next day. It keeps the odor down and I have no doubt that its helpful in controlling parasites when the girls dust bath. I'd say I go out and DE dust about once a month. It helps keep the moisture down in the run also. I'll have to give the vanilla thing a try in the coop. I don't have hardly any flies in there, but there's usually a few.
I read this post two days ago and picked up two vanilla tree fresheners yesterday to try out their fly awayness. WOW it works like a charm. Absolutely amazing. Thank you for the tip
