Insect Control with Ducks

Ronnie_

Chirping
Mar 1, 2023
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78
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Hi all!
As things are warming up and my girls are finally outside in their enclosure, I wanted to get some opinions on different forms of insect control (specifically mosquitos and flies).

For Mosquitos~ My ducks (3) just upgraded from a kiddie pool to a large 4' x 12" (~80 Gallons) pool. Ideally, I will change it every 3 days due to its larger size/capacity (and we top off a bit daily). I'm looking into 2 options to help control the mosquito pop. around these water sources.
1. Adding in a few feeder goldfish weekly (I know they'll most likely be eaten eventually by the girls). However, I would want to use tap water conditioner to remove chlorine to allow the fish to survive long enough to eat larvae. Would using a Pet store Fish Tap water conditioner be safe for the ducks?
2. Using Mosquito Dunks in the pool. I know they are based using the BiT bacteria, but has anyone used them before? Do ducks try to eat them? I worried my girls might try to eat the chunks from the dunk...

For Flies~ My ducks (3) have a 25 sq. ft. duck shack & 192 sq ft attached run. Right now, we do a complete deep clean of the house bedding ever 3 weeks as it has not gotten too grimy, and we are experimenting to see if the deep-liter method is a viable option for us to maintain. We do daily spot cleans and stir the bedding daily. Every week leading up to deep cleans we sprinkle food-grade Diatomaceous earth on the bedding and mix it in. The run is 1/2 grass and 1/2 pea gravel, so this is just sprayed down as needed to remove poop. But we are still seeing flies. (Not atrocious or Amity horror level) but I want to keep them under control. All I can think is to hang an outdoor fly trap to just remove as many from the population as possible.

Would love any recommendations or advice. I live in zone 6B, and we didn't have a super cold winter this year so I'm sure most insect populations will be THRIVING this summer.
 
Hi all!
As things are warming up and my girls are finally outside in their enclosure, I wanted to get some opinions on different forms of insect control (specifically mosquitos and flies).

For Mosquitos~ My ducks (3) just upgraded from a kiddie pool to a large 4' x 12" (~80 Gallons) pool. Ideally, I will change it every 3 days due to its larger size/capacity (and we top off a bit daily). I'm looking into 2 options to help control the mosquito pop. around these water sources.
1. Adding in a few feeder goldfish weekly (I know they'll most likely be eaten eventually by the girls). However, I would want to use tap water conditioner to remove chlorine to allow the fish to survive long enough to eat larvae. Would using a Pet store Fish Tap water conditioner be safe for the ducks?
2. Using Mosquito Dunks in the pool. I know they are based using the BiT bacteria, but has anyone used them before? Do ducks try to eat them? I worried my girls might try to eat the chunks from the dunk...

For Flies~ My ducks (3) have a 25 sq. ft. duck shack & 192 sq ft attached run. Right now, we do a complete deep clean of the house bedding ever 3 weeks as it has not gotten too grimy, and we are experimenting to see if the deep-liter method is a viable option for us to maintain. We do daily spot cleans and stir the bedding daily. Every week leading up to deep cleans we sprinkle food-grade Diatomaceous earth on the bedding and mix it in. The run is 1/2 grass and 1/2 pea gravel, so this is just sprayed down as needed to remove poop. But we are still seeing flies. (Not atrocious or Amity horror level) but I want to keep them under control. All I can think is to hang an outdoor fly trap to just remove as many from the population as possible.

Would love any recommendations or advice. I live in zone 6B, and we didn't have a super cold winter this year so I'm sure most insect populations will be THRIVING this summer.

I do not think you need to do anything to control the mosquitoes, the ducks sift the water and eat the larva. I have several small pools (horse food bowls) which I change daily and one large black garden pond which holds about 75 gallons. I only change it's water once a week. I have four ducks and have never had any mosquito larva in the big pool when I dump it. If you are changing yours every 3 days you should be fine. It takes 8-10 days to go from egg to adult mosquito if any larva survived.

As for flies, mint and lavender are supposed to repel them. I hang cut branches of both. It might help a little. The drier the area they are kept, the less flies. Good luck!
 

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