Is NoLo bait safe for fowl?

[BeardedChick]

I would like to apply NoLo bait to get rid of the grasshoppers around my flower beds. The packaging says its safe for birds to eat infected grasshoppers (NoLo contains a bacterium). Does anyone use it or know if it's safe to use around my chickens and turkeys?

 

[kwale86]

I have the same question. Grasshoppers are terrible where I live this year and I would love to eradicate them but dont want to use pesticides which could get into the chickens when they eat the dead grasshoppers. Below is a link to a page that sells the NoLo bait and has a little information about how it works.

http://www.biconet.com/biocontrol/nolo.html

 

[kwale86]

Or I could just get about 1000 more chickens and they could eat all the grasshoppers.

 

[galanie]

I just went to their website and looked at the MSDS. Looks pretty harmless but who knows, so I went to their FAQ page:

Will NoLo Bait hurt my dog, cat, birds or other pets?
No. The active disease organism in NoLo Bait is host-specific to grasshoppers and Mormon crickets which are actually a species of grasshopper. Any other non-target insect, bird or mammal that ingest the bait or eats an infected grasshopper will not be affected. The disease organism will pass through their digestive system without being active.

 

[kwale86]

So I guess unless I have grasshopper or mormon cricket in my family tree, we should be ok.

 

[greenSearcher]

Last summer I had a plague of grasshoppers, they literally hung off the house, the chainlink fence, ate everything and killed about half my landscaping. I had use Nolo bait as soon as I saw the baby grasshoppers. Didn't do squat. I had to cover whatever I wanted to keep w/ agribon cloth or shade net. I had only 12 chickens last year. This year I have had a average of 35+ chickens since early spring, and I occasionally see a grasshopper that is half grown. My chickens free range about 4 hours a day since it has gotten hot. In the spring it was more like 10-12 hours, letting one coop out at a time. I see very few bugs despite the drought.
I personally won't bother w/ Nolo bait again. It will attract the grasshoppers, and is not effective if the hoppers are large. If they eat it when small, it kills them. I was devastated last year when I couldn't control them. If you want really good bug control, try guineas, but they are really noisy. I am happy w/ the job the chickens have done.