Just found cockroaches the size of hamsters in my coop. HELLLPPP!!!!!

[bryan99705]

Sorry folks but I'm laughing so hard about your roach stories, my sides are hurting. Up here we put up with bent needles on our thermometers (there is a little stop at the -60 mark) and some big bears (what's a grizz have for breakfast? Any darn thing it wants!)

But seriously, I don't envy your bug problem but please keep in mind the long term damage to poisons do to you and your birds (remember DDT?) Hpoe someday you breeders come up with a chicken that lives on roaches and eats better than turkey and we can all live and sleep a little better. If not, maybe we can send a little winter down and freeze the little suckers to death.

Nothing but love from the North Pole

 

[welasharon]

I guess because I grew up here that they don't bother me that much. Just a fact of life. I have no clue if mine eat them or not but I will keep an eye on their eyes. There are too many to try to kill them outdoors. Doing good to keep them out of the house! I would still rather have the bugs, heat, humidity, rednecks and roaches than be cold!LOL

 

[Barrdwing]

I just found this thread, and I'm loving it! Now I have to share. When we lived in the desert, there's this critter called a sun spider (actually not a spider at all, it's a sopulgid). Whatever. You've probably seen pictures of these things; they are the infamous "Camel Spiders" in that Internet photo from the Kuwait/Iraq War. Now that photo is a little misleading as to the critter's size, I'll admit, but it does show a nice close-up of their anatomy.

The sun spider grows to a leg-span the size of my hand (that's eight inches), has a double set of nasty big fangs, has a body the size of my thumb, and they are everywhere down where we lived. It has eight legs plus a super-long pair of pedipalps that it carries out in front of it, so when you spot one it looks like it's coming towards you to give you a great big hug! They move like all blazes, you can barely see the blur, and then when they stop moving you really wish they hadn't. I have seen them chase cats. I have had them accost me in the shower, where the acoustics are particularly good. They give me the oh-be-gosh heebie-jeebies like nothing else on this planet.

So our old chicken coop was an open type, with hardware cloth up to four feet and then chicken wire. (Doesn't matter. These things can climb glass.) I used to keep a rag tucked into the roof, beneath the plywood panels. One morning I was putting feed down for the three-week-old chicks in the nursery, and got poo on my hands. So I pulled the rag down to wipe my hands . . . and it unrolled, and a gigantic sun spider went PLOP onto the sand right in front of my feet.

I nearly levitated. I did scream. All I could think was that the spider, in its fright, would either bite a chick or go shooting straight up my leg, in which case I was going to suffer a coronary episode on the spot. I was just starting to reach for the Spider-Thumpin' Log that lives in the corner of the coop, when the cavalry arrived. You guessed it. Two dozen lil' babies, all squealing in glee, descended upon that spider like fluffy piranha. It disappeared from sight beneath the scrimmage . . . and then reappeared in two dozen pieces, each one speeding along in the beak of a chick. Meanwhile the hens yelled jealously from outside the nursery.

So it's amazing what chickens will eat. We also trained several youngsters to hop down off the perches at night and chase after the cockroaches. There's a species of roach that actually prefers leaf litter and doesn't want to come into your house. They would, however, come into the coop to dine on spilled feed. Once the young birds figured out how to follow a flashlight, we held a nightly Bug Hunt in that coop all summer long.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Just wondering..? If they are that big...


Has anyone tried getting rid of them with butter and onions? Fried up nice and crispy?

Sorry.... I AM from Mississippi

 

[Barrdwing]

Quote:
I have heard that the brown widow's venom is less potent than that of the black widow, though. And the brown widow competes with the black widow for prey and living space. So if I had to choose, I'd rather see a brown widow, because I know that it may have pushed out a black widow! (I know, not much of a silver lining!

)

Also, if you have alligator lizards in your yard, they are GOLDEN! They love to eat black widows and their eggs.

 

[Barrdwing]

Quote:
Might be tasty that way . . . and look, extra drumsticks! <ducks hurled tomatoes>

 

[aggie9296]

Quote:
I have heard that the brown widow's venom is less potent than that of the black widow, though. And the brown widow competes with the black widow for prey and living space. So if I had to choose, I'd rather see a brown widow, because I know that it may have pushed out a black widow! (I know, not much of a silver lining!

)

Also, if you have alligator lizards in your yard, they are GOLDEN! They love to eat black widows and their eggs.

My hair is all standing up, yet again. I had to go chemical on the widows. I don't discriminate, black or brown, they had to go. I have tons of green anoles and skinks. Didn't seem to phase the spiders.

Of course, havn't seen too many palmettos this year. Maybe the chickens ARE taking care of them.

 

[dawg53]

Quote:
x 2

 

[aggie9296]

Quote:
Amen to a fellow Floridian! I hibernate when less than 40 degrees!

 

[queenbeezz]

I'm in Orlando. Been here for 40 years. Next to Misquitoes the Palmetto Bugs are our Florida State Birds! YUCK! Here's the problem. Ever see a movie where the enemy troops just keep coming up over the hill with no end? Thats what Palmetto Bugs are like. You live here and they never go away. Kill one, two more show up. Sorry.

I Hate the Bloody things!