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

[laughingdog]

lol my comp spazed.. ment to say that i never find traces of roaches around my chooks, and i purposely throw tons out every week at least, course their run and house is set up to allow them to get in all the corners etc. did find the wild roaches and a blak widow, as well as hornets wasps and brown recluse, before i turned into chicken area. now i can not even ever find a ladybug.

 

[TXJG]

In case anyone is following up on this thread...diatomaceous earth does work on the roaches (use food grade), but won't hurt the chickens. Also Cream of Wheat works, too. The bugs eat the wheat and then it expands inside them when it reacts with fluids and they die. Doesn't hurt chickens a bit and it works on fire ants.

 

[aart]

Very funny thread, very old thread, read the whole thing. I hate those **** big bugs...reason I love Michigan-all the bugs die once a year!

I lived in Florida for about 8 months long ago, will never live there again. Will add my Florida bug story.

Bought an old console stereo at a garage sale, opened up the back to fix it and out poured hundreds of roaches!

Walked into the bathroom one night and stepped on one and it moved from under the full weight of my foot...eewwwwww!

Another night woke up to the slow creepy crawly legs of a palmetto walking across my bare foot, flipped my foot to get it off and heard it hit the wall 6 feet away...right by my newborn sons crib...turned on the light and it was caught in the mosquito netting on the crib. I turned to my husband and said, that's it - we're going back to Michigan!!

 

[seminolewind]

I live in Florida. "Home Defense" is my best friend. We stopped using it for a while, and boy was I sorry. It got to the point where I was just slamming them with my hand. I'm back to using it faithfully. Along with that, one spring we were invaded by ants. Different types, they trailed all around the inner walls of the house. They must have been pouring in. Now I spray Home Defense in the doorways on my enclosed patio and they are dead not even half way to the house. They say it's pet safe when dry. One of my coops was infested, and I sprayed a few walls and that's all it took.

With Home Defense, you spray, it dries, and you have NO roaches for about 6 months. Maybe a DEAD one now and then. So I really don't mind it here. I've got almost 100% control.

If you chase a roach for 5-10 minutes, they poop out and stop running.

German cockroaches are not actually from Germany. Palmetto Bugs are actually The American Cockroach. The ones outside with the lines on their shell are wood roaches.

There are only 2 kinds of spider in Florida that are poisonous. Widows, and Brown Recluses. The rest just bite. Except for Yellow Jackets, most wasps will not bother you unless you come too close to their nest. Unfortunately, the more trustable wasps look just like yellow jackets.

I know nothing about snakes, except that if you have black snakes, keep them because they're territorial.

 

[SussexChicks]

I once found a good sized cockroach and had to capture it and I gave it to my chicks and boy they tore it apart!!!

 

[seminolewind]

LOL. I cleaned out an outdoor cabinet one day, and now My Barred Rock, Fern, is my best buddy still, just from all the "treats" she got that day. Ick.

 

[RoseMarie1]

I was just out back cleaning out the chicken coop and when I lifted up the bedding in the coop/nest box area a herd of roaches the size of hamsters scattered into the crevices of the coop. I screamed like a girl, threw down my pitchfork and shuddered and danced for a good 15 minutes. I then pulled up my big girl panties and went back to the coop and finished cleaning it out. A few times one of the roaches grabbed the pitchfork out of my hand and tried to pull it away from me, but I fought back and got all the hay out. Um....now what do I do? I do not want to put any poison down that could hurt my chickens. I do NOT want to have my girls living in a roach-infested coop either. It's important for you to know that we live in Central FL where it's hot, muggy and humid. The coop is located under a canopy of trees and it is pretty buggy out there anyway... But I simply cannot stand the thought of my girls - plus the eggs we eat - plus hamster-sized roach herds. Clearly I need some advice.

I just searched on here and read a bunch of threads on cockroaches in the coop and I'm still a little lost. Here's what I've determined:

1) Some say DE will work on roaches. Others say it will not. Is there a definitive answer on this?

2) Some say to put roach poison down under the bedding where the chickens cannot get to it to kill the roaches and it'll be safe. Others say if a sickly roach who's eaten the poison wanders out and a chicken eats it, you'll poison your chickens.

3) Some people say to caulk the edges of your coop and you'll be fine. Well our coop is an open coop so my chickens don't cook in the FL heat, so that won't work.

4) Some have written that you should keep your coop dry - well we live in FL with humidity that's off the charts so we have dampness all the time.

5) Some people have said that the chickens should eat the roaches. Clearly mine are not. Maybe I give them too much cantelope for breakfast. Who knows?


Pleeeeeeeeease someone tell me what I can do. I'm dyyyyyyying over here. I have a serious cockroach phobia. We've lived in our house 10 years and I've never had one in the house because I'm insane about preventing them in the home. Now here I am letting my three beautiful girls live in a coop that isn't fit for a sewer rat.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

I'm gonna go shower now. Twice.

Shudder.

LOL you had me rolling in laughter at them taking the pitch fork away from you. I live in MS. so I KNOW how yucky these things are so and I'm just like you about them. I HATE the filthy things! That's exactly what I was on here searching for to cuz I just walked out there to mines pen to close the back gate since they're on their roost now and I saw 3 of the filthy things in mines food! UGHHHH I have DE in the soil in there and sevin dust is also in and around the pen.
My DE is food grade to and it's not working.

 

[RoseMarie1]

OMG! I am laughing so hard. So nice to know there are fellow bug haters out there. I personally think that something that big, with more legs than me who can outrun me is just wrong! One look at those and my poor chickens would have been on their own!You should see me when the sun spiders get in the building at work! Someone told "you scream like a girl: I told "yup, that's cuz I am a girl"

LOL ME TO! HOWLING laughing here! I hate the things to and what kills me is, you can open a cabinet door sometimes like in the winter time and one will fly out on you.

Talk about screaming like a girl! Almost peed all over myself to! Cuz I was getting a towel outta my cabinet to take a bath. Sure felt like I needed one after that. Man how I hate the things!! Don't like snakes, rats, mice, lizards OR roaches of any kind! Gives me the hibby jibbies!

 

[RoseMarie1]

DE has no effect on Palmetto Bugs....they eat DE for breakfast. They are all over around here and in Florida.

nope it doesn't work on them because it's all in the sand in my chicks pen and I saw 3 in there tonight. It stays dry in there to and it's food grade DE as well.

 

[RoseMarie1]

x 10kajillion!!!!!!!!

I'll never fall asleep now and I want to go out and look in the coops to see if there are any there...but am too freaked out to do it!

yeah you all need to go out there at night time and check because they're on the crawl at night time.