Knats?

[birdlady79]

Does anyone have problems with Knats around their chickens? If so, what do you do about it?

 

[Kazfam]

I would expect my chickens to eat the gnats, or at least try to...otherwise I don't think they are a problem.

 

[aart]

If you do a search on gnats, or buffalo gnats, you'll find they can be huge problem in the central midwest, even killing the chickens by exsanguination.

advanced search>titles only>gnats

We have them here, some kind of gnat-hard to tell what they really are as they're soft bodied and hard to capture a sample without smashing it, nasty bites you don't feel until the blood runs and then they swell and itch like crazy the next day on most folks. But I haven't seen the chooks have a problem with them as of yet.

 

[birdlady79]

If you do a search on gnats, or buffalo gnats, you'll find they can be huge problem in the central midwest, even killing the chickens by exsanguination.

advanced search>titles only>gnats

We have them here, some kind of gnat-hard to tell what they really are as they're soft bodied and hard to capture a sample without smashing it, nasty bites you don't feel until the blood runs and then they swell and itch like crazy the next day on most folks. But I haven't seen the chooks have a problem with them as of yet.

They get on my chickens and us.... We have a problem every year... This year we just happen to have chickens.... They drive the chickens crazy... I'm just wondering if there is a spray for them that is organic? I use Sevin dust on chickens but I need something to spray. They are bad around my Martin boxes too ...

 

[LeadHead]

We learned the hard way just yesterday that gnats are very deadly. Within 24 hours we lost 5 one-week-old turkey poults, almost 40 five-day-old chicks and 3 three-month-old Plymouth Rocks. We were gone during the day and when I went to check on them in the evening I found dead and dying birds lying everywhere with no sign of injuries but gnats swarming everywhere. These gnats (Buffalo Gnats or black flies) are attracted to light and with all the week-old birds in the coop we of course had brooder lights to keep the young ones warm. The bugs were crawling EVERYWHERE around the lights. My first concern was disease, but our adult layers (and roosters and 1 turkey hen) are in a separate coop right next to this coop and they were all fine (no artificial light for them), and after Googling "gnats killing chickens" I found a lot of information regarding this subject. We've never had this sort of an infestation before so it's never been an issue in the past. My son brought the surviving young ones into the basement and today they're all still doing fine. This has been quite a difficult lesson to learn, but we had no idea this could happen.

 

[birdlady79]

We learned the hard way just yesterday that gnats are very deadly.  Within 24 hours we lost 5 one-week-old turkey poults, almost 40 five-day-old chicks and 3 three-month-old Plymouth Rocks.  We were gone during the day and when I went to check on them in the evening I found dead and dying birds lying everywhere with no sign of injuries but gnats swarming everywhere.  These gnats (Buffalo Gnats or black flies) are attracted to light and with all the week-old birds in the coop we of course had brooder lights to keep the young ones warm.  The bugs were crawling EVERYWHERE around the lights.  My first concern was disease, but our adult layers (and roosters and 1 turkey hen) are in a separate coop right next to this coop and they were all fine (no artificial light for them), and after Googling "gnats killing chickens" I found a lot of information regarding this subject.  We've never had this sort of an infestation before so it's never been an issue in the past. My son brought the surviving young ones into the basement and today they're all still doing fine.  This has been quite a difficult lesson to learn, but we had no idea this could happen.

OMY gosh, that's horrible.... I'm so sorry ..... They are bad at our house this time of year ...... I'm going to goggle it and see if there's something safe to spray.....I hate going outside.... The chickens just constantly shake their heads until they go in coop at night.... I feel so sorry for them.

 

[aart]

We learned the hard way just yesterday that gnats are very deadly. Within 24 hours we lost 5 one-week-old turkey poults, almost 40 five-day-old chicks and 3 three-month-old Plymouth Rocks. We were gone during the day and when I went to check on them in the evening I found dead and dying birds lying everywhere with no sign of injuries but gnats swarming everywhere. These gnats (Buffalo Gnats or black flies) are attracted to light and with all the week-old birds in the coop we of course had brooder lights to keep the young ones warm. The bugs were crawling EVERYWHERE around the lights. My first concern was disease, but our adult layers (and roosters and 1 turkey hen) are in a separate coop right next to this coop and they were all fine (no artificial light for them), and after Googling "gnats killing chickens" I found a lot of information regarding this subject. We've never had this sort of an infestation before so it's never been an issue in the past. My son brought the surviving young ones into the basement and today they're all still doing fine. This has been quite a difficult lesson to learn, but we had no idea this could happen.

Where are you located?

 

[LeadHead]

Western Illinois, in the upper 1/3 of the state.

 

[shauntel92]

how long do they last for and when is it safe to let the chickens out?

 

[LeadHead]

I don't think it's necessarily an issue of not letting them out of the coop, Shauntel. In fact, letting the chickens out can actually benefit them because it allows them to dust bathe and find dark places to escape from the insects. The life cycle of these gnats is several weeks, so hopefully we'll have some relief soon.