This is my fourth year of having chickens since I was a kid, I don't remember having the problems as a kid with the pests as I am now. Our first year was pretty good, just one loss from a snake and a few eggs to an iguana that a neighbor "lost". Our second year was fairly good, kept having to relocate snakes. Last year was horrible, lost my favorite hen to a very large hawk, brought a new roo home and he killed one of my kids favorite hens, lost 2 rir chicks to an opossum - which I caught on mothers day a momma and 7 babies, went through fowl pox, everyones favorite momma hen died on the nest - she just started laying again after the fowl pox, we cut her open and had what seemed like a rotten egg stuck in her. This year started out bad, northern fowl mites showed up in January, the migrating hawks keep eying the coops - had a few land on the coops, had a raccoon??? try to get in one cage. I have been looking for food grade DE in my area. We have used pool grade DE around the house for years for pests, while roaches around here may laugh at you while you spray them with raid, they don't last too long after walking across some DE
