Mosquitoes!!! Help!

[The Accidental Coop]

Need suggestions on how to handle mosquitoes. We were lucky enough to receive 25+” (some say 30”) of rain from tropical storm Fay. Right on schedule we now have an enormous plaque of mosquitoes. I just checked on our little dears and they are in a cloud of mosquitoes. Located in central Florida our hen’s nesting house is open in the front so the girls and boys can easily access the run. I think it is much too hot here to have a mostly closed hen house. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Oh yes….Thank you to all who helped with my questions about adding 2 hens to our tiny group (2 cockerels and 1 hen). The new girls were introduced Monday night and all are doing great.

 

[redhen]

there was a thread on here before about using listerine(origional,yellow)..aaand mixing it with water..and spraying it in the area.....i hope someone can chime in with the answer tohelp you, Wendy

 

[Frogdogtimestwo]

Not sure if this would work outdoors in the pens but we have been swarmed here too lately. Read a tip about putting dryer sheets in your pockets while you are outside and it has been working for us. Maybe putting some around or in the coop area would help them at least have some peace at night.

 

[Jenski]

Screens, baby! That's what we did for our coop door in summer: one reinforced layer of 1/2" hardware cloth, and one layer of regular screen material. Keeps the skeeters out at night so my girls can sleep.

We put screen over all the coop vents in summer, too.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

We put screen over the hardware cloth on our coop windows, too. Even with the pop hole door open, down low on the wall, there are very few mosquitoes in the coop, compared to outside the coop.

 

[angels4]

Soak a couple rags in citronella oil and nail or staple to the roof line of the coop inside and out.

 

[cmom]

I bought a Mosquitoes Magnet at Home Depot, It works great. I also bought a spare basket for it and when one fills up I put the basket in the freezer then the next day I empty all of the dead mosquitoes into a gal ziplock, and switch the baskets out and freeze the new batch.

 

[BJ]

I'm worried about my chickens getting West Nile Virus...is that possible (for chickens to get it)? The mosquitoes are simply awful around here this year!!!