Mosquitoes

[Rin]

Anything to help fight mosquitoes with my chickens? I have a seasonal lake beside my property and now that it's full the mosquitoes are just going CRAZY - they are so bad I went to let my cat in and he had two MASSIVE ones sucking on his face, one on the tip of his nose and the other on his cheek - I was mortified! I'd considered getting either guineas or ducks to help but for NOW they are really bothering me AND my hens. It's cutting horribly in our play time - the mosquitoes even come out in BROAD daylight of NOON. For crying out loud. I can give my cat and dog flea,tick, and mosquito treatments but there's nothing I know of safe to put on my hens. ANY suggestions would be severely LOVED ((and yes they do go after the hens - anytime I see Moto she has about 10 of them swarming her face

I think they really dig her black feathers))

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Buy a mosquito magnet. It took me a while, but mine might catch about 2,000 or so mosquitoes a night.

Look for open containers that might have water. Also look at drainage ditches that are clogged. Fill any puddles that keep water.

Make a few martin houses.

Get a bunch of patio torches and fill them with citronella oil for the evenings.

Consider a bug light. That is next on my list. I had one long ago and it was nice and costs a lot less than a mosquitoe magnet. In fact you might want to get 10 of those rather than one magnet. After you sweep them off....might be an extra protein source for your poultry.

My parish wastes money on poison they spray at night with a truck. I'm beginning to believe they are spraying water. But really I wonder if they are also killing things we don't want them to kill. I don't see a lot of mosquitoe hawks like I used to when I was little. And where have all the butterflies gone? And there used to be lightbugs that we would catch in the evenings when our parents were playing cards.

Over here there are frog farms that make use of the extra mosquitoes. They are attracted to the ponds with lights and are eaten by the frogs, which are later used as meat. But I would imagine fish might accomplish some of the same purpose.

Clean up your yard and have an area to burn your trash, old branches and a handful of leaves or grass to make a bit of smoke. I find that helps with both mosquitoes and knats.

And this might be a little weird, but my brother-in-law used to season his beagles dogfood with garlic powder to keep the mesquitoes off of them. Maybe consider putting it in the table scraps, before you throw them out to the chickens.

 

[fancbrd4me02]

Put a bat house up. One brown bat can eat 600 mosquitos in a night!

 

[Rin]

Woo! Thanks the both of ya! I'll definitely try all of that - garlic powder included. Well, garlic powder /especially/. I take garlic pills myself to deter the deer ticks but hadn't thought of it with my hens and mosquitoes >< Will get some garlic powder at work today.

Will take me a lil longer with the rest of the things though(most places out here wont be selling torches/citronella/etc till deeper in summer). BUT I remember seeing a mosquito zapper in the coupon book on Sunday for $19.99 - supposedly mimics the smell of humans and uses special coloured lights to attract too and bzaps um all dead. Is that a mosquito magnet?

 

[turney31]

I also have a pond close to my chicken house and the mosquitos have been horrible. I sprayed with Permethrin-10. I used one strength to spray the chicken house and a weaker strength to spray directly on my chickens. I also found an automatic stable mate sprayer at Tractor supply With mosquito and fly spray. It is for safe for use in poultry houses. My chicken house was already on my place when we bought it, it is not exactly what I would have built or where I would have placed it. Suffice it to say it is well ventilated. Country Vet is the company that makes sprayer and spray. I don't know how it would affect chickens in a small enclosed area less ventilated. I will say I have been very pleased with the results, Happy Girls!

Good luck,
Micah

 

[Wildsky]

Chickens will generally gobble up garlic, mine do - you can buy it extra cheaply here:
http://www.midwesternresearch.com/IW_Products.m4p.pvx?;MULTI_ITEM_SUBMIT
I feed a horse and goat the garlic as well, so a 5 pound bag is good for me. 5 pounds for $15

I am also trying these this year, I will hang them up so they can't be eaten or damaged:

http://www.farmerseed.com/detail.asp?pid=1099

Good luck!

 

[PhilErvin]

If you can you need to purchase some misquito fish and put them in the lake.

 

[LisaJean]

I have rain barrels under my downspouts, and naturally they are mosquito central when the weather gets warm. I just go to the local pet store and buy a dozen 13-cent feeder goldfish, and chuck them into the barrels. They nom the mosquito larvae, they're cheap, they're not toxic, and when they die you're only out 13 cents PLUS you have dead fish for compost. Plus the water at the bottom of the barrels is chock full of fish poo, which makes for excellent fertilizer.

I have about a half dozen that actually wintered over in the barrels this year!

 

[WoodlandWoman]

We have goldfish in one of our ponds. We also use rosie reds in our smallest pond. Unlike goldfish, they stay small and also will eat the mosquito larva. We've gotten them from the pet store, where they're sold as feeder fish. They're actually a yellow color and have just a blush of rose, when older. I think they max out around 2 inches, something like that.

 

[kywest]

If it is truly a seasonal pond(dries up around July/August, reforms again in late winter)and located in a natural area (wooded or old field) I would respectfully discourage the addition of any fish. This type of pond is often an important breeding area for amphibians - some salamanders and frogs breed only in these pools because of the lack of fish, which eat their eggs and larvae.