Mosquitos and Skin So Soft or DE?

[TammyTX]

Yesterday I cleaned out the coop. Not a full clean, but I changed out the shavings in the nest and I scraped off any poo on the tops of the nest boxes (they are slanted but my little buggers are agile!).

I noticed a lot of mosquitos in the boxes. It was very dry here all summer and in the last two months we've had pretty good rain, so here come the 'squitos! So, while I was wiping down the nest boxes I soaked a rag in Skin So Soft and I wiped that over the top of the boxes and around the inside walls of the boxes. I then dusted the boxes with DE and took a brush and removed the excess. I also used DE on the droppings under the roost (my coop is set up so the droppings fall to the ground and the chickens can't get into them.)

Today I went out to gather eggs and not only are there less mosquitos and flies, but it leaves a nice scent in the coop. The hens didn't seem to mind it...all eggs in boxes.

So was it the SSS or the DE?

 

[critterlover]

Just an FYI about the girls going on top of the nesting boxes. I put tile board on top of the plywood over the nesting boxes for our chickens. It is too slippery for them to stay up there. After they tried it once and slide off, they have never gone back up there.

 

[txchickie]

It was probably the SSS!!! DE can take a while to kill, I think

Good idea!

 

[RL]

My poor chickens have Fowl Pox now. This past Sunday I took everything out of my coop and locked the chickens out - they don't go in the coop much during the day anyway except to lay - and then set off two dry fog bug bombs. After two hours went back into the coop and the floor was just covered with dead skeeters. I also went out and got one of those bug zappers and hung it up a little ways from the coop. I just smile every time I hear that ZzzzAP! Awesome, Another dead skeeter.

So now it’s an all out skeeter war. I won’t win, but I will take a lot of those little buggers down. The bombs and the zapper have seemed to help. I haven’t seen too many skeeters in the coop so far and I need to clean out the zapper, it is full of dead toasted skeeters. Zappers are great.